408: Taking Control of Procurement’s Brand w/ Steve Wills

Procurement professionals are always plagued by the fact that no one seems to understand what we do. While this is often blamed on language barriers and the fact that procurement is always evolving, at the end of the day it comes down to one harsh reality - procurement does not have a well-established, recognisable brand.

Steve Wills is the Founder and Managing Director of Procurement Central, a specialist training provider based in the UK. Steve formerly served as the Procurement Advisor to the 2012 London Olympic Games’ organizing committee. He has extensive business experience with blue chip organizations and has worked with leaders in industry and commerce as a CPO to transform complex procurement functions.

 In this conversation, Steve and Host Philip Ideson discuss procurement’s brand and how function is positioned strategically. This is a topic that is central to procurement executives and leaders, and will only become more so as procurement pushes to change how they are perceived internally and externally.

Steve provides the following thoughts and examples to make the case that procurement should purposefully invest in their brand:

• Whether procurement’s brand should be across the professional community or defined specifically within each company
• The lasting damage that can be done when procurement prioritizes short term goals and objectives over their longer term vision
• The difference it can make when the CEO or executive team ‘gets’ what procurement can do and why they are so valuable on the journey to organizational success