by Jan Malasek | Jun 29, 2020 | Procurement Operations, Strategic Sourcing, Uncategorized
SITUATION OVERVIEW National Sporting Goods Retailer desired to build a highly functioning Strategic Procurement organization. They hired Kas Chupa, a member of the OnDemand Professional Network as the new Chief Procurement Officer to drive this effort. Kas was tasked to build a procurement organization with the capability of sourcing $550M of Indirect Goods & Services, Capital Equipment and some Direct Goods for resale and implement year over year savings programs. DISCOVERY & EVALUATION As the new CPO, Kas interviewed all business unit leaders to introduce himself and to get their perspective on what they expected from Strategic Procurement, to understand their business goals and objectives for the coming year(s) and discover how their respective procurement activities were being executed currently. Part of the evaluation phase was to uncover quick win opportunities, prepare the business for the upcoming organizational changes and the timeline for those changes, as well as the Mission and Vision for Procurement within the company. The interviews and data collection revealed the following: All buying was being executed within the various business units by non-procurement individuals.All contracts we being negotiated and signed by the business units with limited to no legal review.There were multiple payment channels, and close to 100 different payment terms. EXECUTION & BENEFITS The CPO quickly engaged external consulting support while he was building internal procurement capabilities. The key focus of the consultants was to work with the business and build strawman sourcing plans and pipeline of quick wins. While focusing on quick wins to demonstrate the value of strategic sourcing and procurement, the CPO built the procurement team with internal resources, with a...
by Jan Malasek | Jun 9, 2020 | Strategic Sourcing, Uncategorized
By David Brown, Vice President, Client Services, OnDemand Resources, LLC We are seeing Marketing spend becoming a key focus area for companies to generate substantial savings. Yet, organizations often put more analytical rigor and require more business justification for a $1,000 laptop purchase than they do for multi-million-dollar advertising investments. Marketing IS one of the last green sourcing pastures in corporate America and one that is particularly ripe to harvest in the current business environment. I have spent a large part of my career focused on enhancing value and capturing savings in the area of Marketing Spend. Here are TEN KEY LEARNINGS that might benefit anyone getting ready to make a run at this elusive space. Additionally, you can review our case study on Marketing Spend Sourcing with a F500 B2B Services company here: Procurement fundamentals are no different for Marketing purchases.Savings are captured from de-fragmentation.Savings are captured as suppliers compete for your business.Audits often find recoverable spend.Professional service costs are a function of labor: the number of resources, the seniority mix, and the market cost for their expertise.Get “C” level executive support and air cover before you dive in.Ideal support comes from the CMO, but the CFO or CEO can make it work, too.If the CMO and his/her lieutenants do not want you there initially, make sure the CFO is willing to stick out his/her neck to keep you there until you can build trust, otherwise, hunt elsewhere.The big efficiencies are where the big dollars are: media. Most companies focus on creative agencies, however the largest spend is working media, both traditional and increasingly digital.Saving ranges in media sourcing are...
by Jan Malasek | Jun 4, 2020 | Uncategorized
David Dickson, Principal of Strategic Planning Consultants shared a paper with us focused on how to approach enabling remote operations with technology during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper is specifically focus on small to mid-size enterprises. If you are interested, please contact us to set up a conversation with David on how to best support your business. Download the paper...