THE SOURCE | SCOUT BLOG

Sourcing and procurement can offer a fresh and different perspective—asking hard questions and driving a competitive environment.
     – Neil Aronson, Head of Global Strategic Sourcing at Uber

As Neil’s quote attests to, today’s high-performing procurement teams have evolved into an essential contributor to enterprise success. In its new research paper, Harvard Business Review takes a deep dive into the critical role that sourcing, procurement, and supply chain management play in the enterprise. The paper contains a wealth of insights from leaders at Accenture, Adobe, Bradken Limited, Deloitte, Intuit, Levi Strauss & Co., Owens Corning, Uber, and VSP Global.

We don’t want to give it all away, but highlighted findings include:

• Companies that focus on strategic sourcing enjoy not just enhanced profitability, but a range of positive results including improved cash and working-capital performance—results that, in turn, are rewarded by investors.
• Enterprises that focus on strategic sourcing can generate substantial economic value not just by eliminating waste, reducing costs, and improving administrative efficiency, but also by building stronger relationships that can make them more competitive while improving margins and simultaneously increasing the speed of procurement.
• Leading-edge technology platforms can bring together previously siloed personnel and processes, remove resource-intensive and error-prone manual interventions, provide end-to-end visibility into sourcing projects and performance, facilitate an enterprise-wide sourcing methodology, and allow both internal and external stakeholders to work together effectively in real time.

Want to get the full scoop from Harvard Business Review? Download the research paper.