We Have a Backbone Problem

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In Today's Issue

• The Quiet Fix - You changed - Your Org Charg Didn't

• The Tech Bit - More Tech, Same Problems

• My Best Post Lately

• Free Template of the Week

The Quiet Fix

YOU CHANGED. YOUR ORG CHART DIDN’T.

Here’s something no one enjoys talking about: the Procurement Operating Model.

It’s not exciting. It doesn’t feel urgent. And it definitely doesn’t trend on LinkedIn!

But it matters because the structure you set years ago: the roles, categories, handoffs, decision rights, slowly shapes everything that follows.

And in most teams I’ve seen, that structure no longer fits.

• The company has changed

• Your spend profile has changed

• But procurement is still running the same old playbook

You’ve got sourcing teams chasing categories that barely matter now.
You’ve got decision rights split between four functions and zero accountability.
You’ve got five layers of approvals and no clarity on who actually owns what.

The worst part is that none of this is visible in a dashboard.

But it drags everything down. Your speed, quality, team morale…

So what can you do?

You don’t need a huge transformation programme. Nor a new framework.
You just need to block an hour and ask some uncomfortable questions.

Start here:

1. Are we organised around the problems that matter today?
If the old category structure doesn’t reflect current pain points, change it.
Don’t wait for a policy refresh, just redraw the lines.

2. Are roles and decision rights clear or convenient?
Who picks the supplier? Who signs? Who’s accountable when it goes wrong?
If you need to check a SharePoint flowchart to answer any of those, it’s already broken.

3. Are we optimised for governance… or for flow?
Be honest…. you can’t have both! Decide which one matters more for what you’re trying to do right now.

This doesn’t need a board paper

Map it out on a whiteboard. Sketch how things actually work.

Don’t aim for perfect: Aim for clarity

Then tweak something small like team structure, approval layers, decision handoffs.
You’ll start to feel the difference in a matter of weeks.

A lot of procurement pain isn’t process, or data, or systems but structure.

And structure is something you can start fixing on your own.

The Tech Bit

MORE TECH, SAME PROBLEMS

The procuretech space has literally exploded.

Just ten years ago, you could count the major players on one hand. Now there are hundreds.

• AI contract tools

• Risk intelligence dashboards

• Supplier onboarding platforms

Everyone solving one slice of the process, or claiming to.

The global procuretech market’s already hit $9 billion. It’ll reach $15 billion by 2030 if the analysts are right.

But let’s be honest, most teams don’t need more tech. What they need fewer systems, solving the right problems.

My friend Joël Collin-Demers from Pure Procurement said something that stuck with me about this problem (you can subscribe to his awesome free newsletter below this article if Procuretech is your thing):

That’s it.

Not the slickest, the most ‘AI-powered’, or the one that covers everything on the RFP template. Just the smallest, simplest setup that gets the job done.

Here’s what that usually looks like in practice:

You’ll almost always need a procurement suite as your backbone if you want all you data to be connected (believe me, you do).

Ariba, Coupa, GEP, whatever it is that gives you structure. Core visibility.

A way to push POs through the system and track spend end to end.

You don’t have to use every module. You probably shouldn’t.

But you need something reliable at the centre.

Then, for the parts that really hurt (a.k.a.: contract lifecycle management, supplier risk, ESG tracking) point solutions can make a real difference.

They tend to go deeper, get implemented faster, and actually solve the thing that’s slowing your team down.

Where it goes wrong is when teams try to do both… everywhere.

A full suite plus six standalone platforms plus whatever’s coming down from IT.

At that point, you’re spending more time managing integration meetings than fixing the process.

So if you’re looking at the market and feeling overwhelmed… good!

That’s a sign you’re awake.

But don’t get paralysed by the options. Start with the process problem. Get brutally clear on the gap. Then ask yourself:

That’s your answer: Not a new stack, not another demo.

Just the next useful move.

My Best Post Lately

21 KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS FOR PROCUREMENT

I broke down the Procurement KPIs which I thought actually matter.

And why most teams are still stuck tracking admin.

It did well because it spoke to something many of us feel: we measure what’s easy, not what’s useful.

Some did say you should only have five KPIs. Maybe that works for an individual team.

But if you’re running Procurement end-to-end, five won’t cut it. When the scope spans ESG, risk, innovation, compliance and savings, the real skill isn’t choosing fewer metrics, it’s choosing the right ones.

READ THE FULL POST →

Free Template(s) of the week 

NEW: The RFP Series

Starting this issue, I’ll be sharing a series of free RFP templates I’ve built up over the years across a mix of tricky indirect categories.

Over the years I’ve built up a stash of these, some from my time in internal teams, but most from consulting for big-name clients at places like Accenture and Deloitte.

I’ve tweaked and improved them after every project, and now I’m finally sharing them.

So for the next few issues, I’ll include one in every newsletter. 

First up: Marketing Services.

It’s one of the hardest categories to source properly because of the messy briefs, vague specs, creative egos… you know the drill.

This template works across RFI, RFQ and RFP stages and includes all the bits I’ve learned not to forget.

As always, this is only available for the next week, after that, it goes… puff! 🙂 

Take what’s useful, adapt what you need and if there’s a category you’d like me to cover, reply to this email and let me know. 

I might already have one ready to go.

Download the Marketing Services RFP Template here.

A Final Note

There’s a quote I love from Michael Porter:

It’s easy to forget that in Procurement, especially when everything feels urgent, and everyone wants everything yesterday.

But the strongest teams I’ve worked with aren’t just efficient but selective.

They say no to low-value work, they push back when the brief is vague or the spend doesn’t justify the process.

That’s strategy too.

One more thing, last week I moved this newsletter from Sundays to Mondays to see if it fits better into your week but I’m still testing timings and figuring it all out.

Let me know what you think.

Hit reply, tell me what’s landing well, what could be better, or what you’d love to see more of. I read everything.

It would be hugely appreciated!

Until next time,

Procurement worth reading.