Procurement's Core Questions: Positioning Projects for Success

Procurement minds are wired differently. This infographic shows the mind-map of a great procurement professional: # 1. Business Demand Signals ↳ “What is the business really trying to achieve?” Growth plans, cost pressure, risk appetite, innovation goals, timing constraints ↳ Great procurement people don’t react to requests, they read intent # 2. Specification & Requirement Filters ↳ “Is this actually needed?” Gold-plating, over-specification, legacy requirements, misaligned volumes ↳ Experts fix bad inputs before they become expensive contracts # 3. Commercial Bias Detection ↳ “Who benefits from this assumption?” Supplier bias, stakeholder bias, internal optimism, sunk-cost thinking ↳ They surface bias without creating friction # 4. Risk & Exposure Mapping ↳ “What could hurt the business later?” Contract lock-in, single-source risk, inflation exposure, regulatory and data risk ↳ Great procurement professionals maintain a live risk map in their head # 5. Stakeholder Orchestration ↳ “Who needs to be aligned before we move?” Finance on budget, legal on terms, operations on feasibility, leadership on trade-offs ↳ Procurement doesn’t approve decisions, it aligns them # 6. Scenario & Negotiation Thinking ↳ “What if volumes change, timelines slip, or priorities shift?” Walk-aways, options, break clauses, levers, concessions ↳ They never go to market with one path, they go with options # 7. Value & P&L Impact ↳ “How does this show up in the numbers?” Margin, cash flow, cost risk, value protection, opportunity cost ↳ Procurement professionals who think like P&L owners progress fastest Any others to add? If you want to build commercial judgement, influence, and confidence in Procurement, Join 23,000+ procurement pros get who get weekly insights from me FREE every week here 👉 https://procurebites.com/

PROCUREMENT DOES NOT FAIL IN ISOLATION. IT FAILS IN SILENCE. In many organizations, procurement is judged by outcomes it never fully controlled. Late deliveries, rushed purchases and inflated prices are blamed on procurement, while the real problem began much earlier with a lack of understanding across departments. When procurement is treated as an easy function, the organization quietly pays for that assumption again and again. The uncomfortable reality is this. Procurement timelines are often compressed not because markets are slow, but because requisitions are submitted late. When departments raise requests at the last minute, they do not create urgency. They eliminate choice. Supplier competition disappears, negotiation power weakens, and risk increases. What follows is not strategic procurement, but emergency buying disguised as efficiency. Many non procurement teams only see the final step of the process, which is raising a purchase order. What they do not see is market research, supplier evaluation, compliance checks, contract review, budget alignment and risk assessment. Procurement appears simple only when it is done properly and quietly. Its structure is mistaken for bureaucracy, and its discipline is mistaken for delay. This is why educating other departments about procurement is essential. When teams understand why lead times exist, how supplier markets operate, and what late requisitions truly cost the organization, behavior begins to change. Procurement shifts from being perceived as a bottleneck to being recognized as a planning partner. Education also restores accountability. A delayed project caused by a late requisition is not a procurement failure. It is a planning failure. Without shared understanding, procurement absorbs blame while inefficiencies repeat themselves. Most importantly, education builds respect. Procurement is no longer seen as simply buying. It is understood as a function that protects value before money ever leaves the organization. Procurement excellence cannot exist in isolation. It requires informed collaboration, not last minute requests. Until organizations invest in educating their people about procurement, they will continue to rush what should have been planned and criticize what should have been supported. #ProcurementIsNotMagic #StopBlamingProcurement #PlanningFailureNotProcurement #LateRequisitionsCostMoney #EmergencyBuyingIsNotStrategy #ProcurementIsRiskManagement

A strong reminder that procurement is often blamed for problems that actually start much earlier with poor planning. Late requisitions turn strategic sourcing into emergency buying, driving higher costs and risk. When teams understand how procurement really works, it shifts from being seen as a bottleneck to a true planning partner.

Most Procurement KPIs Are Useless — Not Because They’re Wrong, but Because They’re Misused. Procurement loves dashboards. 1. Cost savings. 2. Spend under management. 3. Cycle time. 4. Supplier scorecards. 5. Contract compliance. None of these is a bad metric. But metrics don’t create value. Decisions do. I’ve seen teams: - Optimize cycle time and quietly destroy compliance - Maximize spend under management while locking in bad demand - Hit savings targets that look perfect in Q1 and unravel by Q3 - Score suppliers “green” while operational risk keeps growing The problem isn’t the KPI. It’s the belief that tracking it equals control. In reality, KPIs compete with each other. * Speed fights governance. * Savings fight resilience. * Compliance fights flexibility. Mature procurement isn’t about finding the right KPI. It’s about knowing which one matters most in a given moment — and which one you’re willing to sacrifice. That judgment doesn’t live in a dashboard. It lives in experience, accountability, and ownership of outcomes. Strong procurement doesn’t report value. It chooses it.

Procurement is still being boxed into the wrong question: “Do you have experience in our industry?” That question misunderstands what Procurement actually is. Procurement is not product expertise. It is a decision discipline. The real value of Procurement comes from skills that are transferable across industries: – structuring demand before it becomes cost – challenging specifications and scope – designing sourcing strategies, not just running tenders – managing risk, contracts, and stakeholder trade-offs Industry knowledge can be learned. Poor procurement judgment cannot be fixed by sector familiarity. When organizations insist that procurement professionals must come from the same domain, they reduce Procurement to a buying function—and lose the opportunity for better planning, stronger governance, and real operational impact. If Procurement were truly industry-specific, best practices would not travel. Yet they do—because Procurement is about how decisions are made, not what is being purchased. The question shouldn’t be: “Have you bought this before?” It should be: “Can you design a better way to buy it?” #ProcurementLeadership #StrategicProcurement #ChallengingTheStatusQuo #TransferableSkills #DecisionMaking #ValueCreation

Spending today listening to how government and private-sector leaders think about procurement. Not pitches. Not solutions. Problems. What’s clear so far is that most procurement pain isn’t about price. It’s about friction. Complex approval paths. Long decision cycles. Risk avoidance baked into the system. Rules designed for fairness that unintentionally slow execution. From the outside, it can look like inefficiency. From the inside, it’s usually a system designed to prevent the *wrong* outcome — even if it makes the right outcome harder to achieve. That distinction matters. If you want to help large organizations buy better, move faster, or operate more reliably, you can’t start with what you sell. You have to start with how their constraints actually work. Good solutions don’t fight procurement systems. They work with them. They: - reduce risk instead of adding it - make decisions easier to defend - simplify vendor evaluation instead of expanding it - respect why the process exists in the first place The more time I spend in these rooms, the more convinced I am: Most “procurement problems” are really **design problems**. And the only way to design better systems is to understand the one that’s already there. Listening comes first.

A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Strategic Procurement Ever wonder what happens in procurement? Here's how it really works. Step 1: Needs Assessment Description: The team talks to departments. They find out what is needed. They write down all requirements clearly. Step 2: Supplier Research Description: Procurement experts search the market. They compare different vendors. They check quality and price options. Step 3: Risk Evaluation Description: Every supplier gets reviewed carefully. The team checks financial health. They look at delivery history too. Step 4: Negotiation Process Description: Contracts get discussed in detail. Terms are set for both sides. Payment schedules are agreed upon firmly. Step 5: Relationship Management Description: The work continues after signing. Performance gets tracked every month. Strong partnerships are built over time. This process shows the importance of thorough planning and smart decision-making. Procurement saves money when done right. It protects the business too. What steps do you think matter most in procurement? Share your thoughts below.

Fundamentals of Procurement – Often Discussed, Rarely Practiced Well Procurement is often misunderstood as just buying at the lowest price. In reality, strong procurement is about value, risk, and long-term sustainability. At its core, effective procurement rests on a few timeless fundamentals: 🔹 Clear Requirement Definition If the need isn’t clear, even the best supplier will fail. Good procurement starts before any RFQ is released. 🔹 Right Supplier, Not Just Lowest Bidder Cost matters, but reliability, capability, compliance, and scalability matter more. 🔹 Transparency & Ethics Fair competition and clear decision criteria build trust—internally and externally. 🔹 Risk Management Supply continuity, geopolitical exposure, financial health of vendors, and dependency risks must be actively evaluated. 🔹 Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Price is only one component. Lifecycle costs, service, downtime, and quality failures often cost more than the invoice value. 🔹 Stakeholder Alignment Procurement succeeds when business, finance, legal, and operations move together—not in silos. 🔹 Supplier Relationship Management Vendors are partners in delivery, not just names on a PO. In a volatile world, procurement has evolved from a support function to a strategic lever. Organizations that respect these fundamentals consistently outperform those that don’t. Would love to hear—which procurement fundamental do you see most often ignored? #Procurement #SupplyChain #StrategicSourcing #Governance #RiskManagement #Leadership

At a high level, I see public organisations choosing between two very different paths in how they run procurement. One path is to respond as needs emerge. A new requirement appears, and a new tool is added to manage it. One for planning. One for sourcing. One for contracts. One for spend. They are connected where possible, often through workarounds, exports and manual checks. It works - up to a point. The other path is more deliberate. Instead of adding tools around the process, organisations bring the work together. Planning, sourcing, supplier interaction and contracts are treated as one connected flow. Data is captured once. Visibility is built in. Decisions made early don’t disappear later. In the Nordics, high maturity has historically made the first path viable for a long time. Skilled teams compensated for fragmentation. Processes held together through experience and trust. Across Europe, pressure is now exposing the limits of that model. More policy objectives, tighter markets and higher scrutiny make fragmentation costly. Not just operationally, but in decision quality. This is not a question of compliance. Both paths can be compliant. It comes down to how much effort organisations spend simply keeping procurement aligned and how much insight is lost instead of carried into the next procurement. Organisations choosing the second path tend to shift the conversation: From managing tenders to managing procurement as a system. Mercell Tendering is built for organisations making that choice, because they want procurement to work as one whole - end to end.

Most procurement plans fail for one simple reason: They are treated as annual documents, not monthly operating systems. This breakdown gets one thing absolutely right 👇 👉 Strategy only works when it is converted into calendar discipline. One month. One focus. One measurable win. That’s how procurement moves from: • firefighting → foresight • price chasing → value creation • compliance → competitive advantage The real power of a month-by-month plan isn’t structure. It’s decision clarity. Every month answers just three questions: 1️⃣ What matters now? 2️⃣ What must be finished this month? 3️⃣ What risk or opportunity can’t wait? Procurement excellence is never accidental. It is built quietly, consistently, one month at a time. This is how resilient procurement teams are created in 2026. #ProcurementLeadership #StrategicProcurement #ProcurementPlanning #SupplyChainExcellence #CPOAgenda #OperationalExcellence #ValueCreation