Will C3PO replace the CPO?

Category Strategy decks are often formulaic and devoid of real insight, not much better than ChatGPT could do. A truly intelligent Strategy needs real data and the ability to move from analysis to action.

The picture accompanying this article shows the response from ChatGPT when I asked it to create a Procurement Strategy for the category of laboratory glassware. It might seem pretty good at first glance, but to an experienced Category Manager it looks thin. But over my time in procurement I have sat through a fair few category strategy presentations which had 15 slides containing not much more than this.

That's often the problem with Category Strategy presentations: they are static, out-of-date and don't contain much insight. Take the difference between navigating a journey on an AA Road Atlas in comparison to a travel app like Waze or Google Maps. Apps have the very latest road layouts, temporary road works, weather, speed cameras (where legal!) and can even advise if the trade-off between the highway and the toll road is worth the ￡7.20 at the moment. The Road Atlas is literally a 30 thousand foot view from many years ago. Static, out-of-date and no insight

Is your Category Strategy document a static 30,000 foot view from five years ago?

I blame Management Consultants for the explosion in Strategy Documents written in dense PowerPoints, and many Category Strategies start and end in this form. The data they contain are laboriously brought in from multiple systems, massaged and presented back: by then out of date. Not much more use than C3PO above.

What would a truly intelligent category strategy document look like?

It wouldn't be PowerPoint, it would be actual software

PowerPoint was designed to be a System of Presentation, not a System of Action. At best it leaves one with thoughts of "That was a good presentation, can I have a copy of the slides, so I can present to someone else". Category Strategy—or any Strategy really—is claimed to be completed with the production of "the deck", but yet often has no easy way to implement the recommendations.

Leaders should expect more from their Enterprise Systems. It should be a System of Action as well as a System of Presentation.

Making another PowerPoint Deck is not a valid action

It would contain machine-generated suggestions

Sourcing and category managers need initiatives based on accurate and comprehensive spend data, with system-assigned recommendations. As C3PO shows above, simple recommendations are two a penny. The next generation Category Management software needs to be able to establish category goals, develop plans, and execute and monitor progress. And managers need to be able to prioritise by being presented with confidence levels for opportunities.

It would be based on Customer Data and Priorities

We need to do better than accept formulaic strategies than could have been developed by a generic AI. A true Category Management solution needs to have the recommendations based on a Customer's own Spend Data and business goals. Not just PowerPoint.

At SAP we are launching our next generation Category Management product, which is real software and contains actionable machine-generated suggestions.