Chief Procurement Officers: No Longer Sustainability's Cinderellas

For too long, procurement teams have been the Cinderellas of the sustainable business agenda. CEOs, companies and brands make commitments which capture the limelight. But pity the people who have to endure the stresses, strains and outright cognitive dissonance of putting all of this into practice in the midst of the daily cut and thrust of highly competitive—and increasingly disrupted—markets.

Transforming procurement to become an engine of environmental, social and economic value creation requires a mindset shift, something which can be disconcerting for harried purchasing and supply chain management professionals. But it is worth recalling earlier mindset shifts in business and in the supply chain world. Think of the health, safety and environment agenda; the emergence of the Internet and its impact on the latest round of globalisation; or the Total Quality Management revolution.

Each of these turned previous certainties on their head, triggering new types of competitive strategy. In developing the Tomorrow’s Capitalism Inquiry, Volans has concluded that we are seeing a progressive expansion of the business agenda from responsibility to resilience and regeneration.

While it is exciting to have influential groupings of CEOs and corporations, like the Business Roundtable in the US, signaling a shift in thinking about the purpose of business beyond shareholder value maximisation, it is clear that corporatetop teams still have some way to go in getting to grips with the implications. Most are still focused on responsibility, at a time when resilience and regeneration are becoming increasingly critical.

If business fails to embrace these new challenges, even some of the world’s most enthusiastic capitalists are warning that capitalism itself may find itself under existential threat. Transformed supply chains will be at theheart of the coming shift. Yesterday’s Cinderellas will increasingly be centre-stage and strategic.

In a new white Paper co-evolved with leading supply chain management platform EcoVadis, called Procuring A Regenerative Economy, Volans explores the implications of what is to come for procurement, illustrating how businesses will need to adapt in the decade ahead.

Whether it is disruptive new technologies and business models, new market entrants, the ricochet effects of trade wars or the impact of climate-related breakdowns, the 2020s will challenge us all to our limits—and often beyond. At the same time, however, the opportunities for greater impact will grow exponentially for those who step from the old world into the new in good time and good order.