Growing Out of Adversity, Procurement Leaders Agree: Be Bold, Start Now, Put People First

Day One Insights from the Americas Procurement Congress Virtual:

Procurement Leaders was proud to kick off the four-day Americas Procurement Congress Virtual Event yesterday. The event brought together members from across the Americas procurement community and beyond, all joining remotely from dining room tables, spare bedroom desktops, and even a backyard patio or two.

Chaired by Walgreens Boots Alliance’s very own Jim Townsend, Chief Procurement Officer, day one of the congress was full of insightful perspectives and actionable steps from procurement leaders across industries, all focused around the event’s central theme - growing out of adversity. The first day certainly set the tone for the remainder of the conference.

The first session of the day featured Todd Stohlmeyer, Vice President of Global Strategic Sourcing & Procurement, discussing how global food corporation Cargill has been transforming the function through a period of rapid change while remaining impactful. Todd shared the key to Cargill’s successful procurement transformation has been a distinct focus on its people. The Cargill team spent a lot of time developing and deploying training, tailored to the individual needs throughout the team, by location, delivered in an agile way. Setting clear and measurable targets with incentives and rewards for meeting those targets was another important factor, critical to the Cargill procurement function’s success in a period of heavy disruption.

“Setting a tone of vulnerability was key to our success – it was made clear we’ll fail fast and be agile in how we pivot to make improvements for next time.” – Todd Stohlmeyer, Vice President of Global Strategic Sourcing & Procurement, Cargill

Headline partner GEP then hosted the next session, where Kevin Ruffcorn, S2P NextGen Program Manager at Chevron spoke to the importance of technology and data in creating visibility in the supply chain, helping to make more informed decisions.

“Technology has empowered our procurement teams in localities completely separate from our operations to make important and informed business decisions. We made a lot of investments over the last few years in our people and technology and the [COVID] situation we have today is proving the value of those investments.” – Kevin Ruffcorn, S2P NextGen Program Manager, Chevron

I had the pleasure of facilitating one of the industry breakout sessions with our members from the Pharma and Healthcare Industry. The group unanimously agreed that collaboration internally and externally has skyrocketed in the time of COVID and has led to procurement team structural shifts that foster agile collaboration, to business units working together that had not previously, and even to competitor organizations working hand in hand to overcome logistical obstacles together.

“Disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have given more teeth to what procurement has been talking about for years – we need contingency plans that are actionable, performance management that is measurable, risk management that is visible, and most importantly supplier relationship management that treats suppliers like they are our partners.” – Gregg Jewett, Director of Strategic Sourcing & Procurement, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company

The insights didn’t stop there. Michael Holly, VP of Global Strategic Sourcing, then shared how the Clorox Company’s procurement team has pivoted throughout the pandemic to meet customer needs and expectations. Michael discussed that Clorox’s ability to meet the demand of these challenging times came from investments the company had made in its people foremost and secondly in the tools their team’s use.

“Business has sped up because of the demands and expectations of our customers. Of course, there was initial concern in our ability to meet this once-in-a-generation challenge, but our teams – and procurement in particular – have risen to the occasion.” – Michael Holly, VP – Global Strategic Sourcing, Clorox Company

We then heard from Nolan Smith, VP, Global Supply Management, Corning Incorporated to round out day one. Nolan discussed how this is procurement’s chance to lead the business out of the crisis and into the next normal. Nolan discussed how Corning procurement is taking a new perspective on its role and reimagining the role of procurement to emerge stronger, and better prepared for any future crisis.

“The time is now. We must be bold, and we must shape our future. If you haven’t started, start today and if you have started determine where you are going from here to be even better prepared for the next disruption.” – Nolan Smith, VP, Global Supply Management, Corning Incorporated

A whole-hearted thank you to all of our excellent presenters who shared their journeys and lessons learned with us on day one of the first-ever Americas Procurement Congress Virtual, and to all who took the time to join us for the discussions. I’m looking forward to what the following days have in store!