Procurement, and the diffusion of ProcureTech innovation

28 years. That’s how long I’ve been working with ‘Procurement’!

Across Digital Procurement, Marketing Procurement and further back to the world of Facilities Management, Business and Corporate Services.

Working with Williams Lea (now Tag) in the early ‘90s, then Adare (now HH), followed by Charterhouse (Konica Minolta, now Indicia) and ASL Global, and most recently through our own ProcureTech start-up (Axiom), has given me the opportunity to work across different procurement teams on every continent and in probably close to 50 countries.??

During that time, I’ve sold to, consulted for and generally had the pleasure of working with every level in the procurement hierarchy, from Intern and Analyst to ‘Heads of Purchasing’, Procurement Directors and increasingly CPOs.?I’ve dealt with many different people, from extroverts to introverts and everything in between, from the “I’m the big important corporate procurement person for x global brand, you’re just a second-class supplier” to the “let’s work together on this” type!

I’ve pitched to the world’s largest Consumer Goods companies, every Pharma company in the Top 20 list, the most recognised Car marques, global Technology companies, international Banks & Financial Institutions, all the Magic Circle Law Firms & many of the top US firms, etc. etc.

I don’t say this in any way to show off (there are plenty of more seasoned people who could knock this into a cocked hat I’m sure)…..I simply put it forward to show that I’ve been ‘round the block’ and seen a bit. Some call it ‘experience’!

BUT it’s only recently that I’ve had my eyes properly opened about Procurement and the people who work within it!

This is as a direct result of me getting off my behind and being more proactive – reading more, talking to more people, listening more and connecting more.?

And it’s been enlightening and frightening in equal measures!!

Having co-founded a ProcureTech start-up a couple of years ago, that provides genuine innovation (in the world of AI and Machine Learning relating to procurement data and guided decision making), I’ve seen for myself how people react to new ideas and opportunities.

And, it absolutely matches the theory first described by Dr Everett M. Rogers back in 1962, when he published the first edition of “Diffusion of Innovation” and introduced the term ‘Early Adopter’.

His theory is summarised in one of the most familiar diagrams in the world of business, which describes the take up of new ideas:

Roger’s work is based on the view that the adoption of any new innovation or idea can be categorised into innovators (2.5%), early adopters (13.5%), early majority (34%), late majority (34%) and laggards (16%), following the mathematically-based bell curve.

This got me thinking in a completely different way about all the people that I’ve worked with in Procurement over the years! (I know, I’m slow on the uptake!).

Traditionally, I’ve probably been way too focussed on the hierarchical structure of a global procurement organisation – infatuated with the idea of reaching out to the Director or CPO as the key decision maker. Perhaps this was right in my old world where points of differentiation between the top global providers were narrow (and mainly service related) and the buying process more regimented through Tenders and RFPs.

However, I’ve come to realise that when you’re bringing something new to the fore, it’s less about the title and all about openness of the individual to these new thoughts and ideas. Just because someone has Director in their tile it doesn’t automatically mean they’re open to newness. It’s the ‘innovators’ and the ‘early adopters’ in the organisation I need to talk to. These influencers are the ones that bring the ‘early majority’ to the party.

[idea]?maybe there's the opportunity for a new button for LinkedIn to consider for people’s profiles, to indicate which adoption category they sit in!! (*)(**)

This got me thinking about the hypothetical make-up of the perfect, world-class Procurement Team and I found myself posing a number of questions (particularly bearing in mind the Digital Revolution that Procurement is going through):

• Does the perfect team comprise a natural distribution across Rogers’ categories?
• Do ‘Leaders’ always sit more towards the left-hand side of the curve?
• What’s the best category for the CPO to sit in?
• Does this change by industry and or age of the organisation?
• In fact, does age itself impact the likely category people fit into?
• If your superior is a ‘Late Majority’ or a ‘Laggard’ how long would you stay in the team if you’re full of ideas and sitting further over to the left of the distribution cure?
• And so on and so on…..

[idea] perhaps smarter brains than me could turn this into an interesting webinar topic? (*)

I’m connected to about 4,000 people of LinkedIn, across my two areas of interest (Procurement and Cricket/Sport) – with probably well over 70% sitting in the procurement-related space. It would be really interesting to understand which innovation take-up category all these people fall into. Thinking about it, I bet there would be some surprises!!

[idea] perhaps this would make an ideal LinkedIn poll for a Procurement Influencer to run?!! (*)

From a personal perspective, as a ProcureTech start-up, one of the key questions we think about is, how do we get in front of the right Procurement person in the organisations that we know we could have a major impact on?

A quick trawl shows there are over 19.6m people on LinkedIn with ‘Procurement’, ‘Sourcing’, ‘Purchasing or ‘Buying’ in their title and global organisations have procurement teams running into the many ‘000s of people across the world!

Talk about ‘needles’ and ‘haystacks’, when it comes to finding exactly the right person in an organisation to pitch your new idea to.

[idea] perhaps CPOs should consider a new role in their teams – "Head of Early Adoption"!! (*)

A role purely focussed on investigating and identifying new technologies, ideas and solution. It would be so much easier for the start-up world to have a dedicated point of entry into these global organisations - and much more efficient and effective for everyone.

That said, it’s great to see organisations like DPW and ProcureTech (and others) showcasing the start-up community, and major organisations posting Innovation or Game-changer calls on LinkedIn as well as creating Incubator programs. Not forgetting of course, the Procurement and Supply-chain Influencers like Dr Elouise Epstein, Dr Florian Kleeman, Jacob Larsen, Nicolas Passaquin, Nico Bac, James Meads, Sarah Barnes-Humphrey (and many others), alongside the Procurement groups such as Procurement Foundry and Procurement Leaders who are all leading the charge when it comes to changing the thinking and promoting new ideas, technologies & solutions.

When it comes to the diffusion of ProcureTech innovation, power to you "Early Adopters"!

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(*)???'Late Majority' and 'Laggards' look away now, as this is an idea which you won’t want to think about for a few years!

(**)?Don’t you just love the procurement person who has “always open to new ideas” on their profile……and then never replies to an email!!