Is your team organised so that category managers both create strategies and implement them?

In our recent global study, 77% of Improvers' Category Management create and implement their own strategies versus 79% of starters

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Deciding how to organise the team is a crucial aspect of any CPO or leadership?team’s remit. Organisational design will have a significant impact on how?successful the team is in achieving its goals.

The advantages of separating out the?creation of the category strategy from?its implementation are:

1. Category Strategy Expertise:?Creation of a focused team of?category strategy experts who have?the time to develop really insightful?and well crafted strategies that meet?or exceed their stakeholder needs.

2. Supply Market Knowledge: Category managers become real?experts in their supply markets and?are able to identify and exploit?opportunities quickly for their?categories and within their?respective supply markets.

3. Stakeholder Engagement: By focusing all their time on strategy?creation, category managers have?the time to build up a real?understanding of their stakeholder?needs and create strategies that?deliver real “bottom line” value.

The disadvantages of separating?out the creation of the category?strategy from its implementation?are:?

4. Weak Strategy Implementation:?The team of people responsible for?implementation are unlikely to?understand fully how the strategy?was created, resulting in identified?value levers opportunities not being?implemented.

5. Supplier Communication:?Suppliers may find that the trust and?understanding built up during the?strategy creation phase may be lost?when the implementation team?takes over.

6. Additional Time Required:?Ensuring a comprehensive handover?of the strategy from the category?manager to the implementation?team takes additional time and risks?a potential loss of knowledge and?incoherent implementation.

How can this be applied to my organisation??

Book a 10-minute FREE Assessment Call?

One of our directors will walk you through a series of quick questions to determine where you are now and to introduce a structured improvement programme to optimise your category management performance:

FUTURE PURCHASING'S GLOBAL RESEARCH INTO CATEGORY MANAGEMENT

Since 2012, we have undertaken the research five times. More than 1,800 participants from organisations with more than €5tn spend have taken part. This has provided more than 250,000 data points that allow us to pinpoint best practice and define the missing standards for implementing category management.?

Contact us if you would like a copy of the full report.?

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