Business leadership hungry for supplier innovation Sir John Hood was the first vice-chancellor of Oxford University to be elected from outside the academic body in 900 years, but he also has vast experience in industry. As a director of several global companies, he says business leaders are keen to see suppliers create more value. Y ou hear a lot of management talk about how to persuade the board of this or that. Senior Sir John Hood
The CEO’s reading list
Board-level leaders have to keep abreast of trends affecting their business or department. They can do so by reading a range of publications. Anyone who wants to work closely with them should do the same. • Look for specialist features in the daily press, including the trade press and consultants’ publications. Always read the science and technology, business and finance sections in the Economist • Because we’re all busy, podcasts are a good way to stay on top of topics while travelling • Most of the major consulting firms, publish reports worth digesting. Also, read the Harvard Business Review and like publications • There are ever-frequent, interesting conferences and talks – you don’t have to attend; many of them are broadcast online • Lastly, look at business and technology best-seller lists. Skim read the most interesting ones: there are frequently 15-20 pages that are worth reading
managers seem to be looking for a secret recipe to ensure C-level executives invest in their pet projects. But my experience of modern CEOs is they don’t need persuading about supplier innovation. Anyone running a business of any scale knows that they have to see procurement as a channel for creating value and enhancing the cost side of the organisation. For this reason, the procurement team should now be deeply integrated with all the functions of the business, from operations to marketing to finance. I’m surprised people ask the question about influencing the board. Instead, procurement teams should be asking how to streamline their function. Digital automation offers the opportunity to eliminate many administrative tasks in procurement, while data analytics and machine learning can help with many of the judgement calls. These efficiencies can then create more time and resource to spend on innovation and customer value. Reasons for supplier innovation As the global economic landscape changes rapidly, organisations need innovation from suppliers now more than ever. It is expected that half of the globe’s top 500 companies will come from emerging regions by 2025. The global supply chains of companies from western economies that have been created in developing regions simply to find cheaper goods and services
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STATE OF FLUX
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