Executive Summary and Survey Headlines

Executive Summary

Introduction: Category Management is a top 3 priority for 85% of procurement teams with 27% of respondents classifying themselves as Leaders and 73% as Followers. The survey results consistently confirm that Leaders are more likely to use Category Management best practices to embed the process in their organisation. The Leaders also deliver demonstrably superior outcomes.

Business alignment: Leaders have recognised the importance of connecting Category Management to the broader business goals, with 92% considering they have made progress in this area, compared with 58% of Followers. They have also spent time clarifying roles and responsibilities with 90% rating their performance as either somewhat or extensively unambiguous, compared to 37% of Followers.

Stakeholder engagement: Collaboration with internal stakeholders is equally differentiated, with 65% of Leaders undertaking joint project prioritisation with stakeholders, compared with 35% of Followers. In terms of time committed to Category Management, 85% of Leaders achieve sufficient time from category managers (42% for Followers). Both groups struggle to obtain sufficient time from stakeholders - 39% for Leaders and 12% for Followers. Surprisingly, only 11% of overall respondents provided any kind of training to stakeholders.

Implementation: Only 2% of all respondents rated their category strategies and implementations as excellent, with 86% of Leaders feeling they had achieved a good standard (44% of Followers). However, only 18% of category projects are delivered on-time, with an average delay of 7 weeks for Followers and 3 weeks for Leaders.

Value delivery: Average savings reported by Leaders were 9.5%, compared with 6.5% for Followers – a 46% uplift. For the average organisation in the survey, with a spend of €650m, transforming performance from a Follower to a Leader would deliver an additional 3% saving - equivalent to €19m annually. Leaders believe that optimising their Category Management would result in an additional 2.4% saving across all spend - equivalent to €16m annually.

Conclusion: There is major scope for improving Category Management across all organisations -
with an ROI likely to be in excess of 10:1.

Survey Headlines

said Category Management is a top 3 priority for Procurement.

consider they have Category Management embedded or optimised – the Leaders.

of Leaders align Category Management somewhat or extensively with broader organisational goals.

of Leaders have roles and responsibilities somewhat or extensively clear and unambiguous.

of Leaders undertake joint project prioritisation with stakeholders.

of Followers have sufficient time from stakeholders for category management.

of all respondents felt that their category strategies and implementation were excellent

of all projects are completed within target timescales.

of all respondents said their stakeholders had some form of training in Category Management.

more savings were delivered by Category Management Leaders versus Followers.

Read the Category Management Report Part 1 here >

Contact us for more information on category management or this survey.

Call Simon Brown on: + 44 (0) 7961 110529

or email sbrown@futurepurchasing.com