Thought Leadership
Future Purchasing is fully committed to carrying out regular research into topics that are of interest to the professional procurement community, and providing regular insights and briefings that cover the full procurement landscape. We produce insight briefings, articles for procurement publications, and research reports.
Insights and Briefings
We are continually producing innovative materials that address the procurement landscape. On a regular basis we provide outline summaries of our work as Insight Guides and articles and add them to the website.
Strategic Sourcing
| Title | Description | Document |
| Category management & strategic sourcing: functional tool or business process? | Highlights the challenge of changing business processes rather than the tactical deployment of functional tools. |  Insight Guide 4 |
| Category management & sourcing strategy: using source plans as business plans | Emphasises the role of structured source planning as a critical building block within the overall procurement business plan. | Insight Guide 5 |
| Category management & strategic sourcing: understanding the problems… addressing the weaknesses | Provides some pointers to making sourcing strategy more strategic, while addressing ten structural weaknesses that Future Purchasing has identified within major companies. | Insight Guide 6 |
| Embedding strategic sourcing in the organisation | Highlights the critical success factors for successful implementation of strategic sourcing. | Insight Guide 15 |
| Engaging stakeholders and creating a pipeline of sourcing projects | Covers the formalisation of the category planning approach to build a category waveplan. | Insight Guide 17 |
| Creating world class sourcing strategies | Outlines the key content for a world class sourcing strategy and the enablers for strategy development. | Insight Guide 18 |
| Measuring the success of category management | Focuses on the indicators of world class category management capability that lead to successful change programmes. | Insight Guide 21 |
| Equipped for a bumpy ride: commodity risk management | A sustained period of volatility in commodity markets demands that procurement develop a more disciplined approach to managing cost risk. | CPO Agenda article – Autumn 2008 |
| Accelerated savings delivery from sourcing | Captures the approaches used by companies to drive short terms savings from sourcing and category management. | Insight Guide 23 |
| Driving delivery from your project pipeline | Outlines the seven steps needed to ensure the pipeline of category projects delivers against their objectives in a timely fashion. | Insight Guide 28 |
| Maximising value from category management | Outlines the typical sources and levers of value which can be achieved from category management through full internal alignment | Insight Guide 36 |
| Proactively Managing Change in Category Management | Outlines the typical issues that need to be proactively managed by Procurement teams. | Insight Guide 37 |
| Outcomes Led Approach to Category Management | Identifies the key factors to move from a traditional procurement approach to an outcomes led category management approach. | Insight Guide 39 |
| Programme Governance in Category Management | Outlines the critical success factors for good programme governance in category management. | Insight Guide 41 |
| Lean Category Management | Describes how to apply lean thinking to the development of a category management process. | Insight Guide 42 |
| Critical Category Management Activities | Identifies the 15 critical activities that need to be managed within the category management process. | Insight Guide 43 |
| Lean Category Management Part 2 | Summarises the implications for applying lean principles to building and applying category management processes. | Insight Guide 45 |
| Category Management – Avoiding Savings Leakage | Identifies ways that procurement teams can reduce the 40% difference between their claimed savings and the actual realised value. | Insight Guide 48 |
| Title | Description | Document |
| Taking supplier relationship management seriously: critical frameworks for managing supplier strategy | Systematises five broad supplier initiatives covering different types of suppliers. Identifies relationship factors that can be used to assess these supplier types. | Insight Guide 11 |
| Taking supplier relationship management seriously: value capture and value creation | Throughout the work of Future Purchasing, we find that organisations talk about value but don’t take appropriate actions to capture it. This Insight Guide provides a framework connecting supplier value to its financial impact. | Insight Guide 12 |
| Making supplier relationship management happen: the ten internal change levers | Highlights the benefits available from SRM; the need to develop a strategy, process and change plan for successful implementation; and provides a tool to assess "SRM change readiness". | Insight Guide 14 |
| Supplier relationship management 2.0 | SRM is undergoing fundamental change and professionalism as it evolves into a standalone process, the equal of strategic sourcing. This is SRM 2.0, and the implications of the change are detailed in the article | DILF Orientering article – February 2007 |
| Negotiating with strategic partners | Getting optimum value from major suppliers requires a more sophisticated approach to negotiation skills and behaviour. This article provides insights into strategic negotiation behaviours. | CPO Agenda article – Autumn 2007 |
| Unlocking the value of collaboration | New global research indicates that working closely with strategic suppliers can yield significant value. The key issue is how to harvest it in practice which is covered in this article. | CPO agenda article – Winter 2007-08 |
| Building the Case for SRM | Many organisations struggle to get maximum value out of supplier relationship management programmes. This article, based on research, explores ways to capture and measure the value. | CPO Agenda article – Autumn 2009
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| Strategic relationships | How effectively you interact with your key suppliers can have a powerful impact on business performance. This article focuses on strategic supplier relationship management and how to implement it successfully in the business. | Supply Chain Management Review article – April 2006 |
| Accelerated savings delivery from SRM | SRM techniques to close the value gap between the original sourcing promise and the implemented reality in the business. | Insight Guide 27 |
| Risk reduction through SRM | Outlines how SRM is a key tool for reducing ongoing supply risk as well as reducing costs and maximising value. | Insight Guide 31 |
| Value Delivered by SRM: 2009 Study | Summarises the ten key findings from the 2009 SRM value study. | Insight Guide 40 |
Procurement Transformation
| Title | Description | Document |
| Making procurement cost management a core competence | Summarises in an easy-to-use checklist nine broad options and 27 initiatives that are under way in companies worldwide. | Insight Guide 1 |
| Driving up value while driving down cost | Emphasises the need to link cost management initiatives with value capture and value creation. | Insight Guide 2 |
| Managing the waves of change | Takes themes from Insight Guides 1 and 2 and examines performance improvement and strategic value capture within an integrated approach. | Insight Guide 3 |
| Linking procurement to corporate strategy: a strategic framework for difficult market conditions | Examines ten principles for developing and applying a strategic framework capable of linking procurement to organisational success. | Insight Guide 7 |
| Opening up the options for procurement operating models | Considers the need for procurement leaders to align their teams and operating models to strategy and the maximisation of shareholder value. | Insight Guide 8 |
| Understanding the financial metrics of shareholder value | Looks at the financial measures and prime indicators of the contribution that suppliers can make in profit orientated, private sector companies. | Insight Guide 9 |
| New goals for procurement: a value based strategy | Demonstrates the impact of procurement as a lever for maximising sustainable shareholder value. Introduces the concept of total procurement capital. | Insight Guide 10 |
| Managing the challenges of transformational change | Covers the challenges of building a distinctive procurement competence across complex, multi-site organisations. Outlines the need for properly structured change strategy. | Insight Guide 13 |
| Benchmarking the Value Levers | Summarises four internal organisational levers central for change management and six external supplier facing ones. | Insight Guide 34 |
| Managing the matrix | Organisational design is a minefield for the unwary. Adopting a more systematic and authoritative approach is central to the success of CPOs and is covered in this article. | CPO Agenda article – Winter 2005 |
| Pulling power: 6 performance levers for strategic sourcing | To make strategic sourcing a core competence in your business, there are six performance levers you need to master that are detailed in this article. | CPO Agenda article – Spring 2005 |
| Shareholder and stakeholder expectations – embracing the next wave of change | Frameworks used to facilitate a CIPS strategic forum are summarised in this hot topic summary. | Hot topic summary – Q1 2005 |
| Charting your financial impact | Procurement’s contribution to sustainable shareholder value is often far from visible. With financial pressures growing, CPOs need to make the links – and fast. The way forward is covered in this article. | CPO Agenda article – Winter 2006-07 |
| Refreshing the category management process | Category management has been the cornerstone of procurement excellence for more than a decade, but in many firms it has lost touch with business needs. This article covers how premium drinks maker Diageo put some fizz back into a universal practice. | CPO Agenda article - Spring 2009 |
| CPO first 100 days | Outlines ten approaches that can ensure a CPO builds the right platform to secure a mandate for change during their first 100 days. | CPO first 100 days |
| Benchmarking Procurement | Identifies the three levels of benchmarking for procurement teams to assess their capabilities | Insight Guide 50 |
Functional skills development
| Title | Description | Document |
| Developing skills in supplier relationship management | Compares the SRM skills needed by procurement professionals with their sourcing competencies and identifies actions to address the skills shortfall. | Insight Guide 22 |
| Improving team effectiveness in a tough economic climate | Identifies four initiatives that can be quickly implemented at a low cost to improve the effectiveness of a procurement team | Insight Guide 24 |
| Getting to grips with cost management | Outlines how to develop a cost management framework for action to accelerate the delivery of benefits. | Insight Guide 25 |
| Application of cost management tools | Covers the range of cost management tools that procurement teams need to apply to achieve their performance delivery targets. | Insight Guide 26 |
| Cost management skills development | Focuses on the typical skills that people need to effectively implement cost management, and practical approaches to embed these skills. | Insight Guide 29 |
Business skills development
| Title | Description | Document |
| Developing next generation leaders in procurement | Focuses on the influencing challenge and emerging role profile for pivotal leaders in procurement. | Insight Guide 20 |
| Leadership at the crossroads | The capabilities required for world-class procurement are changing significantly. They call for a very different leadership profile that is explored in this article. | CPO Agenda article – Autumn 2006 |
| NLP in Procurement | Provides guidance on how procurement specialists can use NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) to improve their communication skills and their ability to influence stakeholders and suppliers. | Insight Guide 30 |
| Well Formed Outcomes | Introduces a useful NLP tool which helps people successfully achieve their goals through ensuring all limiting factors have been considered and removed. | Insight Guide 32 |
| Coaching from a distance | Covers the key elements needed to run a successful remote coaching programme, including clarity on roles and clear deliverables. | Insight Guide 33 |
| Successful Stakeholder Communication | Covers the key steps to follow to maximise the impact of your stakeholder presentations. | Insight Guide 35 |
| Successful Stakeholder Engagement | Highlights the importance of planning and skills development to successfully engage with internal stakeholders. | Insight Guide 44 |
| Stakeholder Engagement – Key Competencies | Identifies the competencies that need to be developed by procurement professionals to help them become trusted advisors. | Insight Guide 46 |
| Becoming a Trusted Advisor | Develops the concept of how procurement professionals can become a trusted advisor to their stakeholders, rather than just a service provider. | Insight Guide 47 |
| Stakeholder Engagement Training | Identifies how to develop an integrated stakeholder engagement training programme where the interpersonal skills development is embedded into real-life procurement activities and events. | Insight Guide 49 |
| Authenticity in Procurement Leadership | Provides a self assessment on authenticity in leadership for procurement professionals. | Insight Guide 51 |
Procurement academy
| Title | Description | Document |
| Developing an integrated learning & development programme | Outlines the 10 steps to develop and implement a learning & development programme for procurement. | Insight Guide 16 |
| Learning & Development Interventions | Outlines the strengths and potential issues of four main types of L&D interventions. | Insight Guide 38 |
Competency Assessment
| Title | Description | Document |
| Identifying & addressing skills gaps in the procurement team | Focuses on the use of competency assessments to identify skills gaps, leading to targeted learning & development activities. | Insight Guide 19 |
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