The Procurement Value Proposition

Gerard Chick is Chief Knowledge Officer at Optimum Procurement Group, a procurement outsourcing and consulting company. He is a speaker and writer on business and procurement issues and has written for journals such as CPO Agenda, Supply Management and Procurement Professional. He has been a keynote speaker and delivered workshops on strategic procurement issues to senior executive teams in the UK, the US, Europe, the Middle East, Australia, Africa and China. Until recently, Chick was also a visiting Senior Research Fellow at Curtin University in Perth, Australia, a visiting Fellow at Cranfield School of Management and a member of the Logistics and Operations Management Board of Cardiff Business School.Robert Handfield is the Bank of America University Distinguished Professor of Supply Chain Management at the North Carolina State University Poole College of Management, and director of the Supply Chain Resource Cooperative. Handfield was previously Consulting Editor of the Journal of Operations Management, and he is a widely published author on supply chain management. His books include Supply Market Intelligence (CRC Press), Introduction to Supply Chain Management and Supply Chain Redesign (Pearson Higher Education).

Businesses are going through rapid external and internal organisational changes due to an increased focus on sustainability and corporate responsibility, technological advances, geo-political and macro-economic change, and demographic shifts. If purchasing and supply chain managers are to embrace these challenges they must develop new ways of thinking about supply structures and processes as well as new skills and competencies. The Procurement Value Proposition examines these important changes that will have a profound effect on the way future procurement is carried out. It considers the implications of global economic transformation for procurement set against: changes in business contexts, purchasing strategies, organisational structure, roles and responsibilities, system development and skills required to work in the profession. In this book, Gerard Chick and Robert Handfield discuss the value proposition offered by contemporary procurement to the sustainability and development of business. They examine how organizations that position procurement as a core business function will be able to drive a more competitive lever for change, and more readily adapt to the forces driving rapid change in the current global environment. The Procurement Value Proposition features case studies of companies that are moving through procurement transformation in a continual phase of movement and adaption to the multitude of shifts that are occurring. It features input, observations and case studies from CPO's, Commercial Directors, other Procurement and business leaders. The book considers a variety of geographical contexts and highlights differences between the US, the UK and China.Gerard Chick and Robert Handfield won the Grand Prix ACA-Bruel for their book, The Procurement Value Proposition. Awarded for important contributions to the research and practice in procurement and supply chain management, the book was recognised for its ambitious vision of procurement.

Considers the practice of procurement and supply management in the modern era and how this might shape the next generation of procurement professionals

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