A Dream I Leave You With

Speech at the end of my tenure as Global CIPS President in 2015 

I rise and speak today with gratitude, respect, and humility, for the final time as the President of CIPS.

My successor has been named and as such I am glad to inform you that my tenure as CIPS President has come to an end. I have handed over the baton to Richard Masser, the new President and who was the former Chairman of CIPS Global Board of Trustees. Like every other member, I wish our new CIPS President success in the year ahead.

It had been an incredibly hectic year, one that went so quickly but with fulfillment - I have met several hundreds of members in branch activities across the world, delivered speeches in several countries at conferences attended by thousands of members, attended graduation ceremonies in several continents, met members at informal events, had a one-to-one with members, met a Vice President and few Ministers of some countries, just to mention a few.

Yes, it is time to draw the curtain on a job that has been both demanding and gratifying. So it's a pleasure, as always, to be able to tell you how much I enjoyed meeting CIPS members all over the world listening to their stories, and sharing my dreams. I also enjoyed working with the brilliant minds at the CIPS secretariat – thanks for your dedication, imagination, priceless hours invested, and your support to my presidential year, without which it would not have been a success.

Nothing compares to the smiles, friendship, and camaraderie of the CIPS family, the hard work of volunteers at branches, and the passion of members - these are the most beautiful things that I will take away from my tenure. Thank you all.

As my Presidency fades away into the history book, I want to leave you with a few final thoughts and a dream.

One thing I will remember about my tenure was that I became President of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply and ended as President of the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply. It was during my tenure that Her Majesty, the Queen of England approved CIPS’s request for a name change for the Institute (from purchasing to procurement) along with permission to confer Chartered status on our members and fellows. Credit for this change goes to David Noble and the team at CIPS who got the approval in October 2014.

I cite this milestone only to paint the arc of our progress; acknowledgment of our new role and larger responsibilities; our rise from obscurity, from a routine back-office function to a strategic role at the heart of business. It speaks of incredible progress. This seismic change was both the reason and impetus for my presidential theme: “A profession comes of age: Raise your game; Raise your voice”. It was a clarion call to rally our members to a common purpose.

Procurement has come a long way since 1932 when the Purchasing Association was formed. It has moved from being a back office transactional role to a strategic function and one that provides organizations with a competitive advantage.

Procurement and Supply are all about bringing value for every dollar spent - for your team, your employer’s business, for stakeholders, and for society at large. Cutting-edge organizations are innovating and reaping gains from better-managed supply chain structures. The question to ask is whether we are doing it well enough.

The truth however is that across the world we see a dichotomy of procurement practices, especially between the practices in developed and developing countries.

In developed countries, we see a much more advanced public and private procurement, where for example central procurement offices have delivered billions of dollars in savings, where procurement has been a value game changer in the hosting of the Olympic game, and where procurement has become a driver for economic growth.

However, in developing countries, rudimentary procurement practices still prevail especially in public procurement which has become synonymous with corruption, modern slavery, infrastructural gaps, etc. Much value is still being left on the table in organizations and procurement has no real name recognition.

Modern society is indeed faced with different issues in developing countries (economy, climate change, etc) and in developing countries (Infrastructure gaps e.g. power and transportation, GDP growth, employment, poverty, etc)

The United Nations General Assembly of September 2015 ratified the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development which includes targets for private and public procurement, in the drive to wipe out poverty, fight inequality and tackle climate change, The goals replace the Millennium Development Goal and are expected to be the blueprint to transform the world.

The UN had identified that 1.3 trillion dollars is lost annually in developing countries to corruption, bribery, theft, and tax evasion. It thus sets targets to reduce these and also take measures to end modern slavery and human trafficking.

Clearly, these are some of the key focuses of global leaders and are areas where the Procurement community can add significant value and become recognized for the value that it can bring. This is an opportune time and not one that we can afford to waste as if we miss this signpost,, we would have lost a huge opportunity to further transform this profession. We also don’t have forever if we fail to take the gauntlet promptly, some other profession will.

This is therefore why we must Raise our game and Raise our voice.

Well-resourced, high-performing procurement departments are going beyond the issues of cost containment, restraint of wasteful, maverick spending, and better management of stock and spare to extending their influence within their organizations by working closely with customers and other functional groups to discover new ways of adding value, even in areas previously difficult to optimize. In addition to uncovering hidden value, some buyers have been known to challenge and improve the way products or services are delivered to the market.

Don’t get me wrong, we must always deliver on our basic function of competitive rates, quality products, timely execution, risk management, etc, but this is a given and the basic foundation that we must consistently deliver on.

However, we must move beyond price focus and develop our potential, taking advantage of opportunities offered by Big data, the Internet, Robotics, 3D printing, Uberisation, etc, and bring creativity and innovation into the work that we do.

We must understand the language of the business and how value is defined. Value extends to customers, which is where revenue comes from, it extends beyond customers, the enterprise, and suppliers, it flows into society and we must always think of how procurement activities can impact positively the society we live in.  

An example is Nigeria LNG Limited’s $1.4 billion contract with Samsung and Hyundai in South Korea to build six new LNG ships. This followed a transparent tender which produced extremely competitive prices compared with benchmarks. However additional value was derived from the deal including 600 Nigerians being trained in shipbuilding in S/Korea, exporting $30mln locally made materials such as cables, paints, furniture, anodes, etc. two shipping simulators worth $5mln each installed in Nigeria for training staff, and a dry-dock facility to be built in Nigeria. Samsung and Hyundai committed $16 million to this and also to provide technical partnerships with local investors. (Click)

The second is SABMiller; the world’s second-largest brewer, whose procurement team brought creativity into their sourcing activities and by so doing, dramatically changed the society where they operated. By thinking differently about sourcing of raw materials from localities where they operate, they changed their input from hop and barely to cassava, a crop abundant in Africa. SABMiller was able to launch two cassava beers – Impala in Mozambique and Eagle in Ghana, which has now created a new revenue source for SABMiller, boosted the local economy, and empowered poor farmers.

Aligning sourcing efforts more closely with corporate strategic goals remains key and Business leaders are becoming aware of the fast-changing nature of the world and the strategic benefits that can be achieved through the intelligent use of purchasing and supply management. These include competitive supply chains, improved product development, and faster times to market—in addition to the significant cost advantages associated with sourcing from low-cost countries.

We need to attract talents into the profession and support their development; talents with the potential to become CEOs of organizations. We must ensure they are inquisitive about the business and understand how to add value. We must ensure we give them a voice to bring their creativity and innovation. Mentoring, Coaching, and Continuous Professional Development will be key and we must challenge them to raise their game and raise their voice.

This reminds me of my own story; “Storeroom to the Boardroom” having joined Shell in Nigeria as a procurement trainee,  starting work in the warehouse and today being the CEO of a multi-billion dollar annual revenue company.

On “Raise your voice”, I have noticed that procurement professionals sometimes have great ideas for improving the business – not just by reducing costs but also by transforming processes and opening up new revenue streams, but they seem to be shy to raise their voices and be heard in their organizations and beyond. 

In my many years of working across several countries and companies, I have found that procurement people are shy; I have wondered maybe it is because the profession started as a back office and as such being upfront in approach is not second nature to us or maybe it is the conservative nature of our training, or maybe it is because the majority of CPOs do not report directly to CEOs.  

Whatever it is, whether procurement has a direct line of communication to the top or not, procurement professional needs to find a way to be heard. I know it is not easy, but take my word for it – a smart CEO will always listen to great and creative ideas. I am a CEO and I know that.

I encourage Procurement professionals to always share the success stories they have achieved in their organizations and careers so others can learn and possibly replicate. We must communicate the value we add, knowing that good stories don’t simply tell themselves.   

As my presidential year comes to an end, I can say with confidence that the sky is the starting point for procurement professionals but we have to seize the moment and make a difference. Capitalizing on opportunities will not just happen by itself. It requires planning, political will, and courage.

The future of our profession is bright — but it is not guaranteed. However, if we do raise our game and raise our voices, I can say with certainty that our work will validate that we are a force for good.

I look forward to a time when our profession will be recognized as a strong force for tackling major global issues – and where procurement is a lead item on agendas of bodies such as the United Nations, G7, G20, World Economic Forum, etc. 

I look forward to a time when more than 80 percent of CPOs in organizations will be reporting to CEOs when 20 percent of CEOs globally are from procurement, and when ministers arise from the profession.

This is my dream and one that I hold on to and leave you with, one that I have no doubt will happen in a lifetime.

Thank you all as I now leave the stage to join the group of Ex-Presidents.