A new era for procurement: Value creation across the supply chain

The world experienced significant turmoil between 2020 and 2023: supply chain disruptions, geopolitical tensions, technological advances, changing consumer needs, new sustainability commitments, and more. It’s increasingly clear that the resulting shifts in how people live, work, and play are not temporary but structural, beginning a new economic era characterized by volatility, regionalized supply chains, AI dominance, and talent scarcity.1 To succeed in the new environment, organizations are currently embedding agility, technology, and innovation into every aspect of their value chains.

As visible as these moves now are, their long-term success depends on a much less obvious action: changing what the organization buys, whether it’s raw materials that meet new environmental standards or analytics talent who can identify what consumers most value. Across performance dimensions ranging from cost and cash to carbon control and social impact, external spend plays a crucial role. Consequently, chief procurement officers (CPOs) who have successfully navigated uncertainty in recent years have become indispensable partners to the executive suite.

As the CPO of a manufacturing company noted to us, “Never before has procurement been core to so many executive-committee-level priorities. We now have a real seat at the top table. And this is not a temporary situation—this is how we will operate going forward.” The CEO of a chemicals company echoed this sentiment: “These days, to perform well, companies need a different end-to-end view on the business. Procurement is absolutely critical.” The new economic era represents a unique opportunity for procurement to step up and redefine its scope, mandate, and playbook, providing a competitive edge to organizations that do so well.