Interview with Malcolm Harrison, CIPS New CEO (Part 1 – Commercial)

Malcolm Harrison took over as CEO for the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS) in the summer, and he promised an interview with Spend Matters UK/EU to talk about his first “100 days” or so.

CIPS plans to grow outside of its traditional stronghold in Europe, and it touts a global community of over 200,000 procurement and supply professionals, with members in over 150 countries.

Spend Matters’ Peter Smith, a former CIPS president, recently caught up for a chat with Harrison about where the organization is going with its certification programs, its commercial work and more.

“I do feel that we may not have the balance quite right in terms of our commercial activities and the core purpose of supporting the profession and our members,” Harrison said. “I have some sympathy with the view I’ve heard that ‘CIPS has got too commercial.’ ”

Read the first of the three-part series here.