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New Year’s Truths for Procurement: 6 Tips from Spend Matters UK/Europe

01/04/2019 By

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Where is procurement going in 2019? While it would be easy to fall into the perennial trap of describing long-term trends as the next big thing, we’d like to offer a more realistic alternative. To start off the year, we suggest reaffirming some hard truths about procurement that can help decision-making in the months to come.

To that end, Peter Smith, procurement veteran and outgoing editor of Spend Matters UK/Europe, decided to leave readers in December with a list of six enduring truths about the function. While this advice surely won’t be the last readers hear from Smith, he offers these points as “most of my critical IP” as he steps out of the spotlight.

Specifically, Smith advises readers to remember:

  1. Procurement is all about value
  2. Competition works…
  3. But relationships are still important
  4. Technology is wonderful…
  5. But people matter most
  6. Always remember: we have no right to exist

To learn more about the foundation behind each procurement truth, as well as how practitioners can go about applying them in their own organizations, check out both articles (Part 1 and Part 2).