Let’s Face It: You’re Under More Pressure Than Ever Before

How do you perform and make decisions when everything is on fire and requirements often compete with each other?

We all knew coming into 2022 that the supply chain strategy paradigms we have held close and true for decades were being challenged. Strategies like just-in-time inventory, extending payment terms, low-cost country sourcing were all being turned on their heads.

What we didn’t realise is that in addition to – or as a result of – all these changes, we would be under a whole range of new pressures. Where one market force or disruption was pulling us in one way, there was an equally strong requirement (often internal) pulling us in exactly the opposite direction.

The double-binds and conflicting priorities that now exist are putting procurement professionals around the world under even more pressure (dare I say unprecedented) than ever before. In addition, procurement is balancing urgent market pressures and conflicting requirements/trade-offs.

We are under pressure from all sides – and, in many ways, we are caught in the middle.

Recent history has shown us, and the world, just how critical robust, yet agile, supply chains are to our economies and our communities. Put simply, procurement and supply chain has never been so well understood, by everyone, and our profession has had to rise to the challenge.

Through 2020 and 2021, when we were experiencing the dramatic changes in market conditions that were driving the great procurement reset, we had already faced more disruptions than we thought possible.

Little did we know, things were about to get more interesting:

• The Russian invasion of the Ukraine
• Scarcity of key materials and talent
• Port congestion
• Natural disasters
• Ongoing impacts of COVID
• Inflation and recession risks.

To help our community better understand the key challenges we are facing, we have teamed up with Ivalua to create a research survey and in turn will produce a report to share with Procurious members. Today’s market volatility and disruptions affect everyone and, as I have always said, if we work as a community to solve problems we will build community muscle.

Our collaborative efforts on this survey will uncover insights that help you and your peers adapt, adjust and come out on the other end still standing by exploring:

• Which pressures weigh procurement down the most?
• Which pressures risk causing the most damage to our economy, businesses and supply chain?
• How do you and your organisation prioritise and weigh the tradeoffs you have to make?
• What are the impacts of inflation… and recession?
• What are the impacts of disruption and shortages?
• Is the global supply chain broken forever or will it recover?
• What is the future-state for procurement?

I encourage you to participate in this 10-minute survey looking at the mounting pressures on procurement and supply chain teams in 2022.