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Disruptive procurement is the process of creating real business value and competitive advantage by:

• deconstructing what the business really needs,
• challenging established business processes,
• leveraging knowledge from outside the normal points of reference, and
• designing, assembling and managing the supply chain in new and innovative ways.

“Disruptive procurement” uses knowledge of the entire supply chain to challenge requirements and drive out business benefits far in excess of any improvements in margin.

Property directors, estate directors, head of acquisitions, facilities director….whatever your title and whatever your industry, reducing total cost of ownership (TCO) and mitigating risk are two of the major aspects of your responsibility.

Everyone knows that for a business or function to be successful they need to hire great people. Unfortunately, the vast majority of managers and executives will also know the pain and angst created from a bad hire. From having someone in the business who didn’t fit the culture, couldn’t deliver and/or negatively impacted on those around them.

Over the years, I have observed many different procurement teams across a range of industries.  Whilst most do a good job, only a handful do a GREAT job.  The team at Insider have spent some time researching this and would like to share with you our take on what those top performing procurement teams have in common.

Disruptive procurement is the process of creating real business value and competitive advantage by:

• deconstructing what the business really needs,
• challenging established business processes,
• leveraging knowledge from outside the normal points of reference, and
• designing, assembling and managing the supply chain in new and innovative ways.

If your procurement team took steps to reduce the total cost of ownership for a piece of equipment, they’d probably deserve a pat on the back (at least!).

But what if they took a further step and looked at the function of that piece of equipment and determined a better way?

Property directors and facilities management companies are always under pressure to reduce costs in everything that they do, but there often comes a point when a cheaper alternative fails to deliver the service that is required.

Today's procurement teams are being challenged to reduce costs, but in many cases are finding that suppliers have no further room for negotiation.

After round upon round of cost reduction projects, the traditional approaches are running out of steam.

As procurement consultants, we are always looking for great examples of disruptive procurement in action.

The $3.7bn Tesco Booker takeover was a great example of disruption in the food distribution marketplace.

Procurement consultants aren't usually challenged with driving business innovation.

More likely, they are charged with reducing the bottom line financial figures.