Purchasing is now recognised and established as a pivotal factor in business performance, and is at the heart of General Management’s expectations.
Its dual positioning, both transversal with all the company’s functions and in its more direct line with suppliers, forces it into a constantly evolving position of prescriber, arbiter and decision-maker.
Without ever abandoning its initial functions of optimising costs and managing supplier relationships, new expectations in terms of sustainability, social responsibility, resilience, driving innovation and digital transformation have been added since 2020.
These numerous challenges, in a context that more than ever deserves the VUCA acronym, require a profound change in approach, tools, skills, organisation and methods if the Purchasing function is to fulfil its role as an essential link in business performance.
Current challenges
Over the period 2025 to 2030, the Purchasing function will have to evolve, or even transform radically depending on the business sector, in order to meet the many challenges that lie ahead.
Faced with the growing complexity of the supply chain, the need for sustainability and limiting environmental impact, the vast movement towards digitalisation with its corollary of data security, the volatility of prices and markets, in a chaotic geopolitical context, companies will have to find answers to the 4 fundamental questions posed to them, which will shape the future of the Purchasing function and have a direct impact on the company’s overall performance:
- How can sustainability be fully integrated into the supply chain?
- How should the purchasing department be organised in terms of volume and skills to fully exploit the potential of digitalisation and artificial intelligence?
- How can we make purchasing activities more fluid within the company to speed up decision-making, reduce time-to-market and help position the company as a leader in its sector?
- How can we take the concept of the extended enterprise to its logical conclusion, by fully integrating suppliers into the company’s performance, while respecting their free will?
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