Purchasing News Hubb
Advertisement
  • Home
  • Procurement
  • Supply Chain
  • Contact us
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Procurement
  • Supply Chain
  • Contact us
No Result
View All Result
Purchasing News Hubb
No Result
View All Result
Home Supply Chain

Five Fundamental Principles of Category Management

admin by admin
January 10, 2023
in Supply Chain


Cross-functional working

Cross functional working is crucial. When developing your category management strategy, you must have a comprehensive team of stakeholders. People who will be using the system, people who will own a specific category and people who will own the strategy… they must all be part of your cross functional collaboration.

This is what allows you to gain a real insight you can act upon and a complete understanding of the use cases you’ll address in your process.

Fact- and data-driven decision making

Data is your friend. As long as you have strong analytics, you’ll receive clear insights that enable you to take appropriate action. The analytics will help you analyse your performance and decide where you can improve.

You’ll be able to see where you could reduce costs in your category. You’ll be able to decide who should be responsible for operations. You might even discover new market factors beyond the control of you or your supplier (and form a way to navigate around them).

Strong supply market knowledge

A strong supply market knowledge entails knowing commodity prices, your supplier’s financial standing and being aware of the supplier/supplier risk. You have to take a holistic view of your requirements and the pipeline when it comes to sourcing, and at all times know exactly where you and your suppliers stand. Supply market knowledge is critical to driving the success of a long-term project, especially when it comes to direct materials.

Extensive knowledge of the different aspects of your supply chain is essential to mitigate risk. You can limit legal, supply and reputational risk, and negotiate the best prices for the goods or services you’re trying to procure. You can also prepare for any major disruptions global events, such as a pandemic or a natural disaster, could cause, so that you can keep things moving.

Open-ness to change

Successful category management requires being flexible and proactive, and is about challenging what has happened before and exploring new approaches to meet the needs of the business or organisation. This makes being open to change indispensable in category management.

At some point, your business needs will change, and you’ll have to align your category management strategy with them. Refusing to evolve with change will leave you with a dated category management strategy that doesn’t have the impact you want it to.

Stakeholder engagement

Communication at the different stakeholder levels is paramount, from executives who provide support and investment, to line managers who approve categories, to technical experts operating in cross-functional teams.

Achieving the cooperation of technical stakeholders on the project calls for procurement team members to engage with the range of stakeholders. This allows them to develop an understanding of different stakeholders, how category management affects them and why their contribution matters. A category management strategy is doomed to failure if the key stakeholders, especially management, don’t buy into it.

Following these principles is vital to execute your category management strategy successfully. If you’d like help with your category management strategy or consultancy on any other aspects of your procurement operations, feel free to contact us. We’ll be happy to lend our expertise to your project.



Source link

Previous Post

Procurement of Indian-made goods poised to increase?

Next Post

Supply Wisdom and SAP share procurement insights for 2023

Next Post

Supply Wisdom and SAP share procurement insights for 2023

Recommended

Chief Procurement Officer Blogs : Ketal Patel CPO

November 16, 2022

Spend Matters Fall 2022 SolutionMap – Analyst observations in P2P

December 2, 2022

Don't miss it

Procurement

Procurement Recruitment Blogs : Vacancy Numbers Still High

January 29, 2023
Procurement

A career in recruitment… – Procurement Heads

January 28, 2023
Procurement

Why Procurement staff are in demand and how to navigate the skills shortage

January 27, 2023
Supply Chain

Support Paper: Change Management – Barkers

January 27, 2023
Procurement

Financial Services Procurement Recruitment Blogs

January 27, 2023
Supply Chain

Vendor Analysis — S2C solution overview, analyst summary

January 26, 2023

© 2022 Purchasing News Hubb All rights reserved.

Use of these names, logos, and brands does not imply endorsement unless specified. By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.

Navigate Site

  • Home
  • Procurement
  • Supply Chain
  • Contact us

Newsletter Sign Up

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Procurement
  • Supply Chain
  • Contact us

© 2022 Purchasing News Hubb All rights reserved.

Our Spring Sale Has Started

You can see how this popup was set up in our step-by-step guide: https://wppopupmaker.com/guides/auto-opening-announcement-popups/