The Procurement Value Proposition: The Rise of Supply Management

The role of the Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) is becoming more strategic and even more important as procurement is affected by technological advances, changing demographics, geo-political and macro-economic change, and an increased focus on sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility. In The Procurement Value Proposition, Gerard Chick and Robert Handfield consider how these global economic changes will alter purchasing strategies, organizational structure, role and responsibility, system development, and the skills required to work in the profession.

With input, observations and case studies from CPOs, business development professionals, and business leaders, this book is ideal for procurement practitioners who wish to develop a cutting-edge practice.

About the Authors

Gerard Chick is Chief Knowledge Officer at Optimum Procurement Group, a procurement outsourcing and consulting company. He is a speaker and writer on business and procurement issues and has written for journals such as CPO Agenda, Supply Management and Procurement Professional. He has been a keynote speaker and delivered workshops on strategic procurement issues to senior executive teams in the UK, the US, Europe, the Middle East, Australia, Africa and China. Until recently, Chick was also a visiting Senior Research Fellow at Curtin University in Perth, Australia, a visiting Fellow at Cranfield School of Management and a member of the Logistics and Operations Management Board of Cardiff Business School.

Robert Handfield is the Bank of America University Distinguished Professor of Supply Chain Management at the North Carolina State University Poole College of Management, and director of the Supply Chain Resource Cooperative. Handfield was previously Consulting Editor of the Journal of Operations Management, and he is a widely published author on supply chain management. His books include Supply Market Intelligence (CRC Press), Introduction to Supply Chain Management and Supply Chain Redesign (Pearson Higher Education).

He is a leading speaker at executive forums such as the Power Conference at the Institute for Supply Management and the Conference Board. He has consulted with Fortune 500 companies, including Caterpillar, GlaxoSmithKline and FedEx, and he has published more than 100 articles in top management journals, including MIT Sloan Management Review, the Journal of Product Innovation Management, and the Journal of Operations Management.