833: The Polycrisis Playbook: How Procurement Can Lead Through Turbulence W/ Gordon Donovan

Art of Procurement

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12d ago 43:14

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“We’re in the business of change – selling change and then delivering it.” - Gordon Donovan, Vice President Research - Procurement & External Workforce, SAP

In an era of overlapping crises, procurement faces fast-evolving challenges… and opportunities.

Senior leaders are tasked with not only keeping the engine running but also building resilient, future-facing teams that thrive in complexity. The recently published SAP Economist Impact research report, “The Resilient Edge: Procurement in an Era of Polycrisis,” provides a data-driven lens on what the next three to five years may hold, especially as outsourcing, skills, and technology reshape operating models.

To dig into this new research, Philip Ideson welcomes Gordon Donovan, Vice President Research - Procurement & External Workforce at SAP, back to the show. Gordon combs through insights on what is driving procurement decision-making, current confidence in category management, and the practical implications of surging contingent workforce and outsourcing activity.

Whether you want to understand why risk management is lagging, how AI will drive operating model transformation, or where procurement should focus next, Gordon brings both the latest data and his own hard-won advice for CPOs.

In this episode, Gordon discusses how this latest research from SAP can help procurement:

Identify how leaders’ priorities are aligning for the first time in four years
Rethink the value proposition beyond cost savings and communicate it upstream
Advance risk management beyond basic compliance, especially in category strategies
Harness outsourcing and the contingent workforce as proactive transformation levers
Prioritize the right skills, even those that rarely make the official list

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