Qais, you say that the procurement department is gaining importance in many organizations. Why is that?

Strategic procurement used to aim mainly at cost effectiveness. This resulted in a trend to reduce the number of suppliers in order to get better deals and establish stronger relationships with the few remaining suppliers. On the other hand, it resulted in a greater dependency on suppliers. Hence, Risk mitigation, sustainability, supplier diversity and supply visibility have become critical points in company's procurement and supply chain organizations.

You consider the procurement function as a source of competitive advantage. Why?

As we have seen in the pandemic, even companies with the most renowned supply chains suddenly struggled to secure their supply in raw materials and components. Relying on suppliers in a few countries (e.g., China, India), global corporations became dependent on local matters, such as the complete lockdowns in China.
Hence, companies with diverse supplier portfolios benefitted from their sourcing network and were more flexible to get hold of supplies.
We have seen many cases where new business was acquired not because of a great business development activity, but because of efficient and smart supply risk mitigation. This way, resilient supply chains have become a key competitive advantage in the past years.

As you just mentioned, the pandemic was an example of Supply disruption. Are there other examples that come to your mind?

Recently, we have seen several thrilling examples of disrupted supply chains:
When the Ever-Given container ship blocked the Suez Canal, hundreds of ships were forced to stop for several days, delaying millions of shipments to companies in all industries.
Prior to that, a Texas oil field was hit by a cold winter which led to freezing gas pipelines and disrupting the energy supply in the region.
These examples show that minor and unexpected events can have a dramatic impact on a company's supply, their end-to-end operations and manufacturing, and consequently to their ability to offer their products or services to their clients.

What does this mean to you, as a specialized consultant in this field?

Understanding the trends in this environment helps me to provide a better service and a tailor-made approach. Each industry has its own challenges, but major trends happen across industries. So, the important thing here is that we do not only provide a connection between the best talent and the matching companies, but also provide first-hand insights to our clients, serving as a strategic business partner, and not only as a headhunter who provides potential candidates.