There’s a meeting I still think about.
I’m sitting in a boardroom. The CFO is presenting quarterly results. Supply chain gets mentioned exactly once—in the context of cost overruns. No discussion of what we enabled. No mention of the innovation we sourced. No recognition of the risks we avoided.
Just cost overruns.
And I realized something. This wasn’t the CFO’s failure. It was mine.
I had spent years getting better at procurement. I hadn’t spent nearly enough time helping the organization understand what procurement actually does.
That’s the gap this article is about.
The old paradigm is dead
For decades, procurement had a simple job description. Buy things cheaper.
That’s it. Negotiate harder. Consolidate spend. Beat up suppliers on price. Measure success in cost savings.
It worked. Sort of. For a while.
But here’s what happened. The world got complicated. Supply chains stretched across continents. Risks multiplied. Innovation started coming from suppliers, not just internal R&D. Sustainability became a board-level concern. And suddenly, the function that was supposed to “just buy stuff” found itself at the center of strategic decisions it was never designed to handle.
The old playbook didn’t prepare us for this.
I watched procurement leaders try to respond by doing more of what they’d always done. More negotiations. More cost projects. More savings reports. Working harder at a game that had fundamentally changed.
It doesn’t work anymore.
The organizations that still see procurement as a cost center are leaving enormous value on the table. And the procurement leaders who can’t articulate that value? They’re getting left behind.
What value creation actually means
Let me be specific about what I mean by “value creation.” Because it’s easy for this to become a buzzword that means nothing.
Value creation means contributing to outcomes the business actually cares about.
Not procurement outcomes. Business outcomes.
Revenue growth. Market share. Speed to market. Risk mitigation. Competitive advantage. Sustainability goals. Innovation pipeline.
These are the things CEOs think about. These are the metrics that drive stock prices and board discussions and strategic plans.
The question is: how does procurement connect to these outcomes?
Here’s what I’ve learned. The connection exists. It’s real. It’s significant. But procurement leaders have to make it visible. Nobody else will do it for us.
The value creation framework
I’ve spent years thinking about how to structure this. How to move from “we saved money” to “we created value.”
It comes down to four dimensions.
Cost intelligence, not just cost reduction.
Yes, cost still matters. But the conversation has to evolve.
Cost reduction is about paying less for the same thing. Cost intelligence is about understanding the total economics of every sourcing decision—and making trade-offs that serve the business strategy.
Sometimes the right answer is paying more. For speed. For quality. For resilience. For innovation access. The procurement leader who can only talk about paying less is missing half the conversation.
I learned this working on automotive programs where a supplier’s engineering capability was worth more than their price discount. We paid a premium for access to their innovation pipeline. That premium generated returns many times over in product differentiation.
But it required a different conversation with stakeholders. Not “we saved 3%” but “we secured a capability that competitors can’t access.”
Risk as a strategic asset.
Most organizations treat risk management as compliance. Check the boxes. Fill out the assessments. Hope nothing goes wrong.
That’s not strategy. That’s paperwork.
Strategic risk management means understanding which risks matter, which ones you’re willing to accept, and which ones create competitive advantage when managed well.
I’ve seen companies turn supply chain resilience into a market differentiator. While competitors struggled with shortages, they kept delivering. That wasn’t luck. It was procurement leadership that invested in relationships, redundancy, and visibility before the crisis hit.
Risk management isn’t a cost. It’s a capability. The organizations that understand this are winning.
Speed as competitive advantage.
Here’s something procurement leaders don’t talk about enough. Time.
How long does it take to qualify a new supplier? To execute a sourcing event? To get a contract signed? To respond when requirements change?
In fast-moving markets, procurement speed is a strategic capability. The company that can source faster, qualify faster, contract faster—they can respond to opportunities that slower competitors miss entirely.
I’ve watched procurement teams add weeks to product launches through slow processes. And I’ve seen procurement teams accelerate time-to-market by having pre-qualified suppliers ready when engineering needs them.
Same function. Completely different strategic impact.
Innovation access.
This is the dimension most procurement organizations completely miss.
Your suppliers are innovating. They’re developing new materials, new processes, new technologies. The question is: are you getting early access to that innovation, or are your competitors?
Supplier relationships aren’t just about today’s transactions. They’re about tomorrow’s capabilities.
The procurement leaders who understand this are having different conversations with suppliers. Not just “what’s your price?” but “what are you working on?” Not just quarterly business reviews, but technology roadmap discussions. Not just vendor management, but innovation partnerships.
This requires a fundamental shift in how we think about supplier relationships. From adversarial to collaborative. From transactional to strategic.
It’s uncomfortable for procurement people trained in the old paradigm. But it’s where the value is.
Five leadership capabilities that matter now
The shift from cost center to value creator isn’t just about strategy. It’s about capability.
Here are the five capabilities I’ve seen matter most.
Business acumen.
You have to understand the business you’re serving. Not just the categories you’re buying. The actual business.
What drives revenue? What threatens margins? Where is the company investing? What keeps the CEO up at night?
Procurement leaders who can connect their work to these questions get invited into strategic conversations. Those who can’t get relegated to operational support.
I made it a practice to read every earnings call transcript, every investor presentation, every strategic plan I could get my hands on. Not because it was my job. Because it changed how I thought about my job.
Financial fluency.
Cost savings are a start. But strategic procurement leaders speak the full language of finance.
Total cost of ownership. Return on investment. Working capital impact. Risk-adjusted returns. Economic value added.
These concepts let you have different conversations with the CFO. Instead of “we saved $2 million,” you can explain how a sourcing decision affects cash flow timing, balance sheet exposure, or earnings volatility.
The CFO doesn’t care about procurement metrics. They care about financial outcomes. Learn to translate.
Stakeholder influence.
Most of the value procurement can create requires cooperation from people who don’t report to you.
Engineering has to involve you early in design decisions. Operations has to share demand forecasts. Business units have to follow sourcing recommendations. Legal has to prioritize your contracts.
None of this happens automatically. It happens because you’ve built relationships, established credibility, and learned how to influence without authority.
This is a skill. It can be learned. But it requires deliberate practice.
Communication clarity.
Procurement is complicated. The work we do involves technical specifications, contractual nuances, market dynamics, supplier capabilities.
The people who need to understand our value don’t have time for that complexity.
Strategic procurement leaders learn to communicate simply. To translate complexity into clarity. To tell stories that land with executives who have thirty seconds of attention.
I’ve watched brilliant procurement professionals fail to get traction because they couldn’t explain their work in terms non-procurement people understand. And I’ve seen average practitioners punch above their weight because they could communicate with impact.
This isn’t about dumbing things down. It’s about respecting your audience’s time and context.
Talent development.
The shift I’m describing doesn’t happen through one leader. It happens through teams.
The procurement leaders who create lasting change are the ones who build other leaders. Who develop their people. Who create cultures of strategic thinking rather than just tactical execution.
This is the hardest capability to develop. It requires letting go of being the expert. It requires investing time in others when you’re already stretched. It requires patience when you want immediate results.
But it’s the only way to scale strategic impact.
Building cross-functional influence
Let me go deeper on something.
Procurement’s value creation potential is limited by our organizational influence. Full stop.
If engineering makes material selections without procurement input, we’re optimizing at the margins. If business development commits to customer timelines without understanding supplier realities, we’re cleaning up messes we didn’t create. If strategy sets direction without supply market intelligence, we’re flying blind.
The procurement leader’s job isn’t just to run a function. It’s to embed procurement thinking into decisions across the organization.
How do you do this?
Start with problems, not processes.
Nobody cares about procurement processes. They care about their problems.
Engineering cares about getting products launched on time with the right specifications. Sales cares about being able to make commitments they can keep. Finance cares about predictability and cash flow. Operations cares about having what they need when they need it.
Frame every conversation around their problems, not your capabilities. Show how procurement thinking helps them succeed at what they’re measured on.
Deliver quick wins.
Trust is built through demonstrated value, not promised value.
When you’re trying to build influence with a new stakeholder group, find something small you can fix quickly. A supplier relationship that needs attention. A specification that’s driving unnecessary cost. A process bottleneck you can clear.
Deliver results. Then build on the credibility you’ve earned.
Be present.
You can’t influence decisions you don’t know about.
The best procurement leaders I know spend significant time outside their function. In engineering reviews. In product planning meetings. In customer discussions. In operations huddles.
Not to control these conversations. To understand them. To see where procurement can add value before it’s too late.
Speak their language.
Every function has its own vocabulary. Its own metrics. Its own way of thinking.
Learn them. Adapt your communication style. Stop talking about procurement concepts and start talking about outcomes in terms each stakeholder understands.
This isn’t selling out. It’s respecting that your perspective isn’t the only valid one.
Communicating value to the C-suite
Here’s where most procurement leaders fall short.
They do good work. They create real value. And then they report it in ways that don’t land.
Annual savings numbers. Compliance metrics. Category updates. Process improvements.
The C-suite doesn’t care.
They care about: are we hitting our strategic objectives? Are we managing our risks? Are we positioned for the future?
To communicate value at this level, you need to connect every procurement initiative to a strategic priority.
Not “we consolidated the logistics category and saved $800K.”
Instead: “We restructured our logistics network to support the European expansion the board approved in Q1. The changes reduce cost, but more importantly, they give us reliable delivery capability in markets where we’re trying to grow share.”
See the difference? Same work. Completely different framing.
The savings are still there. But they’re embedded in a story about strategic execution, not procurement achievement.
Talk about risk in business terms.
When I present risk to executives, I don’t talk about supplier scorecards. I talk about scenarios.
“If this supplier fails, we lose the ability to fulfill our largest customer’s orders for eight weeks. Here’s what we’ve done to reduce that probability and prepare alternatives.”
That’s a conversation executives can engage with. They can ask questions. They can make trade-offs. They can understand why your recommendations matter.
Use external benchmarks.
Internal metrics are necessary but not sufficient.
Executives want to know how you compare. Are you world-class or average? Are you improving faster than competitors? Where are the gaps?
External benchmarks—thoughtfully applied—give context that internal metrics can’t provide.
Be honest about limitations.
Nothing destroys credibility faster than overselling.
If you’re presenting value creation numbers, be clear about what’s estimated versus verified. What’s one-time versus recurring. What required other functions to execute.
Executives appreciate intellectual honesty. They’re allergic to spin. The procurement leader who tells the truth, even when it’s uncomfortable, builds trust that compounds over time.
Your 30-day action plan
I could leave this as concepts. But concepts don’t change anything. Action does.
Here’s what I’d do in the next 30 days if I were trying to reposition procurement in my organization.
Days 1-10: Strategic alignment.
Get a copy of your company’s strategic plan. Read it carefully. Identify the three to five priorities that matter most to leadership.
For each priority, write down how procurement could contribute. Be specific. Not “support innovation” but “qualify three advanced materials suppliers to support the next-generation product platform.”
Share this mapping with your manager. Ask for feedback. Refine.
Days 11-20: Stakeholder conversations.
Pick three senior stakeholders outside procurement. Business unit leaders. Functional VPs. People who influence budget and strategy.
Schedule conversations. Not to present. To listen.
Ask: what are your biggest challenges? Where do supply-related issues create problems for you? What would great procurement support look like?
Take notes. Look for patterns. Identify opportunities to add value in ways you haven’t been thinking about.
Days 21-30: Value narrative.
Based on what you’ve learned, draft a one-page story of procurement’s value.
Not your metrics. Your impact. In terms of strategic priorities and stakeholder problems.
Practice telling this story. Get feedback from people outside procurement. Refine until it lands.
This document becomes your template for every executive conversation going forward.
Where this connects
This shift in how we think about procurement leadership connects to broader changes happening in how organizations operate.
AI is changing what’s possible—and what decisions leaders need to make about how they’ll use these new capabilities. Procurement leaders who understand AI’s potential for their function will have advantages others won’t.
And the influence skills we’ve discussed aren’t just procurement skills—they’re leadership skills that matter everywhere in modern organizations.
The real shift
I want to end with something honest.
The shift from cost center to value creator isn’t primarily about frameworks or capabilities or communication techniques.
It’s about identity.
For decades, procurement professionals were trained to see themselves a certain way. Guardians of the budget. Negotiators. Cost controllers. The people who say no.
Becoming a value creator requires seeing yourself differently. As a strategist. A business partner. Someone who enables rather than constrains.
That shift is uncomfortable. It means letting go of expertise that defined your career. It means being vulnerable in conversations where you’re not the expert. It means accepting that your value isn’t in what you know—it’s in what you enable others to accomplish.
Not everyone makes this shift successfully. Some can’t let go of the old identity. Some don’t want to.
But the procurement leaders who do make it—who genuinely transform how they see their role—they don’t just change their careers.
They change what’s possible for the function.
And that’s worth the discomfort.