Blog
Measure yourself against the Global Category Management report
By Mark Hubbard |
The Future Purchasing Global Category Management Leadership report contains a list of the 23 top practices and 4 key measures which show how to be great at category management and deliver at least twice the benefit than others achieve.
For each of those practices and measures, it has a list of recommendations for improvements in each area – clear, unambiguous, actionable recommendations. What’s not to like?
The other feature it has is an ability to benchmark against other organisations in your own sector – providing a very clear view of how you are doing compared to sector averages. This isn’t in the report, but there is a capability to provide that information.
Getting a clear view of how we compare to other organisations
Within procurement, we often don’t have a clear view of what other organisations do and how we compare against them. We do get some information when people change companies, and reports and conferences do provide a very clear insight into what is happening elsewhere. However, having a clear statement of where we stand against a host of critical areas is a rare occurrence.
There is always the rationale of ‘it’s different here’. We do things differently because of a host of internal factors. However, even where that is true, it still doesn’t mean that we cannot seek improvement and change.
The other benefit of having a very clear benchmark is the challenge of working out what to do first. With a broad picture, it becomes easier to look at the things where the gap is largest, or sometimes where change is possible to achieve. It also allows us to set sensible targets. It is unusual to jump from ‘don’t do that’ to ‘world leader’ in a single step, and often becoming brilliant in one area has its own challenges. That area can often fail over time, as the rest of the organisation struggles to match that brilliance.
It is often better to move forward steadily on a broader front, allowing time to consolidate, and then build forward again. This is because the organisation is more able to sustain that broader, steady movement than it can manage meteoric changes.
The top practices and key measures are derived by Henley Management School using statistical analysis to demonstrate which factors have the most impact – there is a very sound basis for the statements made
The benchmarks are derived from the responses from more than 380 people across more than 300 companies. The top practices and key measures are derived by Henley Management School using statistical analysis to demonstrate which factors have the most impact – there is a very sound basis for the statements made.
This also means that we’re not relying on a hopeful approach to improvement; there’s enough behind the analysis to show demonstrable links, so where something is critical, it really is.
We believe passionately in the ability for category management to deliver significant benefit into organisations when managed well. The Category Management report and the underlying benchmarking capability allows organisations to plan their own improvements with the knowledge that they are focussed on the right stuff.
Download your copy of report preview here and request the full report: https://futurepurchasing-2434470.hs-sites.com/catman-preview
Further reading
Blog post: 10 years of world leading actionable category management research
Blog post: Insights into Category Management
About Mark Hubbard
Director
30+ years experience in procurement and supplier management, in line and consulting roles
Previous employment: Positive Purchasing Ltd, SITA,
QP Group, BMW, SWWS, Rover
Education: BSc in Engineering Metallurgy, MBA University of Plymouth
CIPS: Member
