Our Expertise
Procurement Category Management Experts
“Influence the Future” – The 2024 Global Category Management Report
Equip yourself with the knowledge and tools needed for tomorrow’s challenges.
- Strategic Focus: Gain insights into top practices that drive improvements.
- Value Delivery: See how leaders maximise value beyond expectations.
- Team Efficiency: Deliver twice the value, with half the resources.
- Industry Benchmarking: Assess how you measure up to industry standards.
- Expert Knowledge: Extract actionable advice from leading global case studies.
Category Management experts who help you develop strategies that deliver broad value and sustainable market-leading performance at the heart of long-term procurement value delivery.
€112m
Organisations that have fully optimised category management can achieve as much as €112m savings plus sector leading benefits in risk reduction and revenue increase.
€62m
€62m per €1bn of spend is the average amount organisations can expect to extract when category management is fully embedded.
500%
Building and implementing category management capability typically delivers an ROI greater than 500%.
We are global Category Management experts who deliver value well beyond cost savings
Many organisations that claim to have adopted a category management approach have simply organised their teams into category groupings. They focus on volume consolidation and competitive tension, and rarely have they trained their teams in category strategy development and implementation.
Those organisations that have optimised and embedded category management have transformed procurement teams into influential commercial experts and trusted business partners. They see a step change in the scale and range of value opportunities they help their organisations to identify and implement.
Co-creation in Category Management is fundamental for greater value
Its value lies in deep collaboration with stakeholders and alignment to their requirements. These behaviours result in the widest possible range of value levers being accessed for each category – covering cost reduction, risk reduction, sustainability and revenue improvement.
Other performance outcomes that will be improved:
Significant uplift in stakeholder satisfaction and engagement: With co-creation of category strategies at the heart of the approach, stakeholder’s understanding, motivation and commitment increases dramatically.
Speed and quality of strategy creation and implementation: Support from motivated and committed stakeholders ensures that relevance and quality of category management strategies increases, as does implementation success.
Increase in procurement capability and professionalism: Improvements in category management specific learning and behaviours can be measured through assessments with managers and peers.
Boost in category manager confidence: Operating as a trusted advisor to stakeholders is a key aim for category managers, and by using category management effectively they report increased confidence in working with stakeholders.
Our approach to Category Management
Operating since 2003, Future Purchasing are global category management experts, building and implementing category management strategies that deliver broad value and sustainable market-leading performance.
We know what good looks like
We have developed and we own the world’s largest and most targeted benchmark data on the key success factors that deliver exceptional category management outcomes. This gives us a unique window into what ‘good’ looks like, and our clients benefit from the fact that we continually refresh our approach based on these insights.
Tried and tested methodologies and toolkit
Applying our unique Track8 process and toolkit, we create a customised way of working, involving ‘how to’ guides, templates, communication and governance tools. In conjunction with our specialist advice and steering, we embed one way of working that delivers a permanent change in business performance.
Shifting mindsets
Using the intelligence from our data and our 19+ years of experience of implementing category management in global organisations, our consultants help client teams drive innovation and balance strategic and tactical impact from board level to category manager.
We combine coaching, mentoring, peer learning and real life projects with interactive workshops. Individuals are supported to practice, use and permanently adopt new skills – becoming experts in category strategy, implementation and stakeholder engagement.
Our consultants excel at: shifting mindsets: developing capability: engaging stakeholders: role modelling best practice.
“Combining leadership skills with the challenges we face on a day-to-day basis with our teams and category management projects is incredibly powerful.“
Global mining company
How we can work with you to maximise procurement alignment to deliver sustainable outcomes, improved SRM and competitive advantage
Our purpose is to ensure our clients achieve the performance outcomes available to the world’s best category management teams.
For Leadership Teams
We use our learnings from more than 90 category management implementations and our unique research to build consensus on the custom operating model required for a sustainable category management capability. This is the foundation that is so often missing when category management is implemented.
For Category Managers
Future Purchasing’s tailored learning programmes equip category managers with the technical and behavioural skills they need to identify and capture all opportunities that lead to value delivery. Through this training they build an understanding of category management techniques and strategies and learn how to implement them.
Integrated services to change procurement behaviour
Our consultants’ wealth of experience means we know what combinations of coaching, training and consultancy will achieve sustained behaviour change and deliver maximum value from your procurement team. We customise our three core services to fit your team’s requirements.
Procurement Consultancy
We fill gaps in procurement teams where in-house capability is missing. We undertake planning and strategic alignment activities where there is no internal resource.
Procurement Coaching
Our experts lead virtual or face-to-face classroom events by introducing the key tools and concepts of strategic alignment. Participants build their own strategic alignment plans.
Procurement Training
We work on real strategic alignment projects, providing coached planning support and facilitating key meetings with stakeholders to ensure that tools are applied correctly.
Other areas of expertise
Strategic Alignment
Aligning procurement activity with broader business strategy delivers sustainable outcome, improved stakeholder engagement and competitive advantage
Supplier Management
Systematically unlock the best performance and value from your supplier relationships
Procurement Negotiation
Maximising procurement negotiation outcomes through great planning, technique and alignment with category and supplier strategies
Latest Procurement Insights
Be the first to benefit from our Guides, Blogs and Case Studies for best practice in Category Management, Supplier Management, Negotiation and Transformation for the Procurement community.
