Last week Ardent Partners hosted its fourth annual CPO Rising Summit at Boston’s Harvard Club where CPOs and senior procurement leaders gathered to discuss best practices, learn about emerging market trends, and collaborate with like-minded peers. All in, there were over 150 attendees from across North America that took part.
The event featured nearly two dozen procurement luminaries from large corporations around the globe (and across many industries), tackling a vast array of topics within the world of supply management. These executives, from Johnson & Johnson, DuPont, Rio Tinto, athenahealth, Gillette, Veolia, TripAdvisor, Carbonite, Ford, PPG Industries, Kaleido BioSciences, and many more spoke about:
- Expanding Procurement’s Value (this year’s event theme)
- Data-driven procurement strategies
- The role of innovation in today’s procurement function
- Designing and building the optimal procurement operation (and procurement transformation)
- The Future of Work
What struck me most about this year’s event was not only the experience and deep subject knowledge of the presenters but more so their genuine interest in sharing their best practices and lessons learned along the way to the senior management positions they now hold. Their willingness to entertain questions from attendees, impart advice, and offer to collaborate both on-sight and after the conference was refreshing and encouraging to see.
This year, as we do every year, the event featured a CPO Honors Gala where Ardent Partners presented awards for outstanding performance and execution in the last year – “The CPO Honors” – to a variety of high achievers including Chief Procurement Officers and other procurement leaders, procurement teams, and also solution providers in the space. This year we received well over 100 nominations from around the globe. The ‘CPO Honors’ were presented in 6 categories. Just below you can see the categories and award winners:
The Innovation Award: – presented to the CPO and team that have used new and innovative strategies and approaches to overcome significant hurdles.
WINNER: Anu Saxena, Senior Vice President and Global Head for Hilton Supply Management (HSM) and the HSM Team
The Technology Excellence Award: T- presented to the CPO and team that have leveraged technology solutions to impact procurement operations and performance.
TIE – WINNER: Andrea Greco, Chief Procurement Officer, CBRE
TIE – WINNER: Jorge Martín Torres Pérez, Strategic Procurement Director, Coca-Cola FEMSA
Best Team Performance Award: – presented to the procurement department that has excelled across the full scope of procurement operations to make a significant impact on overall enterprise results.
WINNER: Highmark Health Global Procurement & Payables Team
The Leadership Award (CPO of the Year): – presented to the CPO who has driven new performance heights as a result of their direct involvement and leadership and overall exceptional executive management.
WINNER: Greg Tennyson, Head of Global Corporate Services, VSP Global
Innovative Solution of the Year: – presented to the solution provider who most significantly impacted the market with innovative solutions.
WINNER: BuyerQuest
Best Technology Partnership: – presented to the best partnership between a solution provider and their procurement team customer on to a technology deployment.
WINNER: Scout RFP and Biogen
Also part of the CPO Honors Gala was the announcement of this years’ inductees into The CPO Rising Hall of Fame Class of 2019. Each year, The CPO Rising Hall of Fame inducts up to three procurement leaders who have differentiated themselves and their organizations by a blend in leadership in innovation, executive stewardship, process excellence, and dedication to their craft. This year’s inductees were:
James L. Polak, former Director, General Purchasing, PPG Industries, Inc.
Uldis Sipols, Former CPO Gillette, Danaher, AMP, Sonoco; Executive at P&G and Ford
Listening to their acceptance speeches, what struck me most was not only their many successes, accomplishments, and trails blazed during their long and distinguished careers, but also how they credited the people and teams around them for their achievements through the years. Not surprisingly, both inductees said none of what they accomplished would have been possible without the love, support and understanding of their spouses and families. There was also a selflessness about both inductees that impressed me, both still very much care about their profession and welcomed those in attendance at the event to connect and collaborate with them going forward.
At the event, I had the honor of presenting a session on “The State of ePayables – the ‘Other’ P in P2P. I have to admit, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect presenting a session on Accounts Payables to an audience of mostly Procurement professionals. I didn’t know if anyone from Procurement would be interested in attending an ‘AP’ session, and second, if they did, how much they would know (and care) about AP and its inner workings.
Well, much to my surprise, I was greeted with a packed room of roughly 50 procurement professionals who not only knew what AP was J but were also extremely familiar with the function and its’ importance to a successful P2P process. To be honest, it was one of the liveliest sessions I have ever given in my career. There were so many insightful questions and discussions during the session that I only made it through about half of the material I was prepared to present. What I learned was that senior procurement truly understand the significance that automating the AP function plays in delivering value to the greater enterprise goals and objectives. Not only that, senior procurement leaders also understand the importance of collaborating with AP which is something that Ardent Partners has long been advising is clients’ and practitioner community to adopt in order to achieve real and lasting success. Although still a year away, I am eagerly looking forward to my AP presentation at our 2020 CPO Rising Summit next October in Boston.
