Crank It Up A Notch With AstraZeneca’s CPO

You don’t always have to reach for the stars in procurement! Sometimes it’s ok to crank it up one notch at a time. AstraZeneca CPO, Dapo Ajayi, explains why. 

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Career Boot Camp 2017 launches on 4th September, featuring podcasts  with 5 global CPOs. Sign up here (It’s FREE!) 

We’d never say it’s a bad thing for procurement pros to forever shoot for the stars. Especially when it comes to innovating with suppliers. But don’t be underestimating those smaller successes and achievements!

Dapo Ajayi, CPO AstraZeneca wants to remind you that it’s ok to crank things up one notch at a time! Smaller ideas carry a lot of weight through building trust, improving collaboration and creating opportunities for greater change further down the line.

In her Career Boot Camp podcast, Dapo also discusses what business acumen means to her in the context of procurement, how to better align procurement with business stakeholders and offers guidance on how to become a CPO.

Five days, five CPOs, five fifteen-minute podcasts to help you upgrade your procurement career. 

Featuring tips and guidance from the best in the business, each of our  CPOs will dedicate their week to coaching you on becoming the best procurement leader you can be!

On Day 3 of Career Boot Camp we turn our attentions to AstraZeneca’s CPO, Dapo Ajayi.

Need a little convinving before you sign up? Check out our teaser trailer below to hear what Dapo had to say in reponse to our quick-fire questions.

Crank It Up, One Notch At A Time

It’s understandable that procurement pros would want to impart huge change in their organisations. But to achieve big, you sometimes have to be realistic and start small, allowing the more subtle changes you make to accumulate into something bigger.

“I don’t want to leave listeners with the view that innovation and new ideas is about the big, massive opportunity in change,” says Dapo.  “I think that you can be just as successful in terms of bringing in some of the smaller ideas, the smaller innovations, that maybe just move the organisation a notch as opposed to the big-step change. I think both have a place in the modern corporate environment.

“Sometimes the small steps are the way in which you build the trust and you begin to build the relationship as collaboration, of idea generation, which maybe then lead to the bigger idea, the bigger opportunity further down the line.”

What Does Business Acumen Mean For Procurement Pros?

“Business acumen is the way in which an individual approaches their role. They view themselves as leaders, leaders of the business, and don’t just see themselves as an enabling function that’s just there to meet the needs of a particular set of stakeholders. They feel ownership for the business agenda.”

For Dapo, business acumen is very much about  understanding the core of the business, and its priorities. “What’s really important for me,  in terms of procurement professionals, are those  who are agile enough to consider how their procurement agenda is relevant to the business agenda. Those who can translate “procurement speak” to business-relevant language. That, to me, is business acumen.

“It may be that talking about the unit price saving is not going to engage a stakeholder, but talking about how you can simplify or reduce the lead time will.  This, at the end of the day, might also result in a price reduction or a savings in procurement speak. It achieves all the objectives. But it’s just not the place to start!”

“The other thing, for me, is individuals who demonstrate an enterprise mindset. I feel that procurement is uniquely placed to be able to make connections. Quite often, you can see individual business units and individual functions, trying to solve a problem.

“In procurement, you suddenly find that, actually, you’re not on their own. There are multiple parts of the business all trying to address the same challenge. Elevating that to maybe an enterprise challenge and enterprise issue and looking at an enterprise solution as opposed to just a solution to a function A or function B I think is really important.”

Listen to Dapo’s full podcast when you sign up to Procurious. Career Boot Camp 2017 launches on 4th September, featuring podcasts with 5 global CPOs. Sign up here (It’s FREE!) 

Already a member of Procurious? You’re automatically enrolled for Career Boot Camp! Click here to listen to Dapo’s podcast in full.