Are You One of Procurement’s Game Changers?

As disruption is increasingly recognised as a strategic business skill, being one of the game changers is a highly coveted role.

In a world increasingly recognising ‘disruption’ as a strategic business skill, where an army of highly talented and ambitious professionals are fighting their way to the front line in the war for talent, the idea of being identified as a ‘game changer’ is quite coveted.

After all, we all want to get named on the high potential talent list, don’t we?

Game Changers – A Bad Thing?

That was the premise that started the procurement talent discussion at the Productivity in Pharma Think Tank in London. But then there was a revelation.

Despite media hype and discussions at high brow HR think tanks about these ‘unicorns’ – game changing individuals – it turns out that being a game changer isn’t necessarily a good thing.

You see, what most large organisations actually want are executives who can execute the strategy and implement. In other words – get stuff done. What has been discovered is that game changers can sometimes lack EQ, and have the potential to bulldozer their way through an organisation, eventually proving themselves to actually be too disruptive.

Those organisations who actually do need a disruptive or transformative force are now separating out these individuals from the rest of the pack, and placing them in “garages”, “incubators” and “shark tanks”, to use their unique skill sets for good, not evil.

Increasing Collaboration

In fact, well known procurement search and interim consultants, Langley, put forward a case that procurement should actually be the “great integrators”.

“Today’s procurement professionals need to integrate the link between company, suppliers and the environment. They need to be able to bring the outside, in,” said the Managing Director of Langley, Cristina Langley.

In talking about the talent he is trying to attract to his organisation, Tyson Popp, CPO at Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, further reinforced this need for an increasingly collaborative style. Popp mentions that he is looking for talent with “an intellectual curiosity and a need to connect across the organisation”.

The Science Bit

The good news is there is some science behind this debate. The Game Changer Index (GC Index®) has been created by eg.1’s CEO Nathan Ott, and Chief Psychologist Dr John Mervyn-Smith, in collaboration with Professor Adrian Furnham at UCL.

The Index was developed in response to client demand for a more useful way of identifying people who could implement transformation. It was born from a frustration with the way that traditional tools, such as Belbin and Myers-Briggs, neglected this special group of talent.

The team believed that Game Changers were fundamentally different from ‘High Potentials’ and ‘Traditional Leaders’, and would not be identified by existing, antiquated assessment tools. This was an issue for businesses searching for individuals who could drive transformational change.

This was the foundation for the development of The GC Index. The tool, through several phases of research, highlighted the ways in which individuals differed in terms of Imagination and Obsession. Those high on both emerged as the Game Changers.

Applications in Procurement

Despite me having given game changers a bad rap earlier in this story, and given that my personal mission is to change the face of procurement globally, I really do hope we have a lot of CPOs out there who are game changers. That is, transformational leaders who can deliver paradigm-shifting change. The real issue is how best to enable them to succeed in a structured environment.

The GC Index® identifies these dynamic individuals, but has evolved to also assess four other profiles, which are equally valuable and are necessary to ensure genuine, long term, game-changing transformation.

These profiles could apply to anyone within your procurement team. However, I thought for demonstration purposes I would share my thoughts on what the generic procurement roles for these profiles could be:

• The Strategist – This could be Category Leaders. They have an ability to analyse patterns and trends. They will be most comfortable leading by giving a focus to action, through direction and purpose.

• The Implementer – This profile could best be characterised as sourcing professionals and transactional (P2P, etc.) executives.  They are essentially task-focused individuals, driven by a need for tangible achievements. These are the leaders who will be in the ‘thick of the action’, and get on with things.

• The Polisher – These people lead through setting standards, and could therefore be best characterised by our Compliance and Procurement Process Excellence leaders. They are demanding of themselves and others. Their mantra will be, “If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well”. They instil belief in people in action, and in the possibility of a better world. This definitely sounds like our best practice procurement leaders!

• The Play Maker – This probably epitomises the poster-child version of the modern-day procurement professional. Perfectly placed right in the intersection of all four profiles, this individual is interested in people and relationships. They are, therefore, best equipped to take on the all-important task of stakeholder engagement, but also managing upwards (C-level) and outwards (supply markets). Play Makers at their best will lead through building productive relationships and helping others to do the same.

Apparently Richard Branson is a playmaker – not only driving outcomes, but making sure the whole experience is enjoyable, even potentially playful! (Heaven forbid in procurement!)

Making a Contribution

So the real question is, how do you develop your skills to maximise your success in this new corporate reality?

The good news from eg.1 is that you don’t necessarily fit into one box. Their data shows that while some individuals have a dominant profile, they also have an ability to ‘flex’, moving, for example, from being a Strategist, when the situation demands it, to being an Implementer.

The other good news is that just about all leadership styles can work. You just need to understand what your style is and play to your strengths. And as Nathan Ott commented at this year’s Big Ideas Summit:

“Not everyone can be a Game Changer, but everyone can make a Game Changing contribution.”

The Productivity in Pharma Think Tank brings together a conclave of senior procurement leaders from the Pharmaceutical industry, creating a unique, mini-MBA style environment, where the most pressing issues facing the function are explored in detail and, from which, key insights and applicable takeaways are derived.

You can find out more about this event at The Beyond Group website, and connect with the event hosts and facilitators Giles Breault (@GilesBreault) and Sammy Rashed (@RashedSammy) on social media.