Procurement Roundtable Takeaways: Lana Williams

Recently, we hosted our first breakfast roundtable for procurement professionals at The Happenstance with Lana Williams, our senior client partnership manager. This intimate setting enabled us to discuss the main pain points for procurement teams particularly when it comes to managing internal relationships as well as those with suppliers, such as WeShape.

We identified that having procurement champions within the business is the best way to educate teams and foster good relationships so they are seen as both enablers and protectors of the business. This is most effective when adopting a top-down approach from leadership. Everyone agreed that the sooner procurement teams are looped into the hiring conversation, the smoother the process is.

The goal is to actively change the narrative so that procurement processes are built to reduce silos and enhance communication, this stimulates organisational trust and collaborative relationships, instead of procurement departments being seen as a bottleneck.

From the start of the engagement, suppliers also have a responsibility to understand the process to promote proactive internal relationships within their clients’ organisations to create a dynamic and engaging partnership.In addition to discussing relationships, we looked at companies’ ESG intentions, volunteering opportunities such as working in soup kitchens, donating to food banks and helping out in local schools. We debated the definition and commonality of greenwashing. We look forward to exploring this more in future sessions and encouraging our team to frequently participate in community outreach via our charity partners East London Business Alliance.