The key finding, for me at least, in Accenture’s latest corporate sustainability survey, was that most decision makers think that it’s currently more expensive to be a sustainable business. What they mean by this and whether they’re right raises some important problems.

"How can procurement make a difference?" That was the question Eva Wimmers, Deutsche Telekom’s CPO and SVP DT procurement, put to a room full of global procurement chiefs. The answer, she said, wasn’t as simple as it once was – functions need to change.

Former senior VP of sourcing and procurement at Nokia, Jean-Francois Baril has spent several years as one of the leading lights of the procurement world. David Rae caught up with this cerebral procurement veteran and asked him about some of the most important lessons he’s picked up from his time at the top.

Did you make a New Year’s resolution?

This time of year usually brings a focus on self-improvement with it. From our experience, when it comes to improvements in the procurement function, this is predominantly driven by the people in the function, their motivation and their skillset.

A lot of this is about ensuring that we align and standardise systems and processes to ensure that we leverage the scale of the company more effectively and reduce duplication of effort. This is in line with the efforts in the rest of the business where there is a strong focus to reduce duplication whilst ensuring flexibility to meet local market needs. But standardisation can have other applications, particularly in CSR.

Thought Leaders is a series of regular posts from experts from across industries and regions, looking at the issues procurement faces today. In this post Cable & Wireless CPO Charles Letizia asks some hard questions of procurement outsourcing and uncovers a new way of thinking about how it fits in with modern supply models.

The team at Procurement Leaders towers are very excited about the latest issue of the magazine – we’ve got exclusive interviews, global news, market analysis, case studies, articles from top global CPOs and more. So we thought we’d give those of you who don’t yet subscribe a sneak peek of what we’ve been up to.

Thought Leaders is a series of regular posts from experts from across industries and regions, looking at the issues procurement faces today. In this post Cable & Wireless CPO Charles Letizia looks at how procurement chiefs need to respond to changing business environments, the demands of their CEOs and one area where they can have a vital impact - the top line.

When Detlef Schultz, CEO of the Vodafone Procurement Company spoke on a Procurement Leaders Thought Leaders webinar last month about the journey the company has been on to attract and develop the best talent in its procurement organisation, it was with a mixture of pragmatism and ambition that he laid out his own ethos on talent management.

In this guest blog Effective Telecoms managing director David Rosenthal looks at what steps cost centre managers can take to control all aspects of their telecom expenditure. In particular, he sets his sights on smartphones...