Reading about the projects undertaken by the winners of this year’s Procurement Leaders Awards gives a sense of just how far procurement has come in just a few years and how the function continues to evolve.

A topic touched on by all our guest speakers at the World Procurement Congress was the education of procurement professionals and what skills they will need to become the leaders of the future.

Marc Engel, CPO of consumer goods giant Unilever, took to the stage at the World Procurement Congress to talk about how he has created the ‘headroom’ in his function to allow for true strategic procurement.

Over the last week world headlines has been dominated by the news of the collapse of a garment factory complex in Bangladesh, leading to questions about the effectiveness of supplier audits.

Dr. Copper, as its known to some, provides analysts with an indication into the health of the global economy while to others, specifically CPOs, it is a material that is integral to the goods they produce.

The bailout of Cyprus has once more put nerves on end in Europe, meanwhile a handful of commodities have leapt upwards in an otherwise calm week.

Tensions between the European Union (EU) and China have heightened recently following reports of alleged demands being made by EU trade officials, begging the question of what effect government intervention has on global sourcing.

There has been a lot of debate recently about whether the outsourcing trend is finally grinding to a halt and companies are now looking to insource, bringing back those manufacturing or administrative operations they sent out to be managed abroad.

The appetite for procurement teams to invest in new technology is there but the question is into what systems is it going and will this appetite ever wane? Surely once a technology has helped you achieve a particular goal, say managing your spend or collecting e-tenders, there’s no need for a new one.

The lengthening of supplier payment terms has been a hot topic recently with governments and industry groups consistently criticising businesses for doing so. Is it now time for CPOs to consider the consequences of such action?