Purchasing’s Role as an Influencer of Business Outcomes

General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the leader of the Allied Forces in World War II, once said that “the art of motivation is getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.” These are powerful and impactful words this leader uttered sometime right before the D-Day landings and constitutes the essence of what it means to be a purchasing influencer. As purchasing seeks to drive value from the supply base, progressive purchasing organizations recognized that they can only accomplish such goals through internal alignment and buy-in of functions within their business organization. To solve business challenges, purchasing needs to work with a cross-functional team and ensure that all team members understand the business strategy and agree on the plan to achieve the strategy is going forward. A purchasing influencer, in the context of this chapter, is an individual who has developed the capabilities to significantly impact the direction of business strategy, through the presentation of market intelligence, documented facts, and by providing meaningful decision options to executive leaders. The authors draw from key theoretical origins of purchasing influence and their practical experience in identifying the business objectives and structure required to build internal cross-functional coalitions to solve real business problems. Achieving success means that those invited to the team sincerely want to drive change. Purchasing develops from “command and control” structure, emphasizing that “purchasing owns the spend, and is calling the shots”, to a team member approach where “hearts and minds” are in it.