Episode show notes
“You’ll start to think, ‘I’ll be making a sourcing decision against one of the biggest elements of our impact within the next few years, which might almost commit me already to 2030’. It’s about getting that into the decision making now.”
We often hear how our sector adds value, but seldom is it referred to explicitly as a revenue generator. With an ever-greater emphasis on ESG, setting environmental goals will very soon have a direct and tangible impact.
The CPO at KPMG, Martin Lee, started his staggering career at Ford, and is employing a new take on the Triple Bottom Line concept – People, Planet, Profit.
Martin joins his namesake and host of Talent Talks this week to consider how procurement measures its impact, where we have ground to cover in ESG targets, and how we can adapt our language to attract the best new talent.
This episode of Talent Talks covers:
- Martin’s approach to the triple bottom line concept
- Procurement’s role as a value & revenue creator
- Tangible steps to reducing environmental impact more favourably than carbon offsetting
- How diversity & inclusion plays a huge role in ESG goals
Episode highlights
“What have the last few years done for us? The impact of thinking through where price wasn’t the only point, savings wasn’t the only point, it was resilience, the supply chain, and how you can control the demand. That supports the profitability of the firm, or the ability to continue to trade as such, but it goes beyond measuring it as pure savings at that point.” – 2:00 – Martin Lee
“If you can broaden out what you include in that calculation, so that you can demonstrate the impact you’re having and what it really means down to the bottom line, then actually you’re widening the definition of price.” – 6:45 – Martin Lee
“We’ve got real targets about hitting net zero, and you either bring your product impact down, or pay for potentially an offset. That offset is real meaningful money, right? That money we can do something with, if we don’t just pay it out the door as an offset. So that’s a real opportunity to influence what we select.” – 9:00 – Martin Lee
“What we’ve got to do is focus on bringing the talent through. I’m really keen to work on the external networking piece to make sure we broaden out the attractiveness of procurement, to make sure that that talent pool grows and brings people in at graduate level.” – 14:00 – Martin Lee
“Perhaps we need to broaden the definition of what procurement is. Perhaps we need to think about the language we use so that it’s not about buying, it’s about commercial influence. Try to get people to understand that when you talk about what we’ve been talking about so far, it’s far different from just ‘How do I negotiate a deal?’” – 15:50 – Martin Lee
“The power of the consumer, the power of social media, and the power of people’s choice to basically either buy or not buy your products, are going to be hugely impacted by the decisions you make in terms of how you are choosing your supply chain – how ethical and environmentally friendly it is, the social impact of it.” – 22:45 – Martin Lee
“Procurement’s lens on Triple Bottom Line was product, price and profit. It was quite narrow. Overlay now the concept of people, planet and profit; that offers us a much broader opportunity. It’s both the people and the services and the impact of the people externally, but also the people internally and the diversity as we’ve talked about.” – 24:50 – Martin Lee
“Sometimes you’ll start to think, ‘Hang on a minute, I’m gonna be making a sourcing decision against one of the biggest elements of our impact within the next couple of years, which might almost commit me already to 2030’. So for me it’s about getting that into the decision making now.” – 28:15 – Martin Lee
“If we can broaden our commercial impact, we’re going to make ourselves more attractive, hopefully. We then need to bring people who choose procurement, or whatever it’s called, to come into the industry.” – 31:20 – Martin Lee
Links & References
- Martin Lee, Chief Procurement Officer at KPMG
https://www.linkedin.com/in/martin-lee-3837b015/
- KPMG
https://www.linkedin.com/company/kpmg-advisory/
- Martin Smith, Founder & Director of Talent Drive
https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinsmith2009/
