How can procurement professionals find opportunities during lockdown to step-up, showcase value and get to the top table where perhaps they were struggling before? In this episode of Talent Talks, Martin Smith welcomes Leigh Kopec, Head of Procurement and Contract Management at The Royal British Legion.
He provides insights into the tactics and strategies he has put into place to adapt to needs in a pandemic, including redeploying team members to other categories, collaborating with other charities to source PPE for their care homes and identifying and managing risk.
Leigh discusses leaving a “procurement legacy” after the lockdown, and using it as a time to evaluate contracts and suppliers, complete personal development training, and open up the pool of talent available to you as an organisation.
This episode of Talent Talks covers:
- Leading the way in digital procurement technology in the charity sector
- Due diligence around PPE sourcing in the UK
- Adapting to virtual fundraising and finding new sources
- Reacting to demands within care homes
- Opportunities for procurement experts to step-up during a crisis
Links & References:
- Talent Drive: https://talentdrive.co.uk/
- Martin Smith: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinsmith2009/
- Leigh Kopec: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leigh-kopec-fcips-chartered-91b32b14
- Royal British Legion: https://www.britishlegion.org.uk/
Episode Highlights:
“I think the charity sector is quite good in terms of work life balance, and people are quite used to home working. I’ve always supported flexible working, I’ve always said it’s about output not being stuck at your desk. So I think it’s a good thing, I think it’ll help attract better talent in the future and if this continues, it helps open up the talent market probably a bit more geographically.” Leigh Kopec – 3.28
“Procurement has got to be really careful about where PPE is coming from. There’s lots of new suppliers suddenly cropping up, particularly for hand sanitizer. People that are doing something completely different have suddenly started providing PPE. So I think the due diligence required around where people are sourcing from is actually a higher risk of whether they can get it or not. So that has been the real challenge for us because actually we found loads of sources of supply but the cost fluctuates probably 500%, from top to bottom, so there is profiteering certainly and people are seeing it as an opportunity.” Leigh Kopec – 9.37
“We’ve been trying to work with other charities. So one of the initiatives we’ve been working on is setting up a charity PPE buying group actually using some furloughed procurement professionals from other industries to lead that piece of work. So there’s a central hub now, I think there’s 25 charities now signed up, and that’s growing. It’s a means of sharing information. Hopefully using the collaborative buying power of all charities, because as individual charities our needs are relatively small and in the grand scheme of things, but by putting that together, we can deal with the biggest suppliers that have only been interested in the NHS, big companies or directly with the manufacturer. So hopefully it’s given us a bit of leverage.” Leigh Kopec – 10.26
“I think in times of crisis like this, it can really bring out the best in people. I think people have an innate desire to help. So we’ve seen a lot of donations for us. Physical donations of PPE, and other things like that, food as well for our care homes. The furlough group offering their time voluntarily to support the sector. So I think collaboration, is hopefully a really big positive that will come out of this.” Leigh Kopec – 13.07
“An increased focus and understanding on the value that procurement can bring as risk managers for a business, not just that traditional view of cost reduction. So really understanding procurement and managing a large proportion of what we do as an organisation here through our supply chain, they really got their finger on us being able to add value and avoid risk. I think it’s going to really raise the profile of procurement in organisations hopefully and help procurement get to the top table where perhaps they were struggling before. Along with that another traditional view of procurement is around slowing down and bottlenecks and things and hopefully procurement have been able to demonstrate agility, and that they can kind of alleviate some of those issues and actually find solutions to problems quite quickly. “ Leigh Kopec – 15.23
“I think it really is an opportunity to step up and I hope the procurement people and teams are, using it as an opportunity not to sit back and relax but to be really proactive, find value, identify risk, find opportunities. There’s lots of services, you’re probably paying for, where it’s a good time to revisit those contracts, you’re not getting those services. Lots of opportunities to add value for your Finance Director also manage the risk for the rest of the organisation.” Leigh Kopec – 19:51
