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Why we need to advance Procurement

Creating a brand that inspires & drives action

The term advance procurement is not necessarily part of the standard vocabulary of a Procurement professional. It simply refers to the act of buying something in advance. Nevertheless, the term works on multiple dimensions and automatically creates a psychological association with something more powerful, which makes it an attractive brand name.

The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers. It is an intangible asset intended to create distinctive images and associations in the minds of stakeholders, thereby generating economic value.

A brand for Procurement

Dividing advance procurement into its two components, we are looking at advance and Procurement.

Advance (/ədˈvɑːns/) is a very powerful verb that is defined as 'moving forward in a purposeful way' or as 'make or cause to make progress.' It's energetic, positive, purposeful, driven, and has a clear objective and direction. 

Procurement (/prəˈkjʊəmənt/) refers to 'the action of obtaining or procuring something.' It is not necessarily a word people outside of a business and corporate context are familiar with. And while it is purposeful as well, it is not very inspiring.

This changes when we start thinking of Procurement as the profession that is managing all external spending of an organization, the department that has a direct impact on the bottom line, and the people that drive strategic business objectives by engaging with the external supply base.

Looking at it this way, Procurement is nothing less than the profession we love. And Procurement professionals are the audience we want to engage with and cater to. 

 

Our mission is to Advance Procurement

By putting the two words together, we are creating a very powerful Call to Action, which we decided to make our mission. We want to move Procurement forward in a purposeful way by progressing the capabilities, digital tools, and impact Procurement can have on an organization and its stakeholders - we want to Advance Procurement.

We believe that there is still work to be done and progress to be made when it comes to increasing the maturity of Procurement. We focus our Procurement services on three key areas in which our experience and reputation can help Procurement organizations unlock operational efficiency, bottom-line savings, and sustainable value.

  1. Increasing Procurement Performance through advanced sourcing & negotiations
  2. Boosting operational efficiency through the digitalization of processes and tasks
  3. Improving the value delivery in indirect spend categories through benchmarking and strategic sourcing

“Procurement has not yet lived up to its full potential. Asking for a seat at the table and waving a Procurement policy into the face of our stakeholders will never get us there. We need to deliver value that organizations can’t and don’t want to live without to raise the profile of Procurement. And we want to give Procurement the skills and tools to achieve that”

Fabian Lampe, Founder of Advance Procurement

By also working with Procurement solution providers, we want to ensure that they provide insightful and impactful content to our highly specialized audience that educates, entertains, and furthers our profession.

And as a brand consists of more than a name, we tried to apply the same forward-thinking perspective used in the name to our logo, the visual element that helps recognize our brand. Inspired by the fast-forward logo of music and movie players, we created a modern logo with rounded corners and vibrant colors that is easy to recognize and jumps out of supplier overviews.

If our attitude, thinking, and approach sound interesting and you would like to learn more, please contact us to discuss how we can advance your Procurement transformation together.

About Advance Procurement

Advance Procurement is a boutique consultancy that supports Procurement organizations of SMEs and Fortune 500 companies to conduct savings & process opportunity assessments, create and execute sourcing strategies, develop agile operating models and select the right technology to help Procurement get ready for the future and create sustainable value.