These Awards were to honour, recognise and promote best practice and leadership in procurement. Nominations from the five categories were judged with the help of our leading ProcureCon 2007 Advisory Board and the Editor of CPO Agenda. The winners were announced at the ProcureCon Gala Awards Dinner on 6th November, at Hotel Le Plaza in Brussels.
Award for People Development – WINNER: L'OREAL
Barbara Lavernos has led the Purchasing team of L'Oreal for almost three years. Since 2005, she has taken advantage of the increase of competitiveness in the market to completely reposition the role of Purchasing within probably one of the most marketing driven companies on earth. From a country-led purchasing organisation she put in place seven sourcing centres each focusing on a region or a business line. Following the new mandate of her CEO she has also focussed her team beyond the traditional Purchasing boundaries by also incorporating Innovation Execution, Risk Management and Corporate Social Responsibility in their objective. To support all these changes, Barbara has completed a full overhaul of her 400 person team. She has in a very short period of time recruited external people for senior roles, promoted high potentials from other functions within L'Oreal to key positions and last but not least she has organised a massive group wide training programme in which she has personally been involved from beginning to end. Today the Purchasing team of L'Oreal is one of the rising stars of the FMCG industry and one used as a benchmark by many other companies.
Award for Most Improved Purchasing Organisation – WINNER: MTN UGANDA
Five years ago MTN Uganda was practicing decentralized purchasing, where any staff in the organization would communicate to suppliers, and even make verbal orders to suppliers without going through the formal process & procedures. Now 99% of procurements are centrally managed with about 1% non-compliance, which can still be detected even at the final stage of the chain. The procurement department is now on top of all procurements, with a central financial system where all purchases are managed, guided by the company procurement policy. Purchasing Staff are duly trained to enhance their skills, through centralized and individual training deemed fit to their jobs. The introduction of strategic procurement is still a big challenge, and is being enrolled gradually through out the organization.
Award for Innovation – WINNER: EDP ENERGY GROUP
One of the main challenges facing EDP Purchasing & Negotiation Business Area was related to the quality and accuracy of their supplier data within their internal ERP back-office systems, as well as a lack of detailed information on supplier's capabilities. As EDP grew, the problem grew exponentially, through the acquisition of new companies from around the world, each with its own ERP and supplier processes. EDP's Supplier Qualification Department defined in 2005 a 4-level supplier qualification system, Sinergieconnect, that has since then been implemented across the EDP Group. Each supplier is assigned to one of the four risk levels depending on the complexity and/or strategic importance to EDP, of the products/services offered, starting at the lowest risk level, 1, where suppliers provide indirect, non-strategic product/services, to the highest risk level, 4, where suppliers provide strategically critical and complex products and services, directly associated with EDP's' core business. With the implementation of Sinergieconnect, the EDP group has now a unique, well-defined and systematic web based supplier registration and qualification process across the world starting in the local web pages of the Group companies, in compliance with the commodity management philosophy. The Sinergieconnect platform has also provided a means of harmonising the different registration and qualification policies and procedures that existed within each individual EDP Company.
Award for Corporate Responsibility – WINNER: L'OREAL
Ariane Thomas, as head of corporate "suppliers performance monitoring" has developed many different programmes to share with L'OREAL suppliers L'Oreal's values on CSR and has also implemented processes for supplier selection including CSR performance, applied by purchasers all around the world as a vast program of social audits. Three main examples to highlight her action and the huge impact inside L'OREAL: - 6 pages dedicated to the program in the annual sustainable report of L'OREAL - Specific presentation to the Executive committee of L'OREAL on the program - the first social audits (more than 1000 in the last 2 years) are paid by L'OREAL teams and not by the suppliers. The report of the audit is shared with the supplier at the same moment than L'OREAL people and the remediation plan is inclusive trying to pull the supplier on an active change. Training for suppliers was established in China. Ariane has truly implemented a "responsible sourcing" spirit in the purchasing team!
Procurement Leader Of The Year – WINNER: Colin Davis, Director of Supply Chain, E.ON UK
Colin was brought in to take E.ON UK procurement from a fragmented organisation – where procurement activity was embedded within each business unit, and almost subservient to the business as a whole – and transformed it into a single, dynamic, go-getting team that is purposeful, productive and supportive of its members. With an annual procurement budget of £1 billion, E.ON UK needed someone who had the gravitas, passion and know-how to inspire the team. Colin most definitely fits the bill. Colin knew that rapidly building positive and strong relationships within the E.ON UK procurement community would enable him to really understand current performance and establish key areas for improvement. He had a clear vision for the organisation and took time to build the foundations that would help E.ON UK purchasing to grow. A priority was recruitment – to attract the very best people for each and every job. Colin's X-Factor can best be summed up by a colleague: "Colin wears large rose-coloured spectacles, has extensive amounts of adrenalin and tells everyone they're great and that the world is their oyster. He paints a picture of how a good world can be great and then takes the first steps towards that new world, encouraging others to follow. It's good to see that some people don't need banned or addictive substances to get high!"
For further information about the ProcureCon Awards, visit the website at www.procurecon-awards.com