BEST BUY
From reactive to strategic: the procurement transformation journey When Anna joined Best Buy in 2021, she inherited a procurement function that was fundamentally transactional in nature. While the team was competent in executing core sourcing and contracting activities, it lacked the strategic vision and capabilities needed to drive competitive advantage.
“ I was recruited to transform the organisation,” she explains.“ The organisation at that point in time was more of a reactive, transactional team who did really good work servicing the business. What was missing was innovation and insights that enabled our businesses to actually have a competitive advantage.”
Anna’ s mandate was clear: transform procurement from a reactive function into a strategic partner through improvements in people, processes and technology. This comprehensive transformation would require significant changes to how the function operated, from redefining its core value proposition to revolutionising its technological infrastructure.
Redefining procurement value The first and perhaps most critical step in Best Buy’ s procurement transformation, labelled‘ Propel’, was redefining what value meant for the function.
While cost optimisation remained a core objective with specific targets, the transformation expanded procurement’ s value proposition significantly.
“ The traditional definition of procurement value is cost transformation and cost optimisation,” Anna shares.
“ That, for us, is still one of our goals and we are measured against it, but we’ re not doing that at the cost of trade-offs.”
“ We want to make sure we provide spent optimisation for quality and for benefit to the business, but that’ s only a very small sliver of what we do.”
Best Buy’ s procurement team now delivers value through strategic insights, innovation, technology enablement and building genuine strategic partnerships, rather than managing transactional engagements. This comprehensive value proposition has become the foundation of the function’ s new identity.
6 bestbuy. com