Insights & Updates

Today's Asia Pacific Procurement Landscape

over 4 years ago by Rob Wisdom / Back to all blogs

An Ethos BeathChapman perspective on hiring trends, team structures and skills to pipeline in today's Procurement talent market

Procurement is constantly evolving as companies look to drive efficiencies and effectiveness through their procurement functions. Transformation, optimisation, change management have been some of the buzzwords used to describe the procurement journey which has included organisation structures, capabilities, talent and technology.

How are Procurement functions structured?
The perception of procurement has been elevated over the past few years across the region, which has led companies to reassess their organisation chart and what the focus needs to be. This isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ structure and many factors need to be taken into account. Different industries vary in terms of spend amount, spend categories and spend complexities. Typical discussions have orientated around centralised vs decentralised procurement functions, category management teams and the effectiveness of Centres of Excellence (COE’s) / Shared Service Centres.

Talent pipeline: What key skill sets are companies looking for?
The talent pipeline is changing as is procurement as a function, which has led to some interesting trends within regional talent pools, including transformation specialists, procurement project managers, category leads and procurement analytical experts.

Across Asia Pacific, some companies have embraced technology and prioritised their own digital transformation. With new procurement technologies entering the market, it has created new opportunities within procurement, prompting the question, “How do we recruit for a role which hasn’t existed in procurement before?”

What’s next for Procurement?
In the short term and in response to COVID-19, many companies are going to look to their procurement functions to help get businesses back on track by identifying cost saving opportunities and managing key supplier relationships.

As we look further forward, companies will attempt to build more resilient procurement functions which are able to be agile and adaptable in difficult times. Many will continue to drive digital strategy (complementing some of the process implementations that were “forced upon” teams at the beginning of COVID-19), embracing new technologies to drive procurement change.

That said, the change will be softer. Rather than large scale procurement transformation, we believe many companies will opt for a continuous improvement model, making effective changes in key areas of the procurement function.

Our full 2020 APAC Procurement Landscape report offers a detailed analysis of hiring trends, team structures and in-demand skills to pipeline in today's Procurement talent market. Register your interest in the form above to receive a copy of this report.

If you are hiring across Asia Pacific or an interested procurement professional keen to discuss the recruitment landscape, we welcome your connection: Rob.Wisdom@ethosbc.com and Santhiya@ethosbc.com

About Ethos BeathChapman, EBC:
We are a global group of executive recruitment experts in Australia, Asia and EMEA, with a network beyond. We connect exceptional people to exceptional companies. Established 2005 in Sydney, our expertise in executive search and recruitment covers Supply Chain and Procurement, Banking and Financial Services, Technology, Legal, Risk, Compliance, Healthcare and Consumer markets, among others. For more information: www.ethosbc.com

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