Category Strategy Development Process - How to create a category strategy?

Creating category strategies is seen as ‘value creation’ within Procurement organizations. While it is on the top of the agenda to have category strategies in place – at least for the most strategic categories – companies very often lag behind their plans. And typically, we see category strategies are not created at all, only partially or without a structured and standardized approach across the company.

This training provides a structure on how to create a Category Strategy. It not only shares the process and what needs to be done, but also shows examples along the way.

  • Session 1 focuses on the internal analysis which is the first step. It covers elements like preparing the team, creating spend and demand analysis, understanding requirements and creating a contract overview
  • Session 2 focuses on the external analysis. Elements that are considered here are on how to do a supply market trend analysis, creating a supplier landscape and getting transparency on costs (TCO and cost break down)
  • Session 3 covers the actual creation of the category strategy by applying value levers and on how to plan the next step after prioritized initiatives have been selected for implementation.

As a part of this training, we’ll also be covering an actual use-case, where - utilizing category strategy helped a fortune 500 company to maximizes value, efficiency, quality, as well as mitigate short and long-term risks.


WHO SHOULD ATTEND

This course will greatly benefit you if you are a procurement professional:

  • With tough savings targets and/or high business demands
  • Looking to accelerate your development and career progression
  • Who is an experienced, senior practitioner wishing to update or refresh your procurement knowledge and skills and support your team in becoming more strategic and effective

The course will also benefit other business functions who have procurement as part of their role or who often partner with procurement:

  • Sales professionals looking to understand the thought-process of the procurement function
  • Professionals looking to learn from and network with other like-minded professionals