Too often, procurement gets looped in after the big decisions: when budgets are set, tools are chosen, or vendors are already scoped. If you have a good Chief Procurement Officer, you want that person (and the team!) to be in all the key strategic leadership meetings. There is unique value and perspective procurement brings on sourcing, operational strategy, and market data that no one else has.

𝐬 𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔.𝐒. 𝐟𝐞𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐠𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐚 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐞𝐟 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐫? 🤔 Last week, President Trump signed the Executive Order titled “Restoring Common Sense to Federal Procurement.” It kicks off a sweeping reform of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), aiming to streamline how the government buys goods and services. But... FAR isn’t an organization...it's a rulebook. Think of it as the “procurement playbook” for federal agencies.

👀 Rumors are swirling about OpenAI & Windsurf (formerly Codeium) for $3B. Why would a model company buy an application-layer startup? 𝐃𝐀𝐓𝐀 Most valuable company data isn't public — it's buried in internal systems: codebases, procurement workflows, financial approvals, legal docs, slacks. Do you think a Fortune 500 company is going to put journal entry memos on Reddit for models to train?

The role of 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 and 𝐕𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐂𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬 isn’t all that different. Both are elite capital allocators—deploying 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦’𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘺 with the goal of maximizing return and minimizing risk. So why do people trust them with capital? Because they have: -Superior sourcing capabilities -Better assessment and scoring frameworks -Deeper risk mitigation strategies -A track record of delivering outsized returns

Last week, I came across David Kern's Keynote speech from Supply Chain Digital's event from London. If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth a watch. Dave highlights the crucial shift from viewing procurement as a mere compliance function to recognizing these teams as a strategic value driver. While there are certainly elements of compliance in procurement, the best procurement leaders in 2025 are helping business partners and projects succeed by: -Streamlining sourcing processes to accelerate project timelines. -Facilitating clear communication and negotiation to gain alignment from diverse stakeholders. -Optimizing costs through effective supplier management and contract negotiation.

𝗗𝗼 𝗽𝗹𝘂𝗴𝗶𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗱𝗱-𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝘅𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗹 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁? My take? Absolutely. More teams are updating their processes so that even requests tied to existing vendors still route through procurement. Why? • 𝗔𝗜 𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗸 𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 — legal, privacy, and security implications • 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 — visibility into future spend • 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘆 — accruals before the invoice hits • 𝗕𝘂𝗱𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗰𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 — making sure the budget owner is in the loop • 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗼𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 — procurement can align with the business on the use case