From Vision to Practice
When Aneesh Venkataraman, Director ProcureX at Dentsply Sirona, joined the stage at CPO Outlook 2025, it wasn’t theory he brought. It was a living example of how a global organization can bring structure, technology, and people together to manage supplier risk at scale.
Having already shared his story earlier in the spring during EBG | Xperience Gothenburg, Aneesh continued that reflection in Stockholm. From the questions and curiosity of peers to the lessons learned from building a risk framework that actually works.
A Program Built to Last
At the center of Dentsply Sirona’s journey are three pillars:
1. Standard Operating Procedure – clarity on scope, categories, and processes.
2. Data & Technology – connecting internal and external insights into one view.
3. Change Management & Governance – ensuring adoption through training, sponsorship, and trust.
As he shared, the challenge was never only about data. It was about making it usable. By linking key pieces of internal data, the team could translate abstract risk scores into business impact — “what this means for us.”
Pragmatism and Transparency
Many questions from the audience reflected a shared struggle:
- How do you secure buy-in across functions?
- How much data is “enough”?
- How do you ensure that mitigation actions lead to impact, not just better scores?
Aneesh’s answers were pragmatic. Start small, involve the people who own the data, and make progress visible. “Our North Star is clear for now, but that constantly evolves as landscape shifts,” he said, “and we’re working steadily in that direction.”
He described how internal alignment and executive sponsorship have been key — supported by a procurement curriculum and open hours to build awareness and ownership across teams. The focus, he explained, is not on scores but on continuity. “How do we protect revenue and business resilience through the choices we make?”
Reflections from the Room
The dialogue that followed showed how relevant this topic has become. Delegates asked about data quality, automation, and indirect thresholds — but many questions came back to behavior and ownership. Who creates data? Who acts on it? How do we make risk everyone’s responsibility?
EBG | Xperience Gothenburg Mapping
That discussion echoed the spring’s EBG | Xperience GBG mappings on Supplier Risk Maturity and Risk Data vs Actionability. Most organizations rated themselves as “trying but still manual,” and “limited but sharp.” Aneesh’s story showed what it looks like to move beyond that — by connecting what you have today with how you act tomorrow.
What Comes Next
Looking ahead, Aneesh highlighted three areas of focus:
– Deepening cross-functional collaboration across Procurement and other functions.
– Improving data quality and tier-2+ visibility without adding complexity.
– Continuing automation that frees time for human judgment and decision-making.
In a world where risk is constant and data volumes grow by the hour, his message was reassuringly simple: use what you have, connect people to purpose, and keep learning.
Networking with EBG
These conversations continue beyond the stage. Join us for CPO Outlook 2026 in Stockholm on October 14–15, and for the EBG | Xperience 2026 Focus Days. There, leaders like Aneesh and their peers turn shared experience into collective action.