At CPO Outlook 2025, one theme dominated the conversations across roundtables, workshops, and keynotes: the workload keeps growing, but expectations grow even faster. CPOs and procurement leaders across industries spoke of fragmented data, limited resources, and expanding demands from the business. These demands include resilience, sustainability, innovation, and now AI.
Against that backdrop, Yannick Thiry, Partner at Bain & Company and former CPO, delivered a keynote that cut through the noise. He described, with precision, how procurement’s scope has expanded beyond recognition. Additionally, he explained why this moment could finally anchor the function at the center of business value creation.
The accelerating pressure on procurement
“The pressure on procurement has been mounting, accelerating in the last five years since COVID,” Yannick said. He described the combination of external shocks — geopolitical instability, inflation, supply volatility, and new compliance rules. There are also rising internal demands for faster cycles, sharper forecasting, and growth enablement.
Procurement is expected to absorb external shocks and deliver internal value at the same time — a dual role that defines the new normal.
Disruption is the new normal for procurement.
Yannick Thiry, Bain & Company
From value enabler to enterprise orchestrator
Procurement has already evolved once — from a cost gatekeeper to a value enabler. But according to Bain, the next evolution is larger in scope: procurement becoming an enterprise‑wide strategic platform.
That shift will be driven by three structural forces: GenAI at the core; outcome‑based ownership; and ecosystem integration. Procurement will act as the connective tissue between suppliers, partners, and business units.
A glimpse five years ahead
Bain expects procurement to evolve toward frictionless marketplaces. Enterprise control towers will integrate spend, risk, sustainability, and innovation. Highly automated functions will execute repeatable activities with minimal human intervention. Each requires action now. This includes choosing which categories to automate, engaging business leaders early, and investing in digital foundations.
Procurement’s widening mandate
Traditional priorities — cost, inventory, portfolio support — remain. But new ones have already joined them: real sustainability, supplier resilience, design‑to‑cost innovation, and stronger ecosystem partnerships.
Old world priorities will still be around, but numerous new expectations will add to them.
Yannick Thiry, Bain & Company
From discussion to direction
Yannick’s closing message resonated strongly across CPO Outlook’s two days: “Yesterday was the best time to begin. Today is the second best.” Progress beats perfection — procurement’s relevance will come from experimenting, proving value, and scaling what works.
CPO Outlook 2025 confirmed what Yannick articulated: procurement’s task list has exploded, but so has its potential impact. Becoming a strategic platform isn’t a slogan — it’s a survival strategy for a function absorbing more complexity than ever before.
Experience exchange with EBG | Network
As the discussion about procurement’s evolving mandate continues, we invite you to join us at CPO Outlook 2026, taking place in Stockholm on October 14–15. Together with senior Nordic procurement leaders, we’ll explore how strategy, structure, and capability intersect in this next phase of transformation.
You can also follow the development of next year’s EBG | Xperience sessions held in March and April across Helsinki, Stockholm and Malmö — smaller, hands-on workshops designed to turn ideas into actions