The Strategic Future Procurement Leaders Are Ready to Build
Based on CPO Outlook 2025 Survey | 58 procurement leaders from 47 Nordic companies
Analytical Note: Anna Bjärkerud, founder of EBG | Network, has a behavioral science-focused Bachelor’s degree with emphasis on how social construction can help explain resistance to organizational change. The following analysis examines these open-ended survey responses through that lens-exploring how new practices can construct new professional identities, and how collective articulation of these practices begins the process of making them legitimate and real.
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Next, after articulating what they’d stop doing, procurement leaders painted a remarkably coherent picture of what they’d start. These weren’t vague aspirations-they were specific practices through which procurement could construct a new professional identity. Collectively, these responses describe not just a different way of working, but a different way of being procurement.
What emerges is a vision of procurement as a strategic orchestrator-and what’s powerful is that leaders aren’t just imagining this identity, they’re ready to enact it through concrete practices: building ecosystems, leveraging data intelligence, architecting processes, and focusing human expertise on relationships and long-term value creation. Identity emerges through practice. These leaders are defining the practices that will construct procurement’s future identity.
The Six Things Procurement Leaders Would Start Doing
1. Strategic Supplier Relationships and Ecosystem Building
The Pattern
“Start: Optimizing operations based on a segmented supplier approach”
“Truly drive supplier innovation, building strong ecosystems”
“Start sniff around and start new relations with external smart suppliers”
“Worked more strategically with certain contracts and key suppliers”
The most consistent theme was a desire to shift from transactional supplier management to strategic partnership building. Leaders want to segment their supplier base intentionally, invest deeply in key relationships, drive innovation through supplier collaboration, and build resilient ecosystems rather than just managing contracts.
Why This Matters
The survey shows 48% identify supplier collaboration as a critical future competency-tied for second place alongside risk management. Yet 59% lack visibility beyond Tier 1 suppliers, and 44% cite supplier risk and disruption as a top pressure. Leaders recognize that deeper supplier relationships aren’t nice-to-have-they’re essential for resilience, innovation, and competitive advantage.
The Social Construction Insight
Supplier relationships aren’t predetermined-they’re constructed through repeated interactions and practices. When procurement engages suppliers primarily through RFx events, contract negotiations, and performance scorecards, these practices construct an adversarial, transactional relationship. Different practices-joint innovation sessions, co-investment in R&D, multi-year partnership agreements, regular strategic dialogue-would construct entirely different relationships. The relationship becomes what you repeatedly do together. Leaders wanting to “start” strategic supplier partnerships understand they must enact partnership practices before partnership relationships can exist. This is why forums like the ones EBG | Network create matter: they create spaces where new forms of professional relationship can be practiced and constructed.
What Good Looks Like
- Supplier segmentation based on strategic importance, not just spend volume
- Joint innovation programs with co-investment in R&D and process improvement
- Multi-year partnerships with shared risk and reward mechanisms
- Supplier development initiatives that build capability in critical supply base
- Ecosystem orchestration connecting suppliers to create network effects
2. Data-Driven Insights and Predictive Intelligence
The Pattern
“Start focusing more on data quality improvement (availability, standardization, granularity)”
“Better integrated systems with high quality data”
“Automate reporting manual processes”
“Start: Closer collaboration with business and production, more time for strategic/digital transformation/AI work”
Leaders want to move beyond reactive reporting to proactive intelligence. They described investing in data quality foundations, building integrated systems that provide real-time visibility, automating manual reporting, and using analytics to predict rather than just describe what’s happening.
Why This Matters
The survey revealed a critical gap: 74% struggle with low-quality or missing data, and 67% face disconnected systems. Yet 64% want to use digital tools for value creation (not just cost-cutting), and 72% envision AI handling routine work so humans can focus on strategy. Data quality is the foundation-without it, AI ambitions will fail.
The Social Construction Insight
Data doesn’t just inform decisions-it constructs organizational reality and power dynamics. When procurement lacks quality data, business stakeholders construct their own reality about suppliers, costs, and risks, often excluding procurement from strategic conversations. By building data capabilities and sharing insights proactively, procurement reconstructs its organizational role from “process enforcer” (who you go to for approvals) to “knowledge partner” (who you go to for intelligence). The practice of generating and sharing insights constructs procurement’s identity as strategic. This isn’t about hoarding information-it’s about enacting expertise through the practice of insight generation.
What Good Looks Like
- Master data governance with clear ownership and quality standards
- Integrated dashboards connecting spend, supplier performance, risk, and sustainability
- Predictive analytics forecasting price trends, supply disruptions, and demand shifts
- Automated insights surfacing anomalies and opportunities without manual analysis
- Self-service access enabling stakeholders to find answers without burdening procurement
3. Process Excellence and System-Enabled Operations
The Pattern
“Start to define the process and strategy. and find system support”
“Put all administration on AI S2P, TAIL supplier negotiation etc”
“Stop doing the operative tasks… Start to define the process and strategy”
“Already on our way to mitigate this – New role and team in place, Sourcing Excellence as a backbone”
Leaders described a vision of procurement operations that run smoothly through well-designed processes and enabling technology, freeing human capacity for strategic work. This includes end-to-end S2P automation, AI-powered tail spend management, process standardization, and centers of excellence.
Why This Matters
The survey shows 41% are shifting to process-driven approaches, and 29% are increasing digital tool reliance. But 48% cite system fragmentation as a bottleneck, and 62% face resource overload. Process excellence isn’t bureaucracy-it’s the mechanism that creates capacity for strategy.
The Social Construction Insight
Processes aren’t just workflows-they’re practices that construct organizational identity and relationships. Well-designed processes embedded in technology create space for humans to engage in different, higher-value practices. When routine transactional work is automated, procurement professionals can spend their time on activities that construct a strategic identity: analyzing market trends, building supplier relationships, managing risk proactively. The process architecture determines which practices are possible, and those practices construct professional identity. This is why process excellence isn’t bureaucracy-it’s identity enablement.
What Good Looks Like
- End-to-end S2P platforms with seamless integration from requisition to payment
- AI-powered automation handling contract analysis, spend classification, and supplier communications
- Standardized playbooks for common procurement scenarios (RFx, contract negotiation, onboarding)
- Centers of Excellence providing specialized expertise and best practice sharing
- Continuous improvement culture treating processes as products that evolve
4. Long-Term Strategic Perspective
The Pattern
“Start to increase the forward looking strategic perspective in steering”
“Work strategically on a 5-10 year horizon with both local & global strategy”
“Start thinking 2 paradigms: 1) build foundation 2) paradigm shift from tools to insights”
“Using data and partnerships to create sustainable, long-term value instead of transactional firefighting”
Leaders want to escape the quarterly tactical treadmill and adopt genuinely strategic horizons-5-10 year planning, building foundational capabilities, making paradigm shifts from tools to insights, and creating sustainable long-term value.
Why This Matters
The survey shows 33% face economic uncertainty, 30% are in crisis management mode, and 47% face pressure to automate and cut costs. These short-term pressures are real, but they crowd out the strategic investments that would create sustainable competitive advantage. Leaders recognize this trade-off and want to rebalance.
The Social Construction Insight
Time horizons aren’t objective-they’re socially constructed through the conversations we have, the metrics we track, and the projects we undertake. When procurement engages in 5-10 year strategic planning, multi-year supplier partnerships, and capability roadmapping, these practices don’t just prepare for the future-they construct a long-term temporal identity. Organizations become “short-term” or “long-term” through their practices. By starting long-horizon work, leaders aren’t just planning differently-they’re enacting a different organizational identity that makes long-term value creation possible.
What Good Looks Like
- Multi-year strategic plans with clear milestones and investment commitments
- Protected innovation budgets that don’t get cut when quarterly pressures emerge
- Scenario planning anticipating future disruptions and building resilience proactively
- Capability roadmaps identifying skills and systems needed 3-5 years out
- Strategic partnerships with long-term commitments that enable joint investment
5. Stakeholder Collaboration and Value Co-Creation
The Pattern
“Start: Closer collaboration with business and production”
“Secure better stakeholder involvement for processes and systems/tools”
“Closer collaboration with business units”
“Start: Secure the good team with a strong plan and follow up on its deliveries”
Leaders want to move from procurement-as-gatekeeper to procurement-as-partner. This means embedding in business units, co-creating solutions with R&D and operations, building genuine influence through demonstrated value, and ensuring stakeholders see procurement as essential rather than bureaucratic.
Why This Matters
The survey shows 55% are evolving toward cross-functional collaboration models, and 38% are embedding procurement in business units. Yet 36% cite collaboration friction as a bottleneck. This isn’t contradiction-it’s the messy middle of transformation. Leaders see the destination but are still navigating organizational resistance.
The Social Construction Insight
Stakeholder relationships are continuously constructed through interaction patterns. When procurement primarily interacts with business units through approval processes, policy enforcement, and cost challenges, these practices construct procurement as a barrier. Different practices-embedded business partnership, joint problem-solving, proactive insight-sharing, co-creation of solutions-construct entirely different relationships. Leaders understand that you cannot declare yourself a strategic partner. you must enact partnership through consistent practices until the identity becomes real. This is the essence of social construction: relationships and identities emerge from what we repeatedly do together.
What Good Looks Like
- Embedded business partners who understand specific business unit challenges deeply
- Joint planning processes where procurement inputs into business strategy from the start
- Value storytelling clearly articulating procurement’s contribution in business terms
- Consultative approach where procurement brings insights, not just process enforcement
- Stakeholder satisfaction metrics making collaboration quality visible and measurable
6. Team Development and Organizational Capability
The Pattern
“Add in a new role (process excellence), a change leader and a tactical team”
“Start: Secure the good team with a strong plan and follow up on its deliveries”
“Take the mandate and go, until taken from you”
“Enchance process to digitalize”
Leaders recognize that transformation requires not just new processes or technology, but new organizational structures and capabilities. They described adding specialized roles (process excellence, change leadership), building strong teams with clear mandates, and creating accountability mechanisms.
Why This Matters
The survey shows 64% identify digital tools & automation proficiency as the #1 competency need, but 78% remain at “developing” digital maturity. Meanwhile, 33% are creating hybrid models combining traditional and digital skills, and 19% struggle to redefine what competencies are even needed. Building the future procurement organization requires deliberate design, not accidental evolution.
The Social Construction Insight
Professional identity is constructed through the work we’re asked to do and the roles we’re given. You cannot transform procurement professionals by asking them to “be strategic” while assigning them transactional work. Identity reconstruction requires role reconstruction. When leaders talk about adding process excellence specialists, change leaders, and digital experts, they’re not just filling gaps-they’re creating new roles that will construct new professional identities. The organizational structure determines which practices are possible, and those practices construct who procurement professionals become. This is why deliberate organizational design matters: structure shapes practice, practice shapes identity.
What Good Looks Like:
- Hybrid operating models with traditional category experts and digital/AI specialists working together
- Clear role definitions separating strategic work from operational execution
- Skill development programs upskilling existing teams in data literacy and digital tools
- Change leadership capacity dedicated resources managing transformation, not just added to existing workloads
- Performance management aligned with strategic priorities, not just operational metrics
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The Pattern Across All Six Themes
Looking across these “start” priorities, a clear pattern emerges: Leaders are ready to lead.
They’re not asking for permission to think strategically-they’re asking for organizational conditions that enable strategic work. Not waiting for perfect technology-they’re ready to invest in foundational capabilities. They’re not hoping someone else will drive change-they’re prepared to build teams and mandate transformation.
This is profoundly encouraging. The vision is coherent, the priorities are aligned, and the leadership mindset is present. What’s needed now is organizational permission and protected capacity to execute.
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The Optimistic Conclusion
Here’s the glass-half-full truth: Procurement leaders are not just envisioning change. They’re already beginning to construct it through this very articulation.
The survey responses show remarkable alignment:
- They want to stop firefighting practices and start enacting resilient system-building
- They want to stop manual work practices and start engaging in strategic analysis and insight generation
- They want to stop adversarial rituals and start practicing genuine stakeholder partnership
- They want to stop short-term reactive work and start engaging in long-horizon strategic planning
- They want to stop transactional interactions and start building supplier ecosystems
This clarity is powerful. What makes it truly transformative is that naming these practices is already the first step in constructing them as legitimate.
When 58 procurement professionals collectively articulate what procurement work should be, they’re socially constructing a new professional reality. This survey isn’t just documenting opinions. It’s participating in the construction of procurement’s future identity. And to clarify – have a look at the >>EBG | Xperience 2025 Post Report – you will see the same type figures there asking 81 companies their views and experiences.
The procurement leaders who wrote these responses aren’t just ready. They’re already constructing the future through this collective articulation. Their organizations now have the opportunity to enable that construction. They can provide the structural conditions (roles, resources, metrics, autonomy) that allow these practices to become daily reality.
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Connecting Survey Data to the Vision
The responses align with key survey findings:
- 72% envision AI handling routine tasks so humans can focus on strategy – This is the “start” vision: strategic partnerships, long-term thinking, value co-creation
- 55% evolving toward cross-functional collaboration – Leaders want to stop siloed work and start genuine business partnership
- 64% prioritize digital tools and automation as #1 competency – Recognition that capability building enables the strategic shift
- 41% shifting to process-driven approaches – Understanding that process excellence creates capacity for strategy
- 48% identify supplier collaboration as critical – The relationship-driven future procurement model
The vision isn’t aspirational fantasy. It’s grounded in concrete capability investments and organizational model shifts that leaders are already beginning to execute.
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From Vision to Action
We’ve explored what procurement leaders would stop (Part 1) and what they would start (Part 2). The practices are named. The vision is clear. The collective construction has begun.
But how do you actually turn this vision into reality? How do you reconstruct professional identity through deliberate practice change?
Continue to Part 3: Turning Vision into Action – where we provide the practical roadmap for identity reconstruction through practice change, narrative shift, and relational transformation.
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Key Survey Findings Referenced:
- 72% envision AI handling routine tasks
- 64% prioritize digital tools and automation as #1 competency
- 55% evolving toward cross-functional collaboration
- 48% identify supplier collaboration as critical competency
- 48% cite risk management as essential skill
- 41% shifting to process-driven approaches
- 59% lack visibility beyond Tier 1 suppliers
- 74% struggle with low-quality data
- 67% face disconnected systems
- 62% cite resource overload
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This analysis is part of the CPO Outlook 2025 report, based on insights from 58 procurement leaders across 47 Nordic companies, conducted September-November 2025.
Network with EBG | Network
Continue these conversations at CPO Outlook 2026 in Stockholm on October 14–15, and during the EBG | Xperience 2026 workshop series — smaller, hands-on sessions that turn shared experience into concrete action.