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Entrevista

taking matters into your own hands T.S.: We all have front row seats “The procurement
and taking control of your own at the parade of new and exciting
professional development. technologies that are driving the 4th community can
industrial revolution. The rise of the build muscle, by
In today’s digital world, there is Internet of Things, robotics, block- continuously flexing
absolutely no excuse for us to not be chain and artificial intelligence will
advancing our careers. And it’s no create what we are calling Procure- and responding to
use turning a blind eye to all of the ment 4.0. each other’s calls for
rapidly advancing technology deve- support”
lopments, in the hope that it won’t These new tools will be incorpora-
impact us. It’s our responsibility to ted into how we manage our own
get on top of it! function, but – more importantly C.M.: Regarding innovation, there
are currently two dimensions
– it is going to dramatically change which concern most procure-
C.M.: As global network for pro- the actually categories we manage! ment functions: the digital trans-
curement professionals, Pro- In fact, some of our categories will formation and supplier enabled
curious shows the importance become extinct! We need to antici- innovation. Focusing on the
of connectivity and knowledge pate how Industry 4.0 is going to first, from your own perspective,
exchange. How does this idea impact the goods & services we buy which technological development
breath in a world that’s rapidly and prepare our companies for that (Blockchain, IoT, RPA, Big Data)
shifting to more protectionism evolution. is more promising for procure-
and more trading barriers?
ment professionals and teams?
The same advice that I would have
T.S.: Personally, my view is that if given 10 years ago, still applies – stay T.S.: In our recent Procurement
procurement is to “shockproof” the close to your suppliers. Understand 2030 survey, we’ve had 590 procure-
profession. Most of the problematic their business, their industry, their ment professionals from across the
issues – slavery, child labour, unsafe strength, weaknesses, opportunities world respond to this very question
work practices, exploitation and ne- and threats. Have the conversation on what aspects of Industry 4.0 will
glect for the environment, copyright about disruption and new techno- have the most impact on organisa-
– are too big for any one person – or logies. Understand their business tions. AI and Cognitive came up as
even any one company – to solve and then educate your business on the biggest impact for our network,
alone. the potential impacts. Bring your closely followed by Big Data and
company closer to theirs. Be ready Analytics, and third was Cloud
The procurement community can for the change and help be part of Computing. Interestingly, Block-
build muscle, by continuously fle- the solution… not the problem. chain came 7th out of a list of 9.
xing and responding to each other’s
calls for support.

Brexit and the Trump Trade Wars
have been popular topics on our
blog and, to a lesser extent, on our
discussion board.

Being able to actively seek out infor-
mation is part of social’s beauty –
and crafting a network of thought-
leaders, influencers, and experts
around you is an unquestionably
valuable thing in identifying and
developing growth opportunities.

C.M.: We hear a lot about
innovation these days.
What’s your vision about
IPor Cortesía de Procurious
procurement’s function in this
area?

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