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Heinz on transforming Indirect Spend (video)

June 1st, 2010 · by Justin Fogarty · 3 Comments · AribaLIVE, Services Procurement, best practices

Long-time readers may remember a year ago when we interviewed Chris Stockwell, VP of Procurement at Heinz, on their efforts to really go after the company’s indirect spend and bring it under management. No doubt a major opportunity for Heinz and one which required careful planning and execution.

So, it was great to speak with Mauricio Sirgo, Group Leader of Indirect Procurement, at Ariba LIVE in Orlando last week about Heinz’ current efforts, results and insights on “transforming indirect spend”.

Justin Fogarty is Managing Editor of Supply Excellence and community manager of Ariba Exchange. For any questions or feedback on the blog or its contributors, Justin can be reached at jfogarty[at]ariba.com.

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3 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Mike // Jun 3, 2010 at 2:54 am

    Nothing of value to be gleaned here. Just jargon and buzzwords that you’d get from any B Grade consultant. I expected more substance from a CPO (or whatever he is) of such a large organisation.

  • 2 Gedaliah // Jun 3, 2010 at 8:55 pm

    Indirect spend, especially MRO, is the toughest category to go after savings without a well functioning compliance-driven structure already existing within a company. Also, in the case of MRO, the subcategories of spend have to be addressed on their own which turns the large bucket of MRO spend into many smaller buckets of power transmission, pipe/valve/fittings, fasteners, etc. spend. and before you know it, in a decentralized corporate environment, you have 15 exercises in futility instead of 1.

  • 3 Mark Usher // Jun 7, 2010 at 8:56 pm

    Good clip Justin. Mike, arguably of more importance than whether this practitioner is yet utilizing all the best practices at his disposal is the fact that his organization is placing such a strong focus on the indirect area. As we emerge from the recession non-payroll SG&A expense will be near the top of every CFO’s hit list of budget categories to reduce by double digit percentages. In many companies payrolls have been cut to the bone and core business supply chains are already highly efficient so indirect spend is one of the few areas left to secure increased profits and cash flow. And by the way this is the only way that these companies will start to re-hire the employees and ultimately consumers that will trigger economic growth. So whether you’re a procurement professional or a service provider looking to create value for your employer, your customer and your country in the 12-18 months ahead this is the place to be.

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