Category Management Strategy (Syd)

The Category Management round-table is designed to enable
members to explore best practice in developing a category plan or strategy and
to drive continuous improvement in a category through periodic review.  It
does not focus on any single category, but rather the generic process. In this
‘expert led’ session you will explore issues such as:

• How do we define category management?
• When would we apply category management?
• Where do we start in applying category management principles?
• How do we analyze the market to inform our make versus buy decisions?
• What role does risk play in category management?
• How do you effectively manage stakeholders and get their buy in?
• What steps do you need to take to finalize your sourcing strategy?
• How important is supplier/vendor and contract management in achieving
  success?
• What are the spend levers we can enable to extract savings or deliver
  greater value?
• How do you pull all of this together into a category plan?
• How and how often do you conduct a category review?
• How
  do we drive continuous improvement in a category?

More detailed prompts will be provided for each of these questions in the final agenda. And of course there will be additional specific issues raised by participants before or during sessions. Please add any issues you have for inclusion in the agenda when registering.

Guest Facilitator: Dr Stefan Gassner  PhD (Business), MCIPS, Procurement Practice Lead, Grosvenor Management Consulting 

Dr Stefan Gassner  PhD (Business), MCIPS, Procurement Practice Lead, Grosvenor Management Consulting has kindly agreed to attend the meeting to facilitate the discussion and provide attendees with the opportunity to ‘pick his brains’.

Stefan leads the Grosvenor procurement practice and works with its clients to transform their procurement function, manage high stakes procurement projects and to improve their supplier management.

Stefan is a lecturer for Strategic Procurement at the University of Technology Sydney. During his PhD Stefan developed a framework to support the decision as to what services should be kept in-house and which ones are best outsourced. Based on a survey of 1,000 German chemical and mechanical engineering businesses, it has been published as a book in Germany. Stefan loves a challenge and clients value his communication skills, stakeholder engagement and evidence-based approach to consulting.