Holistic Remedies and the Need for Change: Expanding the Position that Procurement Holds in Today’s Industry Jean-Michel dos Remedios has been operating in a procurement role for years—in Europe, the Middle East, and in the United States—and as such, he has a wealth of varied experiences, which have provided him with a unique perspective on the function. He is the Senior Director of Sourcing and Supplier Development at Bel Brands USA, and when it comes to knowing what it takes to create successful and thriving procurement in a company, he has a lot to say on the topic. However, be prepared, as dos Remedios doesn’t mince words. In fact, when it comes to procurement, he gets right down to (better) business. Dos Remedios will be the first to tell you that he sees one big part of his role as a Senior Director being a watchman of sorts, issuing a wake-up call to companies to not allow themselves to become complacent when it comes to the position that procurement holds in their organizations. “Too few fail to see procurement as a major player in the external and internal relationships, as well as in the P&L (profit and loss),” dos Remedios cautions. He then issues a sobering statistic, stating that, “Procurement activities actually represent 50-60%
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of all sales revenue in industrial companies.” And you can’t debate that blaring bottom line impact. So, now that dos Remedios has our attention and we are realizing the vital value of procurement, we are left to wonder how our own organizations can be improved. The knowledgeable watchman (although the longer I interview him, the more I am beginning to imagine him in a caped crusader getup of some sort) then shares the key issues that he sees, before supplying a few proactive remedies. Above all, dos Remedios believes that procurement is too often underused, or misused, therefore limiting its value and full potential within the company. He urges us to see procurement as having an ideal position between internal and external team
