Innovative ideas were pitched by 40 thought leaders at the world’s first digitally led think-tank for the procurement and supply chain profession, href=”https://3.26.16.133/news/article/participation-open-for-big-ideas-summit”>Procurious Big Ideas Summit, broadcast from London last month.
Thought leaders from around the world – including keynote speaker Rio Tinto CFO, Chris Lynch, CIPS Group CEO, David Noble, Hackett Group Principal, Chris Sawchuk, and Burberry Group Procurement Manager, Stuart Pemble – came together to discuss their outside-of-the-box ideas under the themes like risk, people and technology.
Lynch (pictured) said the profession needed to foster a culture of ‘intrapreneurship’.
“Intrapreneurs are the people who can drive innovation and lead change,” Lynch said. “They’re the creative, cost-conscious leaders who can influence entire organisations to spend every dollar as if it were their own and develop breakthrough solutions for reducing costs and adding value.”
Procurious Founder, Tania Seary, said the inaugural Big Ideas Summit highlighted the wealth of creativity within the profession and the value of sharing and collaboration to lead innovation.
“Through the ideas that have been generated today, we’ve hopefully inspired a new generation of business intrapreneurs to get their creative juices flowing, to start collaborating through networks like Procurious and then start implementing those ideas to achieve change within their organisations and the entire profession,” Seary said.
London Business School Fellow, Jules Goddard’s big idea was to stop the pursuit of ‘best practice’ because it ‘breeds sameness, stifles innovation and limits the opportunities to grow wealth’.
“The challenge for business and procurement is not to pursue best practice, it is to pursue unique-practice – our own definition of what’s right for us,” Goddard said.
The event sparked debate across social media with posts and discussions under the #BigIdeas2015 hashtag, reaching over a million on Twitter, Facebook and over 5,000 members on the profession’s niche social network Procurious.