Revised framework for marketing-procurement involvement

The analysis of the organisational culture per interviewed company has shown that there is no clear connection between the dominant organisational culture and level of involvement between marketing and marketing-buyers. Therefore, the culture aspect got removed in the revised framework. Many of the aspects that were in the original framework were also found in the revised framework which can be seen in Figure 10.

Figure 10: Revised Framework for marketing-procurement involvement

No firm mentioned having rewards or incentives for collaborating, therefore, this aspect got removed from the framework. Next, it was clear from the interviews that all buyers focus on the needs of the marketers by aiming to give them the best resources, suppliers and innovations. Therefore, this barrier got removed as well. Joint objectives, goals and KPI’s varied across all firms. Here, it was not clear that it would have a positive impact on the involvement of procurement and therefore got removed. Still, in the interviews, many buyers and marketers mentioned that it would be nice to know about each other’s objectives and to have joint KPI’s to align. At all firm’s marketers reach out to procurement when they need help with suppliers, products or contract. Therefore, it was in this case also not the case that that would lead to a particularly high or low involvement and got removed from the framework.The companies where the marketing-procurement involvement is working well showed that they all have a detailed onboarding program for new hires which also teaches about procurement processes. New hires learn how procurement works, procurement guidelines as well as the value of involving procurement. In the firm with the lower level of procurement involvement the topic procurement was not part of their onboarding program and marketers complained that they didn’t know any procurement guidelines or how to work

with procurement. Therefore, it was found that having a procurement onboarding program for non-procurement employees is beneficial and got added to the framework.

Next, it was noticed that firms with a high level of procurement involvement get top management support. The buyers stated that that has really helped them to establish a good relationship with the marketers and made them get more and earlier involved in marketing’s projects. At the firm with the lower procurement involvement, the opinions of the buyers varied. Some stated that they have mentioned the collaboration problem to their managers but felt that no action was taken and that it is not the priority of top management. Thus, top management support got added as an enabler to the framework since it has shown to be very beneficial in most of the case companies. Next, the interviews have shown that having a marketing understanding as marketing-buyer is beneficial. This way the marketers notice that the buyers are capable and understand the marketers’ needs. Basically, all buyers who had multiple years in marketing-procurement or even a marketing background had a higher level of involvement by marketers than the one buyer who didn’t have a marketing background and who is fairly new to marketing-procurement. The last aspect that got added to the framework is that both parties, the marketers and procurement must put effort into the collaboration. At Company 1, it was perceived that the effort is rather one-sided and procurement having to be the one who always initiates meetings, communication and information sharing. Buyers have to push hard to be involved in marketer’s projects. Therefore, this aspect also got added to the barriers.

Table 14: Findings of enabler and driver Enabler/Driver Quote

Top

Management Support

“Actually, it starts with the very top so if you have got a CMO, a chief marketing officer that values procurement is the best thing that can happen. And then so we have got our current CMO who has always valued what we do. Our global head of marketing procurement so my boss sits on the marketing leadership team so with the most senior marketers so she has a seat at the top table with that senior marketing group. Ehm, so you know our agenda is on the table all the time in terms of what we are trying to achieve.” (Gary Carey, Diageo)

Communication “If I hear something about what is happening like a new trend or a new supplier or anything I will forward that to them”. (Avneet Singh, Kraft Heinz)

Onboarding Program

New hires will get on-boarded “(…) so that they understand the role of procurement because that is always a bit of a challenge so that they understand what procurement is doing and why they have to work with procurement.”. (Pauline Paris, Jacobs Douwe Egberts)

Formalisation “We have quite a lot of processes and sometimes things are taking a lot of time because of those processes but I think it is more or less the same in many big FMCG companies. We need this structure, otherwise it could go a bit wild and everyone would do their own thing. So, we have structures and compliance with policies and the ways of working and that is something we are really looking at to make sure that we work in the right way.” (Pauline Paris, Jacobs Douwe Egberts)

Cross- functional Teams

“(…) we work in partnership. But in terms of ehm this is where. I think it is fair to say that in previous years it was more a transactional relationship where we were seen as coming from a cost cutting perspective, being very efficient, we would control the supplier lists you know you must choose one of these partners. There is much more collaboration now for example we just recently worked with the marketing leadership team to talk about the agencies that we were comfortable having on our roster to get us the best work. That’s a joint conversations and joint decision.” (Gary Carey, Digaeo)

Buyer has marketing knowledge/ background

“Mh personally I think that that is very important because it helps and you feel more confident when you talk with marketing or supplier about the topic and not only about the figures and you understand when it is relevant information and when it is not.”. (Anastasia Kondratenko, Ikea)

Co-location “I have the chance to sit in Amsterdam so I am sitting with the central marketing team and the global marketing teams so I am really sitting with them every day so it feels like I am a little bit part of their team and they don’t just see me as a procurement person” (Pauline Paris, Jacobs Douwe Egberts)

Table 15: Findings of barriers Barrier Quote

No information sharing

“Uhm, suppliers are sharing information with marketing and procurement because it is also agreed by procurement that they share what they did for FrieslandCampina every quarter since it is a complex multinational organization. There is not always communications between countries and not always in the same discipline. So uhm this is also what procurement delivers is that connect the suppliers actually asking them for help to communicate internally.” (Burcu Waelbers, FrieslandCampina)

One sided effort for

collaboration

“I am usually the one who approaches first” (Constanze Hepp, FrieslandCampina)

Marketing not aware of procurements value

“(…) indeed, quite a high percentage saying okay we understand what procurement is doing but it is not 100% that clear so uhm I think that is something that needs to happen.”. (Pauline Paris, Jacobs Douwe Egberts)

Marketing sees involving procurement as burden

“(…) since we are really commercial driven sometimes the response time we need to the market is quick so it means that if you want to approach procurement, procurement should be included from the very early stage for selecting a vendor. But whenever you decide it to go for a vendor it is really like you have maybe a month to execute something. So, in that month because of business negotiation levels you cannot really have the luxury of these times. Normally you step up this process then I do it myself.” (Fabiola Osornio, FrieslandCampina)

Firm structures make it difficult to collaborate

“I have seen way better examples than here at FrieslandCampina because I feel that here the silo image is even more concrete than in another companies I have been working with. And I don’t think we have a lot of tools and means to improve this collaboration and I don’t think this is really a priority at the moment.” (Maud Riviere,