Building a Procurement Centre of Excellence

The challenge

A diversified group ran procurement separately in each business unit. Some teams were highly capable, others were stretched, and good practice rarely travelled between them. Suppliers sometimes negotiated with several parts of the group without any of them knowing.

The approach

Leadership chose not to centralise buying. Instead it established a small centre of excellence responsible for capability rather than transactions: common methods for category management and supplier relationship management, shared templates and tools, a professional development framework, and a forum where category leads from each unit could compare approaches.

The centre earned its mandate by helping business units with live projects first, then turning what worked into shared standards. Governance was agreed with unit leaders so that the centre was seen as a service rather than an additional layer of control.

What changed

Practice became more consistent across the group without removing local ownership. Units began to collaborate on shared categories, newer teams adopted methods proven elsewhere, and procurement gained a clearer, more unified voice in group-level decisions.

Lessons for practitioners

A centre of excellence succeeds when it is judged by the performance of the teams it supports, not by the standards it publishes. Start with visible help on real work, and let the standards follow from that.