The challenge:

Our client, a British railway owner, was embarking on a business-wide programme of change, a major part of which was the Procurement transformation and the largest of its kind in Europe. Attracting world-class Procurement talent was going to be a huge challenge, and they’d had no success so far with agencies that were part of a broader supplier agreement. The initial scope was for a Director of Sourcing, a Director of Supplier Management and a Director of Procurement Operations, though successful delivery would lead to a larger volume of roles required.

Our solution:

Our depth of network and reach set us apart from the other agencies, meaning we could sell the concept of the brand’s true procurement change better and further. Our team identified the managers of all the large, successful procurement transformations of the previous five years and then arranged to meet all the other best-in-class leaders across sourcing, Operations and SRM. Our eventual shortlist consisted of three candidates per role.

The outcome:

• We filled two of the three roles, with our candidate for the third reaching the final two

• As a result of the quality of our work, we were awarded a further 40 roles as part of the transformation

• We successfully delivered the project on time, with a broad range of talent from the private and public sector

• The CPO and Commercial Director remain advocates of ours and we continue to work with them

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