Throughout the 12 years of Deloitte’s annual Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) Survey, procurement teams have sought the same thing; a seat at the table. This year’s survey, featuring insights from 350 procurement leaders across 40+ countries, shows that goal has finally been achieved by top teams. They aren’t just adapting to change—they’re leading it. The business world is realizing what we’ve known all along; procurement is about way more than cost-savings—it’s about building resilience, driving value, and transforming operations for lasting impact.
The good news: Procurement is now recognized as essential for navigating supply chain disruptions, managing inflation pressures, and meeting expanding business priorities.
The bad news: Despite the added expectations, few companies are looking to expand their procurement teams. In fact, many aim to shrink them to enhance operational efficiency. This puts CPOs in a challenging position: they have to do more with less, all while grappling with talent shortages and years of underinvestment.
Procurement’s New Conundrum
Deloitte's survey illuminates the challenge faced by procurement to “effectively [deliver] across a broader value proposition that expands each year,” and discusses strategies being used by top procurement teams to overcome it. Recognizing that lab procurement is already stretched thin, we’ve distilled the key insights from these comprehensive survey findings, so you can quickly get back to supporting your scientific stakeholders.
5 key takeaways from the 2023 Global Chief Procurement Officer Survey
1. Procurement has a seat at the table, but at a cost
Figure 1: Top enterprise priorities in 2023
Source: 2023 Deloitte Global CPO Survey
Procurement is now tackling a wider array of priorities, including the new No. 2 priority: environmental, social, and governance (ESG) (see Figure 1). However, performance has slipped—only 69% of teams met or exceeded cost-reduction targets, down from 84% in the last survey. Additionally, self-rated performance in partnering with functions like finance, R&D, and operations declined by 11%. This suggests that procurement teams may be overtaxed, balancing pandemic-driven supply continuity issues with recent inflationary pressures.
Learn more: Improving Lab Sustainability Through Better Procurement & LabOps
2. “In addition to”: Driving strategic value beyond cost savings
Figure 2: Top strategies to deliver the most value in 2023
Source: 2023 Deloitte Global CPO Survey
Today’s top procurement teams are redefining value beyond cost reduction. The survey found that 61% of high performers prioritize supplier collaboration while 42% focus on digital transformation to drive value (see Figure 2). These strategies allow procurement to directly contribute to business goals, enhance service quality, and create a competitive edge.
Interestingly, the study showed a slight drop in the prioritization of improving enterprise margins through cost reduction, dropping 7% from the last survey (see Figure 1). But CPOs must beware before thinking that cost competitiveness can take a backseat to more exciting priorities. The situation is not “either-or,” rather it’s more “in addition to,” especially as uncertain markets continue to stagnate. Procurement needs to focus on reversing cost increases from the past year, renegotiating contracts as commodity prices fall, and strengthening supplier partnerships. This is especially important, as becoming a “customer of choice” often hinges on navigating challenging times together.
3. Visibility is key: Building supply chain resilience
Supply chain risks are on the rise, and resilience is top of mind. In the past year alone, over 70% of CPOs reported increased risk in their supply chains, with inflation and supply shortages being the most disruptive factors. High-performing procurement teams, termed "Orchestrators of Value" in the survey, prioritize proactive risk management by enhancing multi-tier visibility into their supply chains. For biotech and pharma procurement managers, this translates into a need for enhanced visibility, sophisticated risk analytics, and strong supplier partnerships to maintain consistent supply, even in volatile market conditions.
Learn more: Lab Supply Purchase Spend Visibility and Control
4. The key differentiator: Addressing talent shortages and retention challenges
“Procurement talent is one, if not the key differentiator for CPOs,” according to the survey. 70% of CPOs struggled with talent acquisition last year, which slowed down their ability to scale, innovate, and stay aligned with shifting stakeholder and supply market demands.
Top-performing teams are addressing this issue by shifting to a skills-based approach when hiring to strategic plan for the capabilities their teams need. While resilience (the No. 2. desired quality behind integrity) is an important trait in hires, it doesn’t spark the same inspiration as traits like passion or curiosity. By looking for these qualities in potential hires, with the goal of building upon them with procurement training, companies are 107% more likely to place talent effectively, 98% more likely to keep their high performers and have a reputation as a place where people want to grow and develop.
Creating future-forward teams means fostering soft skills like leadership and change management, boosting digital skills in areas like data and analytics (42% of CPOs cited this as a top skill gap in 2023, up 7% from 2021), and developing expertise in ESG and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Most CPOs plan to invest more in training to make that happen (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Talent development investment areas for 2023
Source: 2023 Deloitte Global CPO Survey
5. Going driverless: Pushing full P2P and supply chain automation
Digital maturity is key to efficient, data-driven procurement. High-performing teams invest heavily in advanced analytics, AI, and automation to simplify workflows, reduce repetitive tasks, and optimize budgets. The survey shows that these teams use AI and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) technologies 3x more than others, cutting transactional tasks by nearly half.
To stay competitive, procurement teams must push for full automation of their procure-to-pay (P2P) and supply chain processes, aiming for a “driverless organization.” Teams bogged down by routine tasks can’t scale or engage in strategic work. That’s why top performers aim to reduce 24% of time spent on transactional tasks to just 11%, and are leading in e-procurement (~80% adoption) and invoice-to-pay automation (~70% adoption). These teams are tackling stakeholder self-service, supplier onboarding, and data quality while leveraging AI/ML tools for things like intelligent invoice capture, as well as low-code tech, to push automation forward. These efforts not only streamline processes—they free up time for more strategic work and boost overall productivity.
Learn more: The Secret to Fully Unlock Digital Procurement for R&D
Becoming a top-performing procurement organization of the future
The 2023 Global CPO Survey underscores the importance of resilience, innovation, and digital transformation for life sciences procurement managers. By partnering with the ZAGENO lab supply marketplace, you can navigate the challenges highlighted in the Deloitte survey and position your procurement team to tackle evolving industry challenges and drive sustainable growth.
Curious about how to incorporate these trends into your procurement processes? Learn more about ZAGENO’s solutions for a streamlined, value-driven procurement experience.
About ZAGENO: With over 40 million product SKUs from over 5,300 global brands, ZAGENO offers the industry’s largest life sciences lab supply marketplace. Its AI-driven platform provides tools to streamline the procurement process and help increase scientific productivity by removing the manual, tedious steps labs are forced to deal with when researching, purchasing, and tracking lab supplies.
