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Procurement often enters product and project decisions too late. By then, supplier choices, technical assumptions, timelines, or cost expectations may already feel settled. Kearney argues that procurement can shape next-generation products more effectively when it contributes before design, supplier, and cost choices harden. (Kearney, 2021)

Late involvement rarely means procurement has no value left. It means the room to shape the decision is smaller.

A supplier path may already be forming. A technical route may already have internal sponsors. A business case may already contain numbers that nobody wants to reopen. In that situation, procurement can still negotiate, document, challenge, and recover. But it is no longer working with the same leverage.

This is where many procurement teams lose influence without noticing it. They do not lose it at the negotiation table. They lose it earlier, when another function starts making assumptions that later become procurement’s problem.

Deloitte’s 2025 CPO survey found that siloed ways of working were the most-cited barrier to procurement value delivery, identified by 57% of surveyed CPOs. (Deloitte, 2025)

The weak version of the argument is: “Procurement should be involved earlier.”

In many organizations, that sentence sounds like more process. Engineering may hear interference. Project leadership may hear delay. Product teams may hear another approval loop. Finance may hear someone trying to disturb a business case that is already moving.

A better sentence:

“Before we lock this path, let me check where sourcing options, qualification effort, or supplier capability could become difficult later.”

That does not ask engineering to give up ownership. It helps the project avoid a later constraint.

The difference is important. Earlier involvement is not mainly won through a new meeting invite. It is won when procurement gives other functions a reason to bring it in before they have to.

That reason is usually simple: procurement sees supplier reality earlier than others do. It can see whether a prototype supplier is unlikely to scale. It can see whether a design is reducing source options. It can see whether qualification work is being underestimated. It can see whether a cost assumption depends on supplier conditions that are not yet real.

Scott Schwartz is introduced by Procurement Magazine as Chief Procurement Officer and Head of Sustaining Engineering at Royal Philips. In the interview, he describes Philips procurement as “heavily involved in new product development” and says the function is “getting involved very early in that new product innovation cycle.” (Procurement Magazine, 2022)

At LivaNova, Jérôme Lesenechal (CPO) says the CPO needs to “orchestrate brainstorming sessions with suppliers” to support difficult-to-source components, design evolution, and business decisions. (Procurement Magazine, 2023)

John Cully’s Amey interview gives the project angle. He says procurement is “no longer just about compliance or cost control,” and describes value creation through “engaging suppliers early” and “co-developing solutions.” (Procurement Magazine, 2026)

Those quotes do not describe procurement as a late commercial checkpoint. They describe procurement as useful while product, supplier, or project options are still being shaped.

That is the skill.

Not to say: “We need to be involved.”

But to say: “Here is what may become harder later, and here is how I can test it quickly now.”

Make the first step small. A one-page assumption check is often easier to accept than a new governance rule.

They protect technical ownership. They do not enter the room as if procurement owns the design. They enter as someone who can test whether the chosen path will still work with real suppliers, real timing, and real qualification effort.

They use project language. Instead of saying “supplier risk,” they say what may become slower to qualify, harder to source, more expensive to tool, or less flexible to change.

They build one successful example before asking for a permanent role in the process. Harvard Business School Online describes influence without authority as partly built through expertise, relationships, and understanding how the organisation works. (Harvard Business School Online, 2019)

They make procurement easy to involve: “Give me 48 hours. I will give you one page. If there is no material issue, we move.”

In BCG’s “First 100 Days Playbook” released last week, digital and AI-powered solutions were identified as a key milestone for new CPOs and executives as early as their second month on the job; use cases cited included the analysis of contract clauses, the monitoring of supplier risks, and guided negotiation preparation.

I will be moderating a closed webinar presenting a prototype of a procurement AI agent designed for procurement tasks: rapid spend and supplier analysis, contract clause analysis, supplier risk monitoring, negotiation preparation, and support for procurement reporting. The agent will be put to the test by the private group, including an open discussion and Q&A session.

Procurement gets invited earlier when others learn that involving it early makes their own decisions safer.

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ProcWee™ and CPO Path are built from my work in procurement practice, not from theory alone. I work as an interim procurement manager and advisor, and I use these newsletters to share the patterns, risks, and leadership questions that show up in real organizations.

If you are facing a critical procurement project, a difficult internal situation, or a career-relevant leadership question, there are two ways to engage.

The initial consultation is designed to clarify the situation, identify the real constraint, and assess whether I can help meaningfully. If there is a fit, we can discuss a follow-up program or project-based support after the call.

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Deloitte. (2025, August 19). Procurement at the Tipping Point: Deloitte’s 2025 Chief Procurement Officer Survey Reveals the Pressure and Promise of Technology Disruption. Retrieved from https://www.deloitte.com/us/en/about/press-room/2025-chief-procurement-officer-survey.html

Harvard Business School Online. (2019, October 24). How to Influence Without Authority in the Workplace. Retrieved from https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/influence-without-authority

Kearney. (2021, May 21). The Power of Procurement to Shape Next-Generation Products. Retrieved from https://www.kearney.com/documents/291362523/291370692/The%2Bpower%2Bof%2Bprocurement%2Bto%2Bshape%2Bnext-generation%2Bproducts.pdf/f9dd66c8-9a52-fc21-ae5b-1fc95ff63e11?t=1621525405000

Procurement Magazine. (2022, October 28). Scott Schwartz. Retrieved from https://procurementmag.com/interviews/scott-schwartz

Procurement Magazine. (2023). LivaNova: Transforming Lives Through MedTech and Procurement. Retrieved from https://procurementmag.com/company-reports/livanova-transforming-lives-through-medtech-and-procurement

Procurement Magazine. (2026, January 7). The Procurement Interview: John Cully. Retrieved from https://procurementmag.com/news/the-procurement-interview-john-cully

Thank you for reading,

Pascal Hecker | Editor-In-Chief, CPO Path.