Procurement in the Value Chain Approach

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Procurement in the Value Chain Approach

For long the value chain approach by Michael Porter and as advanced by Peter Hines has placed procurement on the periphery, bundling it with general administration among other things.
Today, with threats of resource depletion, increased intervention of government in supply markets, political turbulence and technological advance (Kraljic, 1983), the days of no surprises have ended and supply arrangements can be disrupted any moment.
There is need for redirection of the focus on competitive competences that can be built upstream rather than downstream because if anything, the upstream activities of any firm are a mirror of the downstream activities. The focus must be on procurement and like many other functions, a number of which probably their time is up in the boardroom, procurement must join the league of boardroom players.

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		0 Prof. Alkis S. Magdalinos, Greece
	Value Chain and Procurement I have just published a textbook on management titled: "Management: a Holistic Value Chain Approach" which deals with the subject extensively. If interested, you may contact me directly.

		1 Samrat Basu Student (University), United Arab Emirates
	Is Procurement Really a Supporting Activity? In some of today's organisations, procurement plays a very important role. I agree that is contradicting with Porter's categorization of purchasing as a supporting activity rather than a primary activity in his definition of Value Chain.

		1 Jaap de Jonge Editor, Netherlands
	Procurement can be a Primary Activity @Samrat Basu: For such companies, they can obviously consider procurement as a primary activity in their organization. Porter's Value Chain Model is just a tool to help companies analyze specific activities through which they can create value and competitive advantage. If procurement is very important to a firm, there is no reason to not refer to it as a primary activity.