Building up a procurement function from scratch, at a rapidly expanding company, is a challenge.
But there are some who are drawn to these exacting situations, relishing the opportunity to curate a compelling function based upon their wealth of experience and expertise.
Ross Kellett joined cyber security consultants NCC Group in the summer of 2018, as Global Director of Procurement and Estates – covering both the strategic and the transactional side of the function. The procurement landscape the highly experienced Kellett inherited at NCC Group was more akin to a ‘start up’ business than the progressive function he was used to, he tells us from the company headquarters in Manchester. Encountering a siloed set-up where individuals simply ‘bartered and brought’,
it was evidently clear to Kellett back then that this was a green field site that needed a rapid overhaul if it was to properly harness what procurement could be, and do.
The right talent
Getting the right talent into place was an almost immediate priority for Kellett, once he’d properly scoped out the current set-up. The experienced Christopher Lindop was then head hunted to come onboard as Global Head of Procurement in 2019, and together he and Kellett started to shape the first ever dedicated procurement strategy at NCC. According to Kellett, NCC Group’s procurement focus was very UK-centric at the time, which was not ideal for NCC Group’s ambitions for a more global approach. Because NCC Group had grown through numerous acquisitions over the years, no one had ever consolidated its ways of working, both from an operational and a commercial perspective.
Read the full story in the latest issue of CPOstrategy here!
