In a volatile world, that constantly presents us with new challenges, the procurement landscape never stands still. Innovation, organisation and motivational leadership are essential if we want to stay ahead of the curve and nowhere is this truer than at Swiss Federal Railways (SBB). SBB will celebrate its 125th anniversary next year and prides itself on getting people to where they want to go, safely and on time.
Simon Roth joined SBB as Head of Accounts Payable, having previously worked in procurement for many years. A couple of years later SBB needed a new Head of Procurement, so Simon jumped at the chance. “We buy consumables and corporate services. The Procurement Services business unit is where we focus on support, enablement and data quality, and the Procurement Functional Leadership unit, is where we design, develop, operate, and govern processes, systems, methods and provide governance for the whole procurement group. I also have oversight of the divisional procurement heads and procurement organisations. Together we form the Procurement Board, which I chair.”
Simon first became aware of procurement during his industrial engineering studies, which led to his first job at a company with less than 40 staff. As a result, he quickly moved into a senior role in procurement where he, “learned what procurement means in a small company and afterwards in a large company at BKW AG, an energy company, where I worked in different procurement functions. For me, procurement is incredible because you manage projects across the company. You have contact with a lot of people internally, but also suppliers. You’re integrated in high risk and important decisions, so procurement is fantastic”.
He also realised the importance of teamwork early on as, “I cannot achieve much alone. My team is the most important thing to me. Without them I can’t have impact in an organisation – especially one as large as SBB. I have a collaborative leadership style but ensure the team has a clear strategic direction to help them with prioritisation.”
Initial priorities
As Head of Procurement at SBB, the first area Simon focused on was the organisation’s culture and the way people collaborated, especially between the functional leadership and divisional procurement organisations. He could see that mistrust and misunderstanding were sometimes an issue, with activities taking place without a clear need or goal identified. “It was necessary to build trust and reach a shared understanding of tasks, responsibilities, authorities, and work in an impact-oriented way,” Simon tells us.
“The second area was a reorganisation, both in functional leadership and operational procurement, as operational procurement had lost their connection to the business and to their categories slightly. They were focused on automation, standardisation and harmonisation, instead of how procurement meets our business needs. Also, as a board, we had to learn to work with each other, bringing procurement closer to the business. We created a strategy in 2025 to provide a common understanding of what the future of procurement looks like at SBB. So, now we have a clear North Star for our service.”
This new strategy focused on utilising high-quality data to inform decision making, which helped bring a consistent approach to controls. “I think to be able to manage spend of this volume, with so many suppliers, categories and contracts, you have to have the right systems and processes, as well as great quality and execution. Data should aid decision-making, because otherwise the task is just too big,” Simon says. “My team work in several locations, so we need data to make consistent decisions. This allows us to serve internal stakeholders optimally while actively managing the market and suppliers.”
Simon thinks that as a manager you should walk the talk and lead by example, so that the team respect what you’re doing, and if you promise something, that’s what they should get.
Managing through the chaos
Managing risk in an increasingly chaotic and complex world is another issue that Simon has faced. “For me, designing the process for risk management is the easy part, but getting people to think predictively about what could happen, where risks may exist and to really take the right action is even harder.”
Supply chain transparency is also tricky with 22,000 active suppliers each year. Staff need to be able to prioritise which categories require a deep dive based on their risk profile, and which categories aren’t as important. Market intelligence allows people to know the market for their categories, including the suppliers, processes, technical details and the latest innovations. “I don’t think procurement should necessarily see geopolitical events coming, but we should be prepared for them when they do. So, having a plan A, B, and C, having diverse supply chains and being able to switch in a short period of time helps build resilience,” says Simon.