Rupert Gaster spoke with Martin Simper, Chief Procurement Officer at Liberty Procurement Services, about the evolution of his Procurement career and what the future holds for Procurement functions.
I’m Martin Simper and I’ve spent most of my career in procurement, spanning over 30 years. My procurement journey began quite unexpectedly, like a lot of people I didn’t really know what I wanted to do after finishing my education. My first job was with a company called Grolier, which was a Disney Book Club direct mail operation in the UK. Initially, I handled their post and within 9 to 12 months, worked within their operations, customer services, banking, and more. A marketing role opened up, and I took it, marking the start of my love for procurement.
Six months into that role, a procurement professional was brought in to handle the company’s biggest expenditure from an indirect perspective—printed literature, supply chain and the purchasing of the books. I worked alongside him during the year he was in the role, and then I got a phone call from the MD, inviting me into his office to say congratulations, you’re now running the whole of our procurement team and I did that for about 2 years.
I had the time of my life, but ultimately it was a hard learning curve. The MD’s door was always open, and it was my first glance into what leadership should be – a safe environment where you can learn, make mistakes, and grow from them, which I did. Being part of a small company was fantastic as I enjoyed the close-knit culture of knowing everyone. From there, I got bitten by the print bug, which is kind of my true love. I remember looking at the printing presses running in amazement!
After Grolier, I joined Polestar, the largest printing company in Europe at the time. I worked as an Account Director in one of their plants (in Diss), managing sales and accounts. This was a deliberate move to understand the other side of the fence, where a lot of my close friends worked. I’d considered that If I was going to be truly good at what I do in Procurement, I’d need this experience.
After a couple of years, Aviva came knocking and asked me to join and manage their large direct mail expenditure. Obviously, everything’s digital now, but back in those days, you used to get a whole raft of stuff turning up on your doorstep. I spent about five years there, eventually overseeing the entire team for the life insurance side of the business.
Following Aviva, I moved to The Print Factory, which was a large printing organisation in Northampton which also provided print management services. Soon after joining we got the opportunity to pitch to run the print management for Vodafone, running it out of Newbury, which is what brought me down from Norfolk, having been there for over 20 years.
It was an exciting time! I was in my late 20s, helping set up and run Vodafone’s print management arm, at the time Mobile Telco companies were spending money like it was going out of fashion. Amazing projects were happening.
In 2004, I found myself dissatisfied with the direction of things, so I made the decision to leave. The plan was to take some time out and go travelling. I went off in 2004 to the EURO’s, and watched England lose as they always did in miserable fashion in Portugal. However, Vodafone approached me to return and work directly for them, which I did for the next five years. It was during this period that I began broadening my horizons, particularly in the realm of marketing services.
My passion for working in blue-chip companies remained strong, but I adhere to a personal philosophy—I prefer not to stay in the same role for more than three years, as I believe in constantly refreshing and challenging myself. If an organisation doesn’t offer opportunities for such growth, I believe it’s time to seek new avenues. This mindset led me to venture into consultancy for a couple of years, where I had the privilege of collaborating with great clients like AGCO and British Airways for buying team (now Proxima).
Despite my affinity for blue-chip environments, I struggled a little with consultancy because it’s a bit ‘feast and famine’. I thrive on a fast-paced environment; too much idle time doesn’t suit me well. If I have too much time to think, then I’m not so good. I like to be on fire!
How have you found the transition from centralised Procurement to delivering Procurement as a professional service?
The first 12 months were challenging, especially attracting the right talent to work with us, as Liberty Procurement Services professionals. As a team, we had to pivot significantly, transitioning nearly 90 people from a corporate central procurement function, to a client-focused service provider. We operate through the eyes of our customers and understand their needs, to build their unique procurement strategy.
Our approach at Liberty Procurement Services is different from standard procurement practices, leading to a high staff attrition initially. Many professionals prefer a corporate environment over our dynamic, client-centric model. However, It’s important to me to bring the mentality and the focus of a local procurement organisation and embed it into the values of the Liberty Procurement Services.
As a service provider, we have to focus on a broad range of skill sets. We focus on ensuring our team is attentive, alert, and responsive. To achieve this, we’ve invested time to training areas such as our operational methodology, customer service and influencing on top of the traditional procurement training such as negotiation and category management.
Establishing ourselves took 12 to 18 months and we’ve since been able to double our revenue from that period. As we focus on our Liberty Global ‘family’ customers, we’re building momentum as we look to take on new external customers.
On top of that, we’re also looking hugely at how technology can help us to continue improving. For example, a technology stack for Risk and ESG. We have a core tech stack using GEP and we’re now looking for the best-of-breed solutions to bolt onto that. We’ve got a whole team of people sitting behind this project in collaboration with Liberty Shared Services.
What do you see as the future of the profession?
Technology will play an increasingly significant role in procurement, with AI and other advancements transforming many aspects of the profession. These changes will improve the efficiency of procurement functions, to the point where parts of the role that we do today will disappear.
These changes are expected to increase the efficiency of Procurement functions, which has historically always been a priority to achieve. I sometimes feel like a bit of a dinosaur, but I’m fortunate to have team members who continually expose me to this evolving landscape. They are forever giving me books to read, and asking If I have seen various articles, suggesting new processes. We will shift towards these new ways of working. However, I don’t see our current resource levels reducing drastically, but rather allowing for focus on areas of more significance. I think this is where we will ultimately get to.
What do I see in the near future? Do I see autonomous sourcing? No, I think we’re a little way off. But I’ve witnessed enough progress to suggest that we will get there. My team have altered my perspective, they’re dragging me into the current century as opposed to living in the past!
