Many businesses think they’re doing procurement—when really, they’re just buying. After years of working across commercial and operational teams, I’ve seen how much value is lost when organisations stay stuck in “purchasing mode.”
To dig deeper into this gap, Lucy LoRusso sat down with Rogan Taylor, a seasoned procurement leader with experience across major organisations and a reputation for transforming how businesses think about spend, risk, and value. He brings practical, straight‑talking insight—and he’s someone companies regularly call on when they’re ready to mature their procurement capability.
In this short conversation, we break down the real difference between purchasing and strategic procurement, the warning signs leaders often miss, and what it actually takes to make the shift.
With over 20 years’ experience, Rogan Taylor has helped organisations including FTSE-listed WPP, Pladis and Alpha Pharm move from transactional purchasing to mature, value-driven procurement. He’s led everything from building procurement functions and operating models to embedding governance, managing risk and commercial discipline in complex environments.
What’s the difference between ‘purchasing’ and ‘procurement’?
Lucy
Many businesses assume they have a procurement function, but what they actually have in practice is a buying or purchasing function. Orders get placed, suppliers get paid, and things mostly keep moving. Rogan, you and I both live procurement daily, so it would be good to have your thoughts on what the key differences are between purchasing and strategic procurement?
Rogan
Thank you for that introduction, Lucy. In their simplest forms, Purchasing is about transactions and Procurement is about outcomes. When people talk about purchasing versus strategic procurement, the real difference is where most of the activity related to these takes place. Purchasing usually kicks in once decisions around supply have already been taken. The supplier is already contracted, the goods or services scope is agreed, and purchasing simply raises orders and makes sure the business has supplies. That’s what we like to call the “procure to pay” side of the world. Strategic procurement kicks in a lot earlier in the value chain. It lives in the source to contract space, helping shape the decision before anything is locked in. It’s about asking the right questions upfront, looking at different sourcing options, the need, managing risk, and getting the commercial and contractual setup right. It’s about shifting your focus from the back end of the supply process, to the front of it, because this is where the biggest value and the biggest mistakes can, and usually are made.
Signs your business is still in purchasing mode
Lucy:
So if a business is still operating mainly in purchasing mode, what signals suggest they’re leaving value on the table?
Rogan
Again, this varies from business to business, but the signals are almost all quite subtle at first. You may see a pattern of gross margins eroding over time, or suppliers getting brave and starting to insist on unfavorable commercial arrangements. Maybe your purchasing team keeps getting called in after the contracts are signed to approve a new supplier or onboard them. Spend authorization levels may be unclear, along with patchy or unfollowed spend guidelines. You may happen to notice that there are a multitude of suppliers selling you very similar goods at vastly different prices and quality, all purchased by different people across the business. These are just a few situations, but there is one clear theme. You know you need to get a better grip on how money is been spent, what it’s been spent on, and with whom. Importantly, procurement isn’t only about the spend side, as supply risk is another big one. Supply disruption, ESG risk exposure. If these issues only surface after something goes wrong, the business is still in purchasing mode.
When the shift towards strategic procurement begins
Lucy:
Trigger moments that I’m sure many of our readers will recognize in their own businesses. And all along the supply chain too, it’s not a specific moment or event.
Rogan
Exactly Lucy, and it’s rarely a board level strategy decision at first. It’s frustration that is felt in the trenches. The rework from shoddy service delivery, the inferior quality surprises, the repeated business class domestic travel, the missed economies of scale you eventually realized you could achieve when you finally sat down with a national FM provider. That’s when the conversation about strategic procurement usually starts. It may not start with a board level decision at first, but it’s going to need one, and all their support if it’s going to go forward and succeed.
How to make the shift: people, process and systems
Lucy:
It sounds like it could be a big effort, but I’m guessing there is no “one size fits all” approach? Once that need is recognised, how should organisations think about making the shift? Can we talk about people, process, and systems?
Rogan
Absolutely, and you hit the nail on the head because strategic procurement requires tweaking to all of these. The operating model needs to change. The biggest mistake, however, is getting the order wrong. I’ve seen my fair share of leadership assume that tech will solve the problems, but going tech first just amplifies the problems that already exist. How many of us have joined businesses where you have a lovely big Source to Contract system in place, that almost no one is using?
People come first.
Strategic procurement requires commercial maturity, stakeholder confidence, and business understanding. And you don’t need to throw an army at it. You just need the right capability along with credibility. Capability simply means you need people who can quickly grasp how the business makes money, not just how it buys. They know when to challenge and when to support, they can quickly grasp the impact and influence of operational realities, and importantly, they look beyond the price to total cost of ownership, risk, and long-term value add. They think longer term and can build and execute multi-year category strategies, not just short-term sourcing events. My advice would be to start with solid generalists. Credibility, well you need people who truly understand tradeoffs and consequences and as such are seen as commercially sensible.
Process comes next.
This is about moving from a reactive to a planning mindset. This is where you identify the critical procurement activities that require playbooks, guidelines, standards or policies. You are trying to create consistency, compliance and transparency, without all the bureaucracy. Think about how you will standardize your approach to spend analysis, category strategy development, supplier vetting (due diligence), your tender processes, your supplier evaluation models, your negotiation approach. What contract templates will you use, and how will you manage the contract lifecycle of suppliers? It’s here you start categorizing your suppliers and agree ways you will manage the different supplier categories. That’s just the on the supply side. Don’t forget about demand management. Here, consider Procurement Policies, Expense Policies, Delegation of Authority, Spend approval processes. This is where you lean in on best practice and tried and tested methods, but always cater and customize to how your business operates. One size never fits all, so never just blindly copy and paste. You must always consider the reality of how your company currently does business. Don’t try an overlay an operating model that simply won’t fit, even if it looks good on paper.
Tech Systems come last.
Technology should support a better way of working, not compensate for missing capability or unclear processes. Once you have embedded and created consistency and compliance around manual processes, then only look to introduce technology that can automate process and bring in the related controls. If the behavior around spend isn’t right in a manual world, it will not improve in an automated world.
Where to start: The Three Foundations of Procurement
Lucy:
For organisations at the very beginning, where should they start with the basics?
Rogan
Three simple foundations Lucy. First, spend visibility. You can’t manage what you can’t see. You need good clear categorized spend data, one source of truth as they call it. Second, early engagement. Procurement needs to influence decisions before requirements are fixed so this means you have to identify your key internal stakeholders and agree how, where and when procurement will be called upon to take part in the sourcing process. Reduce this to policy if need be. Third, supplier focus. Not all suppliers are equal. Strategic procurement is about knowing which one’s matter and why. That’s a whole new discussion, but safe to say you need to be very selective as to which suppliers you deem strategic. The less, the better.
How to measure success in strategic procurement
Lucy:
How do leaders know if the shift is actually working?
Rogan
Ah yes, the success criteria. The earliest signs are going to be behavioral, not necessarily financial. Stakeholders start engaging earlier. Conversations between internal customers and the procurement team will shift from order requests, to considering different options. Procurement is asked for its input and guidance, not just execution. Then the metrics will follow. Savings turn into margin, and newly negotiated payment terms improve your cash flow and working capital situation. Closer engagement with critical suppliers means fewer surprises emerge from the supply base. That’s when procurement stops being seen as a support function and starts being seen as a partner. You get invited around the table.
Common pitfalls to avoid during the transition
Lucy:
Do you have any advice as to possible pitfalls? What to avoid in this transition?
Rogan
This may sound simple, but renaming purchasing as procurement, without changing how it operates, that’s just going to make you look bad. Change the way you do things first, then put a badge on it if it’s deserved. I can’t stress it enough, but don’t over engineer governance. The last thing you want to be seen as is an obstacle to doing business. Business will avoid and exclude you if they see you as a hindrance and not an enabler. I mentioned it earlier, but buying systems too early can be a showstopper. Tech systems won’t change bad behavior, they will amplify it. Finally, and most importantly, Board Support. You must have C-Suite support for your Procurement Strategy. You can’t expect procurement to be strategic without giving it the mandate to propose long-term value options that may be uncomfortable in the short term.
Lucy:
Thanks Rogan, really insightful, and a number of topics we could potentially explore in more detail down the road.
Rogan
Thanks Lucy, yes, there are so many topics we could dive right into, but hopefully this discussion opens a few eyes to the potential of a well-run and supported procurement function.
