Beyond the Basics: What They Don’t Tell You About Your First 180 Days in Procurement Leadership (Part 1)
This article draws on insights from a recent DeepStream webinar panel I participated in alongside Tom Mills (Procure Bites), Emma Craney (Procurement Heads) and Dan Gianfreda (Deepstream). Throughout, I’ll share both their perspectives and my own experiences leading procurement transformations across various organisations and industries.
Introduction: The Advice You’ve Already Heard
If you’ve researched how to succeed in your first 90–180 days as a procurement leader, you’ve encountered excellent frameworks: baseline assessments, stakeholder listening tours, strategic roadmaps. These fundamentals are non-negotiable.
However, there’s a gap between knowing what to do and understanding why leaders still struggle despite following best practices. Research suggests that approximately 40% of procurement leaders identify gaining control of spend and compliance as their most challenging priority, whilst securing C-suite credibility ranks second. The issue isn’t lack of knowledge, but the complexity of execution.
This article explores practical dimensions that standard frameworks often overlook. Think of this as charting a course through the hidden currents that experienced leaders have navigated successfully.
The Credibility Paradox: To Save or Not to Save?
Emma Craney observes a fascinating divide: “About 50% of people I speak to think that delivering savings in those first three months is essential. The others think it’s really not the point—they’re much more inclined to focus on relationships.”
Both camps are partially right. When procurement has historically underdelivered, a well-chosen quick win can purchase the credibility needed for deeper transformation. Tom Mills frames it strategically: “We’re so focused on the metrics we deliver that we forget the biggest facilitator of our long-term success will be the relationships we build.”
I once tackled a simple HR contract. Minimal spend, but I invested time to examine it properly. The result? Approximately 12% savings with two emails. For the head of HR, that proved transformational. This went straight to the top, signalling that proper procurement processes genuinely work.
Conversely, leaders who rush to demonstrate savings create what Mills terms “an albatross around your neck”—aggressive commitments made before understanding supplier dynamics or stakeholder needs.
The resolution: Your choice between immediate savings and patient relationship-building signals your leadership philosophy to the entire organisation. Choose deliberately, not reactively, based on your specific context.
The Self-Awareness Imperative
One overlooked dimension of early success involves ruthless self-awareness about how stakeholders perceive you. Even when procurement leaders deliver excellent results, stakeholders sometimes report dissatisfaction because expectations weren’t aligned.
Emma shares: “People would be surprised at how many times, even when somebody has done a very good job, a stakeholder will say, ‘We would have liked to see a little bit more of this.’ In many cases it’s because priorities have changed, or someone reached the point where everything became business-as-usual.”
Beyond the standard stakeholder listening tour, consider implementing a formal perception checkpoint at day 90. Tom emphasises: “There’s huge opportunity within those first 180 days to actually change perceptions of what procurement is. That’s why I emphasise asking for feedback in the moment and being acutely aware of how we’re being perceived.”
The critical insight: Every piece of feedback you receive early is a problem you can solve before it becomes a reputation.
Stakeholder Engagement: Beyond the Listening Tour
You’ve heard the advice: conduct listening tours, understand pain points, align with business needs. Yet stakeholder engagement remains leaders’ biggest challenge. Why?
The answer lies in execution quality, not awareness of the principle.
Tom: “You should go round to each function—not just at leadership level, at all levels—understand the business, the revenue being generated, and the pain points. The first 180 days can be the literal difference between you becoming a category manager or acting like a CPO.”
Emma shares a revealing example: A director of procurement inherited 15 category managers and scheduled individual half-hour meetings. The disparity in preparation proved illuminating. High performers arrived with category plans, achievements, and burning platforms. Struggling team members had completed minimal pre-work and wanted to complain about software or stakeholders.
“What it allowed her to do was really focus her conversations. There’s only one point in your tenure when you’re going to be able to have that open a conversation.”
Move beyond consultation to co-creation. Rather than “Tell me your requirements, and I’ll source the best solution,” try “Let’s jointly define success criteria and design the sourcing strategy together.” When stakeholders participate in designing the procurement approach, they become advocates rather than critics.
The Technology Trap
Just imagine you’re in your second month. The technology landscape is clearly inadequate: spreadsheet-based processes, manual workflows, limited visibility. You know what “good” looks like. The temptation is overwhelming: implement a comprehensive procurement platform.
This is where even experienced leaders stumble.
Tom cautions: “I think there’s an element of tech distraction. Almost going in guns blazing to say this is the tech solution we need, or getting so distracted by tech being the solution that you forget the people and processes.”
Research from leading consultancies indicates that 70–84% of digital transformation initiatives fail to achieve their stated objectives. The failure modes are consistent: maturity mismatch, change resistance, implementation drag, adoption failure.
Back in 2023 I had a chat with someone from the Hackett Group who said every newly appointed CIO changes to three major systems immediately: Workday, salesforce and C. But if you examine statistics on how many implementation projects succeed? It’s sobering. In those first six months, focus on understanding what you have and, based on your maturity level, what you actually need for the next stage. Don’t burn resources on a new full source-to-pay suite.
The alternative: Implement the minimum viable technology to solve your most pressing problem, prove value, secure adoption, then expand. Start with visibility tools, then efficiency enablers, then strategic capabilities; only after fundamentals are solid.
The critical question: “What specific problem does this solve, and do we have the organisational maturity to leverage it effectively?”
The “Parallel Worlds” Mistake
Here’s an unforced error: new leaders inadvertently create “parallel worlds”; reporting structures, meeting cadences, and data requirements that exist solely for their benefit, disconnected from how the organisation actually operates.
Don’t start additional reporting, new meetings, or requirements that overload your team. Instead, invest time understanding how your organisation manages projects. How is it reported internally? How can you piggyback on existing structures?
Why This Happens
The psychology is understandable. You’re accustomed to certain management rhythms. You need specific information to feel in control. Your previous organisation had reporting structures that worked well. Naturally, you replicate what succeeded before.
The unintended consequences:
Your team now maintains two separate systems, the organisation’s project management framework and your procurement-specific reporting. This creates:
- Duplicated effort with no added value
- Resentment about “make-work” activities
- Disconnection between procurement metrics and business KPIs
- Perception that procurement operates in its own silo
There’s a related trap: you try to implement your playbook without understanding the business dynamics. Declaring, “In my previous business, e-auctions were essential, so we need them now”, it doesn’t work without understanding your current environment.
The integration alternative: If the business uses specific project management software, use it for procurement initiatives too. If monthly reviews follow a particular format, adopt it. This doesn’t mean abandoning procurement-specific metrics, it means presenting them in formats the organisation already understands.
Conclusion
The first 180 days demand more than following frameworks, they require sophisticated judgement about when to follow conventional wisdom and when your context demands different choices.
We’ve explored:
- The credibility paradox and context-dependent decision-making
- Self-awareness mechanisms for gathering perception feedback
- Stakeholder engagement that moves beyond consultation to co-creation
- Technology traps that catch experienced leaders
- The “parallel worlds” mistake that sabotages team effectiveness
In Part 2: Team capability assessment, greenfield versus brownfield scenarios, the “Yes, And” approach to CFO demands, measuring success beyond traditional metrics, and the difference between being a Category Manager and operating as a true Head of Procurement.
The leaders who thrive don’t simply work harder, they develop more sophisticated mental models for navigating complexity.
Key Takeaways
✓ The credibility paradox requires context-dependent judgement, not one-size-fits-all answers
✓ Self-awareness mechanisms prevent small gaps from becoming permanent dysfunction
✓ Co-creation with stakeholders builds shared ownership beyond consultation
✓ Technology implementation fails due to maturity mismatches, not technical inadequacy
✓ Integration into existing rhythms proves more effective than importing previous playbooks
References
Kearney (n.d.). ‘The LSD Framework: How to Succeed in the First 100 Days as a CPO’. Available at: https://www.de.kearney.com/article/-/insights/the-lsd-framework-how-to-succeed-in-the-first-100-days-as-a-cpo (Accessed: 22 October 2025).
Adote, A., Drentin, R., Khushalani, S. and Russo, F. (2021). ‘Your first 100 days as CPO’. McKinsey & Company. Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/operations/our-insights/your-first-100-days-as-cpo (Accessed: 22 October 2025).
Deep Stream (n.d.). ‘ACE Your First 180 Days in a New Procurement Leadership Role’. Deep Stream Blog. Available at: https://www.deep.stream/blog/ace-first-180-days-new-procurement-leadership-role (Accessed: 22 October 2025).
Bain & Company (2024). ‘88% of business transformations fail to achieve their original ambitions; those that succeed avoid overloading top talent’. Press Release. Available at: https://www.bain.com/about/media-center/press-releases/2024/88-of-business-transformations-fail-to-achieve-their-original-ambitions-those-that-succeed-avoid-overloading-top-talent/ (Accessed: 22 October 2025).