THE BUSINESS REVIEW FOR PROCUREMENT LEADERS
Genentech, a pioneering, San Francisco-based biotechnology firm that makes anti-cancer drugs such as Avastin and Herceptin, has doubled its workforce and revenues in the past three years. It has also grown a procurement function headed by Briton Clive Heal in a culture that puts a premium on “a flexible, entrepreneurial spirit” and “a minimum of guidelines and procedures”.
In such an environment, Heal says, introducing and standardising procurement processes has been a challenge – as has finding new people who can win stakeholder buy-in, manage cross-functionally, operate at a strategic level and keep up with the company’s rapid growth. Hiring PhD-qualified scientists who can talk the right language is part of the solution.
Cost control is important to Genentech, he adds, but security of supply, managing growth and helping to bring innovation from the supply base are higher priorities.
He believes that in future procurement professionals will have opportunities in areas such as revenue generation, risk and asset management, and in reaping the benefits of advanced software tools. But CPOs will need to think carefully about what their priorities are and which pathway they want to take.
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