Chief Procurement Officer (CPO)

According to Business Dictionary, the Chief Procurement Officer, or CPO, is “[An] executive level employee whose responsibilities include sourcing, supply management, and procurement for the organization. Generally, the CPO reports directly to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of a company.”

And according to [Wikipedia], a CPO is, “typically the executive of a corporation who is responsible for the management, administration, and supervision of the company’s acquisition programs. They may be in charge of the contracting services and may manage the purchase of supplies, equipment, and materials.”

These definitions are both vague and redundant because the procurement industry lacks common definitions. Procurement is a business function focused on supply management, which by default includes sourcing – beyond day-to-day supplier management and transactional activity.

Ultimately, the procurement function is what develops and executes supply chain management processes, whether the resources used to perform the processes report to procurement or not. This means the CPO is the highest-ranking person in the company with the authority to influence the supply and the spending required to acquire the supply, throughout the entire company. The procurement policies and procedures determine which purchases require procurement’s input, and which ones are handled by end users. Generally, the purchasing department must play a role in any complex, long-term, or expensive purchases, while end users are allowed to handle one-off transactions that are simple and low cost.