Keynote: how to make Category Management relevant for the business

Twelve months. That is the time between the first and the second Cirtuo Procurement Forum. Twelve months, since we witnessed the resurrection of category management in Procurement with a renewed focus on customer centricity and aligning category strategies with business objectives. It is fair to say that the timing couldn’t have been better. Twelve months in which GenAI shook the business world, and Category Management claimed its place as the guiding light to navigate complex business environments.

Too often, category strategies end up in drawers. They don’t get implemented, or struggle with low adoption. Reasons range from low stakeholder involvement or buy-in to limited practical applicability under given market conditions or simply botched implementations. With disjointed project planning, task management, and value-tracking activities, bringing the carefully created strategy to life is not a given. In the end, a strategy not implemented is a wasted strategy.