Procurement Entrepreneurship is not just for talented individuals. Make it part of your team culture
Helmuth von Moltke the Elder[i] understood entrepreneurship. Having studied under Carl von Clausewitz[ii], and read the philosophies of commanders such as Hipployte, Guibert, Bourcet, and Napoleon, he was the main instrument of Germany’s reunification in the 19th century.
Von Moltke knew that massed power is needed to win breakthrough results; but he also recognized that it is impossible to provision and direct the necessary forces continuously; or to transport them as a single unit along narrow, constrained roads. Auftragstaktik[iii] was developed to mobilize and command many army groups under different commanders. It recognizes that no general can anticipate what each unit will face and empowers commanders of each to deal with situations as they arise – disobeying orders or revising their effect as long as the intent is maintained.
Von Moltke’s commanders were entrepreneurs.
Auftragstaktik also required fast, regular communication between all of the commanders, and with the general; and the ability to act on information quickly was part of the mix. These were not guerrilla fighters. This was a large, regular and otherwise conventional force; but one that moved at lightning speed, deployed in novel ways, and proved unstoppable.
Procurement is a large, regular and conventional force that does not move at lightning speed, deploy in novel ways, nor prove unstoppable. But, with its unique perspective over every activity in an organization, it could.
Procurement’s 360 degree view to the supplier ecosystem and its access-all-areas pass to every part of its organization create unique opportunities. It sees and evaluates new technologies before its technical colleagues are aware of them; it senses a changing business climate before it is reported to the executive; and it evaluates internal performance against external comparators before a function head can say ‘benchmark’. It ought to be a hothouse of innovation and entrepreneurship.
There is a myth that an entrepreneur is some combination of nutty professor and reckless bohemian. But Peter Drucker accurately concluded that, ‘Entrepreneurship is neither a science nor an art. It is a practice’
And that was Von Moltke’s genius. He discovered that entrepreneurship could be learned, not just by a talented individual, but by a whole organization: and that such an organization can move at lightning speed, deploy in novel ways and prove unstoppable.
PA Consulting calls this practice Entreprocurial[iv] and you can talk to us about it at ProcureCon in Berlin
[i] Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf[1] von Moltke (1800 – 1891), not to be confused with his nephew, Helmuth Johann Ludwig von Moltke (1848 –1916), also known as Moltke the Younger
[ii] Carl Philipp Gottfried (or Gottlieb) von Clausewitz (1780 – 1831), a military theorist and author of Vom Kriege (On War),
[iii] Mission-type tactics, also known as Mission Command
[iv] Entreprocurial is a trade mark of PA Consulting Group