More people = Better Results??

"We need more procurement bums on seats todrive cost savings" said a senior procurement leader when challenged by the CFO.

Partially true, but the reality is throwing more resources at a problem doesn't necessarily solve it.

In fact, it can complicate things further, slow down progress, and ultimately result in a loss in credibility.

Because no matter how many people are on your procurement team... It won't help you at all if you don't truly understand where the opportunities lie and what you can do to unlock them.

I see a lot of businesses in this spot.

What they need is increase capability as well as capacity to execute!

And they confuse that with a much simpler metric: Headcount.

Before you hire up, address these constraints:

1.     Do you have data and analytical capability to power your teams?

2.     How are your teams solving problems? Intuition, or testing hypotheses?

3.     How agile can you be in deploying resources? Can your team be flexible if the situation demands it?

If you truly want to put bums in seats and expect them to "make it rain," make sure they're set up for success.