Although brief, the discussion covered a lot of ground – not least, talent. (It seems whatever forum or seminar you attend, the subject of talent soon rears its head.)

So I used the opportunity to test a theory – or, at least, a hypothesis – that most middle-manager level procurement people are, at heart, negotiators and lack the strategic ability to take their function to the next level.

The example I used is a story I’ve told elsewhere on this blog:

Having spent almost three years’ on a strategic transformation of his team, one CPO was asked by senior management to return to short-term cost cutting to address the current climate.

No real harm in that. The problem was that this particular CPO’s team was delighted. Back to the good old days of hitting suppliers over the head with a big stick…

Having told this particular story at the roundtable, I was quite pleased by the reaction (I got a laugh) but not necessarily the response: lots of knowing nods and smiles.

So, to put this one to the floor – is the average procurement team happier when simply negotiating price? And if so, how the heck do we successfully take procurement to the next level?

Roach joined BMS in July 2008 from eye care specialist, Bausch & Lomb. In itself this isn’t a particularly interesting or insightful piece of information – the fascinating bit came when he told me what he did there. Although Roach was initially CPO, he was latterly its head of global sales, marketing and customer service. “One of the ideas throughout the profession is how do you take people who are in charge of chief procurement officer roles and expand their responsibilities within the corporation,” he said, expanding on this to say how the procurement profession provides many of the skills required in wider, more senior leadership roles.

Interestingly, he talks of two direct advantages of his move into sales and marketing. “It was an opportunity for me to, one, leave procurement and go into sales and marketing, but also to come back to the procurement side and bring back another set of experiences,” he said.

It provided an excellent example of a procurement executive removing himself from the immediate comfort zone. The benefits of this can be huge – in this particular scenario, however, it seems that BMS is the one which will benefit.