In 2021, we facilitated a lot of discussions about category management. Is it still fit for purpose or does this 25-year old business process need to evolve faster to keep up with the ways procurement continues to change?

At Mastermind LIVE Spring 2021, Nancy Nicoll, VP of Indirect Sourcing Center of Excellence at Retail Business Services, and Jaime Robles, CPO of Caseys General Stores, joined Philip Ideson for a panel session to discuss procurement operating models - specifically, whether category management is 'dead' or 'alive' and if procurement should pursue a relational or expertise-based model for working with the business.

They answered questions such as:

• What are some of the challenges that a category management-driven procurement structure brings and how can we overcome them?
• How might procurement’s approach to category management affect their relationship with the business?
• Where should procurement get category expertise from if it doesn't reside in the person running the sourcing process?