In a new series of blogs, we will be introducing our City-REDI Associates, learning more about them and what they plan to do whilst working with us.
The next instalment of this series, we introduce Christopher Lonsdale.
I am a Professor of Procurement and Supplier Management at Birmingham Business School, home of City-REDI. I have spent the past 30-plus years both researching public and private sector procurement and supplier management practice and working extensively with public and private sector organisations, such as IBM, Rolls-Royce plc, NHS organisations, the Department of Health and Molson Coors Beverage Company.
When starting in the 1990s, there were relatively few academics working in this area within Europe. This has changed, although procurement and supplier management still struggles to get recognition and influence within business schools and many organisations alike. We could debate why, but part of this examination must include looking at ourselves within the profession. In many quarters, we have failed to make the case for greater recognition and influence.
In my time, there has undoubtedly been improvements in practice, including technology developments (and some increase in recognition and influence, don’t get me wrong). Nevertheless, many of the challenges facing organisations when they undertake procurement and supplier management remain largely the same as when Oasis and Blur were fighting for top spot in the hit parade.
In particular, one, organisations too often still get in their own way when undertaking procurement and supplier management (with poor value for money often being largely self-inflicted, not the result of anything happening in the supply market, although issues of course can arise there too) and, two, technology too often disappoints and frustrates efforts to operate productive procurement processes.
Procurement and supplier management as an organisational practice and capability
Key to understanding why some challenges persist is to look at procurement and supplier management as an organisational practice and capability rather than as a narrow functional practice undertaken by procurement professionals.
In the public sector context, this means seeing the realm of procurement and supplier management practice as involving all three of needs assessment (and subsequent specification or service scope), sourcing (often seen as the ‘procurement bit’) and supplier management, with such three-pronged practice involving many stakeholders (including procurement professionals).
It is this involvement of multiple stakeholders that cause many of the persistent challenges that affect the achievement of value for money, that is getting the required ‘fit for purpose’ product or service for the best possible whole life cost.
Stakeholders from different parts of the organisation have different agendas, requirements, incentives and perspectives that can cause conflict at different stages of the procurement and supplier management process. What is the organisational need? How should that be reflected in a specification or service scope? What selection criteria will best produce an optimal supplier? And so on. All these questions can cause considerable heartache.
There have been much publicised failings in public sector procurement, partly due to such challenges. But, as anyone who has worked within private sector procurement will tell you, the private sector also faces such challenges. It is a myth that there is a binary difference between the two sectors. The private sector just doesn’t have to discuss its failings with the Public Accounts Committee of MPs.
Procurement functions adding value to their organisations
While there is value in seeing procurement and supplier management as an organisational practice and capability, it is also interesting to study the procurement function, which I have done for many years.
In particular, procurement functions in both the public and private sectors increasingly must cope with a much more hazardous geo-political, inflation-prone environment, plus intensifying climate change, the latter affecting in particular food and drink companies like Molson Coors that I mentioned above. This has proved an opportunity for procurement functions.
Over the past decade, many procurement functions have become recognised as a source of expertise in the management of such risks, providing solutions. With respect to climate change, procurement functions play a key role given that Scope 3 emissions tend to exceed Scope 1 and 2. Delivering such risk management has been a way of increasing and widening the value that procurement functions provide the organisation, with a modest positive effect on reputation and influence resulting in many cases.
Another way that procurement functions can provide value to the organisation is by working with other stakeholders to engage with suppliers on innovation. Small changes to products, for example, can add up to very large gains when companies are producing many millions of products (and their packaging) a year. It is here that cost savings, enhanced competitiveness and improved Scope 3 performance can go hand in hand.
So, there are interesting issues to study concerning procurement functions and also at the heart of my research is how such functions are reorganising themselves to better deliver value to the organisation, with technology a key driver of new organisational models.
Current issues within public sector procurement on my radar
City-REDI has a significant interest in the public sector and myself and colleagues can offer expertise on public procurement.
First, the UK adopted a new ‘post-Brexit’ set of public procurement regulations in 2025. These new regs provide greater flexibility for public sector organisations to engage with supply markets in their attempts to obtain value for money. My colleagues and I are watching how the new regs bed down, with the hope that the flexibility provides positive not negative new ways of operating.
Second, social value is a key aspect of public procurement within the UK and Europe in the 2020s. This includes using public procurement to help achieve environmental goals, but also to pursue other public policy objectives such as local economic development and employment opportunities for disabled people.
Risks with the social value agenda include that it is resisted by certain stakeholders but also that it makes procurement too complicated if too many social value causes are pursued. I have been active in recent years watching how the social value agenda is developing within Europe and beyond and this is something I can bring to City-REDI.
Third, as mentioned above, I have a particular interest in the way procurement functions set up to undertake procurement and supplier management, in terms of structure, recruitment, development, stakeholder engagement and technology. This includes within the public sector.
In terms of technology, I am interested in how AI technologies can be used to assist procurement functions without them becoming a distraction, a drain on financial resources and a cause of a long list of tech vendors. Three years on from LLMs exploding into our consciousnesses, I would argue that adoption within procurement has been cautious, targeted and healthily sceptical. It is a fascinating area to work on as an academic, especially one working closely with companies and public sector organisations.
Why have I joined City-REDI?
Academics are usually happy to work on their own or with select colleagues, and there is much to be said for doing so. However, joining groups such as City-REDI give an academic access to a wider range of like-minded, but cross-disciplinary colleagues. It also provides a platform for coming into contact with executives and managers working outside the walls of academic. This has always been my passion. As such, I look to explore the above issues within this exciting research group.
I have already produced research briefs on the 2025 UK procurement regs and social value procurement. I will continue to engage with City-REDI as other opportunities and issues arise in the coming years.
Disclaimer:
The views expressed in this analysis post are those of the author and not necessarily those of City-REDI or the University of Birmingham.