Resistance to change: a challenge multiplied for procurement teams

Resistance to change, the enemy of your projects!

It is well known that resistance to change is the enemy of any project and any business transformation. It comes in different forms and can sometimes be easily identified or disguised in different ways . But what about professional buyers and to what extent does this phenomenon impact the world of corporate purchasing?

The purchasing departments of companies are not spared from this problem, quite the contrary! Indeed, like any organization, purchasing teams and buyers have often developed their own habits in their methodology, their tools and with their suppliers. It is then difficult to change the way of working, especially when it comes to human contacts.

An employee who has been using a particular tool or strategy to enter into negotiations for years does so out of a belief that he or she has found the best strategy. From the same

In this way, the emotional bonds formed with the various suppliers reinforce habits and make change increasingly difficult to accept. Internally, a purchasing department or a buyer is therefore confronted with resistance to change in a natural way and often against the general interest of the company .

Changing systems, strategies and tools requires more work. Many factors are forcing procurement teams to evolve, and to do so increasingly and rapidly: The level of service provided by suppliers is becoming increasingly sophisticated; there are numerous supplier consolidations; procurement categories are being reviewed more frequently; and these teams are increasingly expected to develop programs and recruit talent capable of analyzing ever-greater volumes of data and defining strategies in response to constant pricing changes, etc.

At this point, we could conclude that resistance to change hinders the results of the purchasing department, but that this is common to all teams in a company and is not a problem more specific to the purchasing department. However, and this is a double whammy for buyers, there is still the management of the change of the various stakeholders of the company who are impacted by purchasing!

Indeed, it must be taken into consideration that purchases are made in order tohelp other departments and employees to carry out their missions. The end-users are the other departments and they have many expectations and habits, which, if not met or changed, may result in a refusal on their part and thus the announced failure of even a very well negotiated purchase.

Theclassic example of the IT system negotiated by buyers for months but not used by employees who disagree with a system change is well ingrained in our minds and yet this type of mistake is so easily repeated, as are the losses associated with this resistance to change. It is therefore sometimes a good work done by theprocurement team that the other departments turn into a fiasco because of the refusal and opposition mechanisms developed by them. Thus, in order to defuse this external resistance, there are many methodologies to apply. Among these are two guidelines for the purchasing team: creating engagement with internal customers and having an internal customer-centric approach.

What steps to take to tackle resistance to change

Here are some actions and measures to implement to achieve this: