Does the procurement team have the competencies required to deliver the strategy?
Data from the latest published edition of the Big Fish Procurement Barometer, based on a survey of nearly 600 procurement professionals, reveal a clear gap between procurement’s formal role and the conditions in which the function operates. Around 60% of organizations have a procurement strategy, yet only 15% involve procurement when business needs are being defined. In approximately 60% of companies, the function joins the process at the supplier selection or negotiation stage, once the specification, budget and key assumptions have already been established. Procurement can influence commercial terms, but a significant proportion of the decisions shaping total cost, risk and the subsequent model of supplier collaboration have already been made.
A CPO may therefore be accountable for procurement’s impact on financial performance, liquidity and supply risk while their team works within a model designed primarily for the efficient execution of the process. Strong employee competencies will not deliver their full value if procurement is involved too late, strategic roles remain overloaded with operational work and the data required to make decisions sit outside the function.
A different problem arises in organizations that have given procurement an appropriate level of influence, access to information and a clear allocation of responsibilities, but where the quality of category strategies, financial recommendations or risk analysis still falls below expectations. The conditions enable higher-value work, but the team does not possess all the competencies required to perform it.
Distinguishing between these two situations has a direct impact on decisions concerning budgets and people. Constraints resulting from how the function operates require changes to roles, processes and the principles governing collaboration with the business. Competency gaps call for development, succession planning or recruitment. An incorrect diagnosis leads the organisation to invest in the most visible symptom while leaving the main source of weaker performance unchanged.
A competency model describes the function the CPO wants to build
A procurement strategy defines the value the function is expected to create and the business decisions it should influence. Job architecture translates these assumptions into specific roles: their purpose, responsibilities, level of autonomy, decision-making authority and expected outcomes.
A competency model defines the knowledge, skills and behaviours required to perform each role at the level expected by the organisation. Each competency is given a precise definition, proficiency levels and observable indicators showing how it is demonstrated in practice. Terms such as “strategic thinking”, “analytics” or “stakeholder management” no longer depend on an individual manager’s interpretation.
The model should reflect both the strategy and the CPO’s ambition for the future role of the procurement function. The current level of maturity determines the distance from the target and the sequence of actions required. The competency standard should be based on how procurement is expected to operate in the future.
If the strategy involves moving from running sourcing processes to full category management, the model should describe the competencies required in the target Category Manager role, even if the current team is still operating at a tactical level. Building a model based solely on current responsibilities would reinforce the scope of work that the CPO intends to change.
The updated Big Fish Procurement Competency Catalogue 2026 provides a common language and a source of reference for building such a model. The document is updated periodically on the basis of market observations and experience gained through recruitment, competency assessments and development initiatives. The definitions included in the catalogue bring structure to the broad range of competencies found in procurement, but they do not include the proficiency levels and complete behavioural indicators required for a robust assessment. Each organisation must develop these separately, in line with its own strategy, the target role of procurement and its job architecture.
Assessment shows how closely the team meets the requirements of the model
A competency model is the standard that defines which competencies, and at what level, are required in individual roles. An assessment determines the extent to which employees’ competencies meet that standard.
A robust assessment may combine structured competency-based interviews, case studies, work samples, tasks based on real procurement situations and knowledge questionnaires. The methods should follow from the decision the assessment is intended to support. Assessing an entire team before planning development requires a different design from selecting succession candidates or evaluating a person being recruited for a specific role.
The results should show both the profile of each employee and a competency map for the entire team. For the CPO, the location of the competencies required to deliver the strategy is more important than the average score. Are they concentrated in one person, developed only in part of the team or absent from the roles that will require them in the target operating model?
A function may run sourcing processes efficiently while having no one prepared to develop end-to-end category strategies. It may also possess supplier risk expertise whose loss following the departure of a single employee would materially reduce the entire team’s ability to operate.
Assessment results should be interpreted in the context of the employee’s previous performance and the conditions in which those results were achieved. A KPI shows one selected dimension of performance or process efficiency, but it does not explain what produced the result.
High savings may result from sound decisions made by the employee, favourable changes in market prices, an inherited supplier portfolio or actions taken before the employee entered the role. An assessment based on interviews, tasks and work samples makes it possible to examine how the employee analyses a situation, makes decisions and applies the competencies required in the role.
Combining individual profiles with a competency map for the whole team gives the CPO a basis for specific decisions. It shows who meets the requirements of their current role, who may be prepared to take on more complex responsibilities, which gaps can be addressed through development and which competencies need to be found on the external market. It also reveals areas in which the concentration of knowledge in individual employees increases operational or succession risk.
Assessment allows the development budget to target the gaps that constrain performance
Organisations often plan development on the basis of topics raised by managers, employee preferences or the catalogue of available training courses. A competency model and assessment make it possible to connect the investment with a specific role, behaviour and result that the organization wants to improve. The assessment may show that the team needs a programme covering several related competencies. It may also identify one specific gap whose removal would change the way the entire group operates.
Category Managers may know the market and suppliers well but struggle to translate data into cost models and recommendations for the business. In this situation, a short, targeted intervention based on real analyses will have a greater impact than an extensive academy covering the entire procurement competency catalogue. Assessment makes it possible to apply the Pareto principle: to focus the budget on the competencies whose absence genuinely reduces the quality of decisions, category performance or an employee’s ability to perform their role.
A development intervention may take the form of training, mentoring, work on a specific project, case analysis, rotation or a temporary expansion of responsibilities. The choice of method should depend on the cause of the gap, the expected change in how the work is performed and the result that the change is intended to influence.
A competency model improves the accuracy of recruitment and succession decisions
Recruitment based on job title, sector and number of years of experience increases the risk of hiring someone who is prepared to work within a different procurement operating model.
A candidate may have worked as a Category Manager for many years and still have no experience of independently developing category strategies, managing a category end to end or working with senior leadership.
A competency model makes it possible to define the requirements of the future role and use them throughout the recruitment process. The interview, case study and work sample can assess the competencies genuinely required in the position. The recruiter and procurement leader use a common set of criteria, ensuring that an attractive job title on a CV does not replace evidence of effective performance.
The organization can also distinguish between the competencies required from the first day of employment and those that can be developed after the person joins. This broadens the candidate market without lowering the requirements that are critical to successful performance in the role.
The model also supports succession decisions. Results achieved in the current role do not determine a person’s readiness to operate within a different scope of responsibility. A Category Manager who performs effectively in a local market may have excellent knowledge of the category, suppliers and procurement process while still being unprepared for a global role. Such a role requires the ability to align stakeholders operating across multiple countries around a common direction, influence decisions without formal authority, manage tensions between headquarters and local markets and lead collaboration in a multicultural environment.
Assessment makes it possible to determine whether a succession candidate possesses the competencies corresponding to the actual difference between the current and future roles. It also shows which competencies can be developed through appropriately selected experience and development initiatives. Clearly defined proficiency levels increase the transparency of promotion and succession decisions. The organisation can specify which competencies are required in a more complex role, which of them the employee already possesses and what experience they should gain before taking on greater responsibility.
The model does not replace performance assessment or job evaluation, but it reduces situations in which promotion results primarily from tenure, employee visibility or the manager’s subjective opinion.
Assessment results must be interpreted alongside how the function operates
Assessment shows which competencies are available within the team and at what level. Interpreting the results, however, requires consideration of how procurement operates. The ability to use competencies is determined by role design, the allocation of responsibilities, the point at which the function becomes involved, access to data and the authority to influence business decisions. A Category Manager may possess the competencies required to develop category strategies but spend most of their time dealing with purchase orders, complaints, invoices and day-to-day escalations. A team responsible for supplier risk may possess the appropriate knowledge but work without data, monitoring tools or clearly defined escalation rules. The assessment will correctly identify the available competencies, while the weaker performance of the function will result from how the work is organised.
A maturity assessment helps determine whether the current operating model supports the role of procurement implied by the strategy and the CPO’s ambition. The analysis covers the function’s position within the organisation, the point at which it is involved in business processes, the allocation of responsibilities, the way decisions are made, access to data and technology, and the principles governing collaboration with the business.
If the way the function operates enables it to fulfil its intended role and the assessment identifies competency gaps, the decision concerns development or recruit. If the required competencies are available but the organisation uses them in roles with an excessively narrow scope, the CPO should change the allocation of work, the processes or procurement’s level of influence. Some organizations will need to pursue both actions in parallel: redesigning how procurement operates and preparing employees for new roles. Combining competency assessment with maturity assessment reduces the risk of investing in the development of people whom the organisation still does not allow to work at a higher level, as well as the risk of creating new roles without people who are prepared to fill them.
The CPO gains a basis for determining whether the constraint lies in the team’s competencies, the design of the function or a mismatch between the two.
Before approving the next development plan, launching a recruitment process or changing the structure, the CPO needs answers to three questions:
- Which competencies, and at what level, are required in the roles within the target procurement function?
- Which of these competencies are currently available within the team?
- Which constraints result from the readiness of the people, and which result from how the work is organised?
The competency model, assessment and maturity assessment provide the data required to make these decisions. They make it possible to determine where a short development intervention will be sufficient, which gaps require longer-term work, when external recruitment is necessary, who can be entrusted with a more complex role and where replacing employees would leave the underlying organisational problem unresolved.
Big Fish supports organisations in building competency models, assessing the competencies of procurement teams, designing development initiatives and recruiting procurement specialists, managers and leaders. We tailor the scope of the diagnosis to the decision it is intended to support: developing the existing team, succession planning, changing roles, recruitment or redesigning the procurement operating model.
For organizations preparing to make such a decision, we offer a diagnostic discussion to determine what data the CPO needs and what scope of the model and assessment will provide it.