Why Replacing Non-Functional Procurement Technology Comes Before Fixing Non-Functional Leadership

In today’s digital economy, procurement is increasingly seen as a strategic enabler of business value, not just a cost-control function. While leadership remains crucial, it’s often the technology backbone that determines whether a procurement function can actually perform. In fact, when procurement technology fails to support business needs, even the best leaders are set up to fail.

This article explores why replacing non-functional procurement technology should often be the first priority, before addressing leadership issues—supported by practical insights, examples, and implications.

1. Technology is the Operational Backbone—Leadership Can’t Compensate for Systemic Gaps

A skilled procurement leader may be visionary, but without enabling systems, they can’t execute.

Example:

A CPO at a global manufacturer championed supplier collaboration and risk management. However, their legacy system couldn’t map supplier tiering, lacked contract visibility, and offered no integration with ESG data. Despite strong leadership, the function failed to meet ESG compliance mandates—because the tech simply couldn’t deliver the needed insights.

✅ Takeaway: Technology is foundational. Leaders can’t lead processes they can’t see or influence in real-time.

2. Non-Functional Technology Creates Systemic Inefficiencies that Drain Human Capital

Manual processes, fragmented data, and lack of automation waste valuable procurement time on administrative tasks rather than strategic ones.

Example:

In a utilities company, the Source-to-Pay platform had frequent outages and poor UX. Buyers resorted to Excel and email, leading to rogue spend, slow PO cycles, and missed volume discounts. Leadership was wrongly blamed for underperformance—when the root cause was tool failure.

✅ Takeaway: People burnout and talent attrition often trace back to technological frustration—not poor leadership.

3. Modern Procurement Requires Integrated Intelligence—Legacy Tech Blocks Progress

Digital procurement today requires integration across finance, supply chain, risk, ESG, and supplier innovation ecosystems. Legacy or broken systems act as barriers.

Example:

A retail business launched a D&I supplier strategy, but the eSourcing platform couldn’t tag or filter diverse suppliers. No analytics, no tracking, and no impact. The initiative stalled—wrongly attributed to weak leadership commitment.

✅ Takeaway: You can’t deliver digital strategy with analog tools.

4. Replacing Tech Shows Commitment to Change—Driving Cultural Shift from the Ground Up

When a company invests in next-gen procurement technology, it signals to the organisation that procurement is a strategic function worth enabling.

Example:

A financial services firm implemented a modern cloud-based S2P suite and embedded AI-guided buying. The change fostered cross-functional collaboration, data-driven decisions, and better compliance—unlocking the true potential of the procurement team, including leadership.

✅ Takeaway: A tech reboot can catalyse leadership effectiveness, not the other way around.

5. Poor Tech Obscures True Leadership Performance

Bad tools can hide good leadership. When procurement fails, it’s often unclear whether it’s due to poor direction or poor infrastructure.

Example:

A CPO was replaced in a pharma firm following a supplier audit failure. Months later, after new tech was deployed, the same KPIs improved—without any major leadership changes in the team. The issue had always been operational visibility, not leadership failure.

✅ Takeaway: Fixing the system first lets you accurately assess leadership capability.

Prioritise Tech to Unlock Leadership Potential

While non-functional leadership must eventually be addressed, doing so before replacing broken procurement tech is like blaming the pilot for a faulty aircraft. It’s unfair and counterproductive.

Final Thought:

Investing in functional, scalable, and integrated procurement technology creates the runway for true leadership to thrive. Only then can you judge leadership performance fairly—and drive the transformation procurement truly needs.