Procurement Protagonist Ltd

Author of Procure Bites, the number 1 Procurement newsletter delivering insights to help Procurement Professionals get 1% better every week. 

Creator of Procurement Soft Skills Mastery, the online course that's fast tracking Procurement careers globally.

Public Speaker.

Founder

Bibby Financial Services

Responsible for leading the Procurement & Properties functions. Driving the strategy, building the team, driving cost efficiency and commercial best practice across the business.

Head of Procurement & Properties

Responsible for heading up a new procurement function, building the team, driving cost efficiency and procurement best practice across the business.

Head Of Procurement

Nisbets 

•	I led a team of buyers across all buying activity across £100M + of spend.
•	I was responsible for delivering the budgeted revenue, profit and margin of the third party range.
•	I developed and evolved a Supplier Relationship SRM strategy
•	I was responsible for leading a developing a buying team.
•	I  developed and maintained strategic relationships with key functional leaders in marketing, sales, sourcing & finance.

Global Head of Buying

Clarks

•	Head of Procurement for Brand, Marketing & Digital Marketing. Led Procurement Transformation, redefining procurement role.
•	Simultaneously Head of Procurement for all Corporate Categories: Professional Services, HR, Properties, Consultancy Spend, Finance & Legal.

Head of Procurement: Corporate, Brand, Marketing & Digital Marketing 

•	Global Supply Chain & Logistics Procurement Lead
•	Delivered multi-million savings on Inbound & Outbound Transportation
•	Led RFP to source new WMS for UK
•	Led Global Procurement Team
•	Expanded scope delivering savings in Shoecare & Accessories

Head of Procurement: Supply Chain & Logistics 

The Hut Group

•	Headed up the Purchasing Team for the Lifestyle Division at the Hut Group, the UK's leading multi-site online retailer.
•	Reported into the Divisional CEO and led a team to deliver best in class availability, cost benefits and working capital improvements to the business.
•	With full responsibility for all elements of Supply Chain and Buying, I drove the profitability of myprotein.com, the leading online retailer for Sports nutrition & supplements, as well as the newly launched myvitamins.com

Head of Purchasing - Lifestyle Division

The Co-operative Group

•	Led a team of range managers to develop and recommend product strategies by store format for the food business. Ensuring branded and own label ranges exceeded customer expectations.

Range Strategy Manager

•	Successfully bought the entire Soft Drinks range - Carbonates, RTDs, front of store chilled soft drinks, ambient juice, cordials, water. Annual Turnover £450 Million.

•	Delivered market share increases across chilled soft drinks, take home soft drinks and ambient juice categories with YOY cash margin benefits. Exceeded stretching budget targets.

Soft Drinks Buyer

•	Transformed YOY sales & increased Spirits market share by introducing a clear & consistent range strategy. Annual Turnover £350 million.

Spirits & Fortified Wine Buyer

•	Consistently delivered versus budget targets while responsible for Desserts & Puddings, Homebaking, Sugar, Sauces & Pickles, Canned Fruit & UHT Milk categories.

Grocery Edibles Buyer

•	Grey market buying, negotiating costs from alternative sources to deliver enhanced margin against standard cost price for branded goods.

Strategic Purchasing Buyer

•	Fast Track Head Office Management Training Scheme: 4-6 month projects in Stores, Depots, Supply Chain, Marketing and Buying.

Graduate Management Training Scheme

I simplify Procurement | 5900+ newsletter subscribers get insights making them 1% smarter at Procurement each week | Link below 👇

There are plenty of expensive ways to get better at Procurement.
Expensive courses and Qualifications. 

But after 25+ years in both direct and indirect procurement roles, I figured out the real differentiator for procurement success - and it doesn’t cost the earth.

It’s how you interact with others.
Your ability to influence, communicate, and collaborate.
In short, your soft skills.

I’m Tom Mills, Procurement Protagonist®, and through years of hard-won experience (and a few battle scars), I built the frameworks that helped me and my teams thrive. 

Those frameworks became my flagship course, Procurement Soft Skills Mastery, now helping procurement professionals elevate their careers around the world.

I also simplify procurement through cheat sheets, frameworks, and my weekly newsletter, Procure Bites -- - read by over 20,000 procurement pros who want real, relatable insights (not jargon).

Here’s how I can help you:

1. Subscribe to Procure Bites - the number one independent procurement newsletter.

2. Join the waitlist for Procurement Soft Skills Mastery (limited enrolment windows).

3. Partner with me through the Quarterly Growth Package if you’re a business looking to reach 115,000+ LinkedIn followers and 20,000+ newsletter subscribers.

All links are in my bio and featured section.

📧 Sponsorship enquiries: tommills@procurebites.com

(no sales emails, please)

Bad calculations = Broken procurement 

This infographic shows 7 simple calculations for measuring procurement effectiveness:

1️⃣ TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) 
↳ TCO = Purchase price + operating costs + maintenance costs + disposal costs

2️⃣ Purchase price variance
↳ Purchase price variance = (standard price - actual price) x quantity purchased

3️⃣ Cost savings % 
↳ Cost savings percentage = (old price - new price)/ old price x 100 

4️⃣ Lead time
↳ Lead time = order received date - order placed date
 
5️⃣ Inventory turnover ratio
↳ Inventory turnover ratio = cost of goods sold/ average inventory

6️⃣ Supplier on-time delivery rate
↳ Supplier on-time delivery rate = number of on-time deliveries/ total deliveries x 100

7️⃣ Economic order quantity
↳ Economic order quantity = Square route of (2 x demand x ordering cost)/ holding cost.

Any others to add?

Repost ♻️ if this was helpful

Tom Mills

Get 1% smarter at Procurement every week | Join 20,000+ newsletter subscribers | Link in featured section (it’s free)👇

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What we do in procurement is NOT what it seems.

This document explains the different roles with the Simpsons:

Mr Burns – The CPO
↳ Obsessed with strategy, cost savings and "excellent" deals. Sometimes a little too focused on the numbers, not always the people.

Lisa Simpson – Category Manager
↳ The brains of the operation. Analytical, detail-oriented, always asking the tough "why?" questions. Occasaionally frustrated no one listens though. 

Marge Simpson – Senior Procurement Manager
↳ The calm, empathetic bridge between procurement and stakeholders. Keeps relationships running smoothly, even when other are creating chaos. Underappreciated, bt the glue holding it together.

Bart Simpson – Buyer
↳ Hands-on, a bit mischievous, always looking for a clever shortcut. Gets stuff done fast, sometimes bending the "rules" (processes). Energetic and resourceful - but can cause trouble if unsupervised. 

Moe Szyslak – Supplier Relationship Manager
↳ Always dealing with suppliers (aka customers). A little cynical, but knows everyone and everything going on in the ecosystem. Makes things happend behind the bar (or contract).

Comic Book Guy – Procurement Analyst
↳ Data-obsessed, loves a spreadsheet more than fresh air. Has a stat or report for every scenario. Forever saying "Worst supplier performance...ever."

Ned Flanders - Contract Manager
↳ Knows every clause, every rule, every compliance detail by heart. Friendly and polite, but never lets you miss the small print. "Okily dokily, sign here-il."

Which character are you?

Any others to add?

Procurement roles explained as the Simpsons

Many say the RFP process is "used to get the best possible price". 

I'm sorry. It’s not. Even Wikipedia is wrong.

I don’t like semantic battles

And I know many in Procurement are being tasked with cutting costs for Q4 of 2025

Particularly with the bleak economic forecasts and widely held viewpoint that AI can drive efficiency savings. 

But if you employ that approach to assess outcomes, the most likely long term one for your business is failure.

So, what exactly is an RFP used for? 

RFP is short for “Request for Proposal.” 

But perhaps it should be rebadged as “Request for Partnership”.

The goal of an RFP is to evaluate multiple options and get the maximum return on any investment your business makes.

It's about learning what’s available as efficiently and objectively as possible. 

Maximising value while minimising risk. 

Not creating a low cost MVP solution for your business.

The evaluation stages of an RFP often cause greatest confusion. 

Once the RFP has been sent to suppliers, many evaluate the responses based on pre conceived criteria of ‘what good looks like’.

And the worst go on to over inflate the importance of cost while completely dismissing the significance of value.

In a Vendr interview here https://lnkd.in/g9S86SKH

re-evaluation of key performance indicators (KPIs) is discussed, particularly the shift away from focusing solely on cost savings.

Dr. Elouise Epstein advocates for using revenue as a more effective guiding metric and turning cost centres into profit centres where possible. 

Another approach I heard recently and loved is using the term "solutions workshops," rather than supplier or product demos when it comes to the presentations in an RFP.

The emphasis being on collaborating with suppliers to learn and develop understanding

Rather than pitching suppliers against each other in a race of doom to the bottom.

You can learn more about how I believe we should progress the profession here (20,000+ now get my weekly insights for free): https://procurebites.com/

~~~

P.S. I created a cheat sheet “How to create an RFP”. You get a hi res PDF version of this and all the other cheat sheets I've created (40+) the moment you sign up for free too.

Please repost ♻️ if you found this helpful.

Every week someone tells me “AI will replace procurement.”

Meanwhile, procurement teams are quietly using AI to write better RFPs, clean up contracts, and hit targets faster.

No headlines. No hype. Just actual progress.

I’ve been reading the new State of AI in Procurement report (800 professionals across 8 industries), and it’s a piece of research that feels believable.

Here’s what stood out:
- 73% of procurement teams already use AI in some way.
- 77% say it’s improving how they work.
 - 79% say it’s helping them meet business goals.
 - 67% think it’ll open up new career opportunities.

But here’s what most won’t tell you: adoption looks completely different depending on where you sit.

Finance and Tech are sprinting ahead with disciplined governance, cross-functional sign-off, and real results.

Manufacturing and Energy are quietly solving the practical stuff like supplier risk, contract compliance, and audit prep.

Retail and Healthcare are moving cautiously, not because they’re behind but because they can’t afford to get it wrong.

And the biggest success story?
 
Not sourcing bots.
Not fancy dashboards.

Contracting.
Across every sector, 80% of teams are using AI for contracts and rating it 8.3/10 for impact.

Turns out the future of procurement AI might just be the paperwork we’ve been drowning in for decades.

—

Tomorrow I’m chairing a FREE 🎁 webinar that dives deep into this report with some brilliant procurement leaders.

We’ll cut through the hype and unpack what’s really working.
📅 Tomorrow: October 16th 10 am PT / 1 PM Et, 6pm BST

🎁 Free registration: https://lnkd.in/eGShKG9A

Here's what we'll cover:

- Real stories: Hear how your peers in procurement are really using AI today (not just pilot programs)

- High-value use cases: See which specific AI applications are delivering measurable cost savings and efficiency gains

- Industry breakdowns: Learn why AI adoption varies dramatically across industries and what that means for your approach

- Career advice: Get strategies to build AI literacy and future-proof your procurement career

—

P.s. want to download the actual report for free? I’ve put a link in the comments 👇

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