Category Management – 2-Day Intensive

This intensive Category Management course is structured around our 5i® Category Management process, with the main emphasis on all the activities leading up to defining a game-changing sourcing strategy. It provides a good degree of introduction to key stakeholders and junior practitioners in your procurement team.

The course explores the key principles of Category Management, and provides in-depth coverage of a selection of key tools from the process. Your purchasing practitioners will gain an understanding of the benefits of Category Management, including cost savings, reduced risk from your supply chain and boosting innovation and value in your key supply categories.

Learning is delivered through a combination of inspirational tuition, facilitated debate, group work and case studies. The course can be customized around your company specific process and options are available for delegates to work on their own categories in break-out sessions. Practical relevance is provided via carefully selected case studies based upon real-life examples.

Learning objectives

By the end of this course, delegates will be able to:

  • Understand Category Management and how it adds value
  • Explain the key steps of the process and determine which tools to apply for each category
  • Participate in a cross-functional team
  • Define business requirements for a category
  • Begin to analyze a category and develop a breakthrough category strategy
  • Support the creation of a source plan or category strategy
  • Participate in ongoing category projects

Who should attend

  • Procurement professionals
  • Junior or developing buyers
  • Purchasing managers
  • Purchasing leadership teams
  • Stakeholders who are to support or be part of category teams

Course content

  • Introduction to Category Management
  • The STP (Situation, Target, Proposal) tool
  • Cross-functional teams and team formation/project kick-off
  • Stakeholder mapping and communication planning
  • Business Requirements definition and prioritization
  • Determining sources of value
  • Early insights into category using Day One analysis
  • Quick wins and opportunity analysis
  • Data gathering (internal, supplier and market)
  • Getting behind the supplier’s price using price
  • External environment analysis using PESTLE and Porter’s Five Forces
  • Strategy development using Portfolio Analysis/Kraljic Analysis and Supplier Preferencing
  • Summarizing all the analysis and findings using SWOT
  • Source Plan/sourcing strategy development and approval
  • Introduction to implementation planning, project and change management