200 Participants at the European Procurement Excellence in Frankfurt

Karel van Miert: Dependency on Imports in Energy Sector endangers EU Economy Frankfurt, 15th June 2007. „Europe’s economy is doing better than people think“, highlighted former EU Competition Commissioner Karel van Miert at the European Procurement Excellence in Frankfurt/Main. Organized by the German Association Materials Management, Purchasing and Logistics (BME), the 2nd CPO-Summit attracted 200 participants with 14 different nationalities and speakers from 13 countries. Van Miert furthermore emphasized Europe’s productivity. The economic growth rates are constantly increasing, the common currency Euro is story of success and the German economy is back on track too. Nevertheless, according to van Miert there are still some serious challenges and risks for the European market. Firstly, the national starting positions vary enormously. Secondly, national protectionism in mergers and acquisitions compromises the opportunities for economic developments. Furthermore, van Miert said one of the major topics for Europe is the increasing dependency on imports in the energy sector. Therefore, Europe needs to focus on a broad based mixture of different energies and to liberate the energy-market completely. In order to create a fully functioning internal market barriers like lack of transparency and price formation have to be resolved.   In his opening speech, Dr. Juergen Marquard (Bosch Rexroth AG), Chairman of the BME-Board, highlighted the importance of procurement for business organizations. Purchasing departments provide companies with innovative concepts and play a key role to secure their global competitiveness. According to Marquard, procurement needs to improve its standing inside the organizations and to attract talented young professionals. At the Dinner Speech, Ken James, President of the International Federation of Purchasing and Supply Management (IFPSM), spoke in a rather similar way. Good procurement would be only possible in a well functioning team. James said one of the key challenges for buying organizations is to win the war for talents.   Chief Procurement Officers from different countries spoke about “optimizing total costs of ownership”. Dr. Hugo Eckseler, CPO Deutsche Post World Net, DPWN (D), presented the newly invented DPWN-Corporate Program First Choice. According to Eckseler, Deutsche Post wants to become first choice in the fast growing logistic market. Furthermore, First Choice is supposed to motivate the 500.000 DPWN employees to optimize their productivity.   Johanna Hagelberg, CEO NCC Global Purchasing Group (S), said the price decline is one of the major issues in construction industry. Therefore Scandinavia’s largest construction and Real Estate Company reduced its procurement spending by bundling purchasing volumes, opening new markets and enhancing its products.