Mark Perera

A sage analyst once told me that nothing creates more nervousness in the procurement community that uncertainty – which doesn’t bode well for the blood pressure of most CPOs at the current time.

Whether its the ongoing economic crisis in the eurozone, fuelled by Greece’s precarious financial position, the continued weakness of many of the world’s major currencies and the subsequent knock-on effect on the price of oil, or the seemingly endless fall-out from the eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland - wherever you look, uncertainty looms large.

For procurement, the problems posed by the various situations unfolding globally are manifest – increased risk, greater exposure to commodity price and currency fluctuations, and potential supply shortages and/or disruption, to name but three.