Lifetime of Achievement: Shashi Mandapaty
During his career, Shashi Mandapaty moved from India, where he studied at Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Mumbai, to working around Asia and relocating to Moscow to look after Procter & Gamble Eastern Europe division, before moving to the US.
“The skills needed to make a mark outside your home country are; we have to have this insatiable curiosity, it has to come with humility, genuine keenness to understand the country’s culture and history, or its difficult to connect not only with your team but also with the business that you’re dealing with,” he said, speaking at a NITIE ALUM TALKS event at IIM back in 2021.
“If I’m in the procurement space, I need to work with suppliers, I need to know the history of that country for me to be able to engage effectively with those stakeholders,” he adds.
It was not all procurement for Mandapaty, starting his career as a senior engineer for Thermax, he was designing instrumentation for oil and gas fired boilers and thermic fluid heaters. But in 1997, his path to becoming a leader in the field of procurement started, when he began working for Procter & Gamble.
His climb in procurement originated from a starting role as Purchasing Manager for the India Femcare business, where he was responsible for all direct material purchases, as well as for various plant and DC expansions.
Over the next 16 years, he became the group manager of India MDO, helped charter a formal purchasing organisation for P&G Eastern Europe, managed US$1bn of spend across all categories, became Associate Director of P&G’s global IT purchases, responsible for sourcing P&G's IT spends of more than US$1bn, and became Director of Global Procurement in 2011.
After three years, he joined Johnson and Johnson in 2013, as Vice President, Enterprise Functional Transformation, before again climbing the ranks to become the Chief Procurement Officer in February 2023.
Prior to his role as CPO, Mandapaty created the strategy and roadmap for the Global Services Organisation - the largest and one of the most critical tiers of Johnson & Johnson’s Procurement.
Ever since, he has been steering Johnson & Johnson's direction in delivering value, quality, and innovation via responsible sourcing. With extensive expertise in overseeing procurement entities, Mandapaty offers a broad global outlook, having resided and operated within varied cultural and economic landscapes spanning Asia, Europe, and North America. He holds a fervent dedication to fostering robust supplier relationships aimed at fostering inventive healthcare solutions.
“Suppliers are critical to our mission of changing the trajectory of health for humanity, and we recognise the broad-based impact these external partners have on our communities. That is why we are committed to working with suppliers who not only provide the highest-quality products and services, but who also share our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion; sustainability; and respecting human rights. By working with suppliers who embrace these imperatives, we can drive even greater benefits for society,” says Mandapaty.
As CPO, Mandapaty is responsible for Johnson & Johnson Procurement's external commitments in the areas of environmental, economic, and social sustainability.
In this role Mandapaty was the first global leader of the organisation, and ran end-to-end operations for a US$30bn spend, supporting 30+ categories across 100+ countries.
“At Johnson & Johnson, our goal is to collaborate with our 45,000 suppliers around the world and use our collective ingenuity to change the trajectory of health for humanity," says Mandapaty.
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