5 Minutes With Fabian Lampe - Founder of Advance Procurement

How did you come to work in the procurement industry?

There is a concept about the brain having two different sides – one being creative, the other being logic. For me, I’ve always felt that I need to nurture both. 

I first touched procurement when I studied marketing and supply chain management. When I finished my studies, there was an opportunity to join a marketing procurement team, which allowed me to nurture both these sides of the brain. From there, my journey went on to category management roles, to procurement consulting, and to working with solution providers.

What inspired you to found Advance Procurement?

Over the years, my journey in procurement has been quite diverse – from global category manager at Bayer and Unilever to consulting with Deloitte and working for solution providers with advanced sourcing capabilities. 

Reflecting on my career, I thought to myself, ‘I’ve seen procurement from the ground, I’ve seen it from consulting, and I’ve seen it from a solution provider viewpoint’. 

That is a very unique set up. Very few people experience procurement from these different perspectives. So I believe that this is a very interesting perspective that I can offer. 

This is why I decided to start Advance Procurement, a boutique consultancy focused on procurement and marketing. It is scary to start from scratch, but I had to see if it would work. 

What does your company do?

We’re a consultancy focused on Procurement and Marketing. In Procurement, we focus on digital transformation, savings programmes, and indirect spend optimisation. In Marketing, we offer end-to-end communication support. We support our customers in becoming strategic in their approach to Marketing, from brand strategy to content creation.

What has been your greatest achievement so far in your career?

Once, I had the opportunity to do a purpose workshop to find out my own purpose. I ended up with ‘passionately engaging people’, which rings true for me on so many levels. 

I believe that this is my greatest achievement in my career: winning over stakeholders and people that others didn’t manage to do. 

I’ve had these moments multiple times over the last 15 years, and that is what makes me the most proud. 

What are your plans for the future?

My top priority for the future is to grow the company. 

Right now, the concept for Advance Procurement is to work with experts, bringing them in as they are needed for projects instead of the classic consulting company, where you have X employees and find projects for them. 

Nevertheless, I would like to grow the company and build out the service offering in both the procurement and marketing services.

My work has shown me that there is a demand to educate industries on the languages and challenges that procurement faces. 
So there’s certainly a lot of opportunity to grow and to work with more providers in building a mutual understanding between them and procurement.