How are Procurement Leaders Navigating Supply Chain Risk?

Procurement professionals are increasingly recognising that supply chain resilience is essential for business continuity.

In recent years, the focus has shifted to building robust, adaptable supply networks capable of withstanding disruption.

At Procurement and Supply Chain LIVE: The Net Zero Summit, industry experts explored how procurement functions can lead resilience-building initiatives and implement effective risk mitigation strategies.

Supply chains in 2025 experienced ongoing volatility through US tariffs, inflation, climate change and conflict. Procurement teams had to develop new sourcing strategies and supplier diversification approaches to maintain business continuity while remaining competitive.

According to a World Economic Forum Global Risks Report, supply chains must become digitally resilient to survive a turbulent global environment.

Trade disruption, cyber threats, climate shocks and regulatory divergence are pushing procurement functions to overhaul traditional sourcing models, developing end-to-end visibility, real-time risk sensing and zero-trust cybersecurity.

Strategic procurement investment decisions

Resilience building requires fundamental procurement strategy restructuring. The most resilient procurement functions have undertaken thorough overhauls of their legacy systems and sourcing approaches rather than adding fragmented digital tools or single sustainability initiatives.

However, budget constraints make procurement leaders cautious about committing resources. Some implement smaller, short-term fixes rather than long-term strategic changes, failing to build sustainable resilience and facing higher responsive costs.

This short-term thinking can prove costly in the long run. When disruptions occur, organisations without proper resilience frameworks face significantly higher emergency response costs than the initial investment required for strategic planning.

"I think we recognise that the days of predictable material supply are over; we live in a world of permanent crisis and geopolitical tensions," explains Billy Kingsbury, Chief Executive Officer of thyssenkrupp Materials UK.

"You've got to build resilience into that supply chain and without it, costs go up, not down. We use a digital control tower to give us transparency across our supply chain. When you've got transparency, you can build resilience.

"With true resilience, yes, there might be upfront cost, but it's actually better than the cost that you're saving when something goes wrong."

Supplier collaboration and diversification

Procurement's resilience-building capability comes from investments into artificial intelligence (AI) and digital tools, while some leaders have prioritised sustainability initiatives and supply chain traceability through supplier engagement.

Building strong supplier relationships has become critical to maintaining continuity. Rather than viewing suppliers as transactional partners, leading procurement teams are developing collaborative frameworks that benefit both parties.

"At Specsavers, cost is really important, and making sure that we can still deliver on affordability for our customers," says Clare McMahon, Head of Environmental Delivery at Specsavers.

"We do have to look within the supply chain and building that resilience amid all these climatic, political risks that we're facing. By finding value in options and materials and working with our supply chain, we've built a very strong and integrated supply chain."

Diversification strategies are equally important. Relying on single sources or concentrated geographic regions creates vulnerability that can cripple operations when disruptions occur.

Procurement technology and AI

As procurement teams look to build resilience and efficiency alongside one another, AI has become an emerging tool to speed up processes without sacrificing supply chain integrity.

"I think we're in a really interesting time period. We're at a point where AI is a big buzzword," notes James Rosengren, Transformation - Europe at Mars.

"Everyone wants to invest in it, but what does it actually mean?

"For us, it's about, how do we take our team away from day to day value execution and give them more time for value creation by enabling them with AI tools."

AI is being implemented to handle costly and time-consuming manual tasks, allowing procurement professionals to focus on strategic supplier relationship management. With forecasting capabilities and continuous monitoring, AI can identify risks before they impact sourcing strategies.

"AI will help us mitigate risk," says Sebastien Juras, Head of Sustainability and Transformation at Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise.

"With the company digital twin, we will be able to structure all the data ecosystem.

"We will be able to improve the sales forecast accuracy. And sales for cash accuracy have a direct impact on resilience."

Through implementing strong risk mitigation and resilience strategies over twelve months or more, procurement functions can increase supply chain flexibility and build robust operations, even amid volatility.