Coupa CEO Leagh Turner on Handling the Tariff Landscape

Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs, announced at the White House on 'Liberation Day' is set to severely challenge global procurement strategies. From a 10% baseline tax on US imports, while others face charges up to 50%. As well as retaliatory levies, procurement teams are now operating among unprecedented geopolitical uncertainty. 

This policy shift is causing significant disruption to global procurement strategies, particularly as supply chains have grown increasingly complex with their international dependencies.

Coupa, the total spend management platform is a tool many have used to multiply their margins. But, now, it is helping companies to build resiliency and agility in this time of great uncertainty. 

Sitting down with Procurement Magazine, Leagh Turner, Coupa CEO, discussed how Coupa is helping companies successfully adapt to the new tariff landscape.

How has Coupa's Tariff Impact Planning tool evolved since its implementation and what new features have you added to address the latest tariff challenges?

Tariffs, like any crisis, are extremely dynamic – and the latest round that imposed tariffs on all US importers is a perfect example. They impact businesses in different ways depending on their country, product type and trade relationships. That makes it difficult for leaders to predict the full impact to their business.    

Helping companies build resiliency and agility, making their businesses more effective and efficient, isn’t new to Coupa. Our Supply Chain Design and Planning solution has helped leaders navigate trade complexities, ensuring resilient and cost-effective supply chains amidst changing policy. 

In response to the latest challenges, our new Tariff Impact Planning app, developed using the Supply Chain Design and Planning solution, is designed to help navigate a variety of scenarios from assessing tariff impact across different stages to tracking refunds on previously paid duties. It’s not sufficient to only generate scenarios, decisions have to be made and a feedback loop between execution and supply chain design should be present. 

Our vision is to build the network that builds the future of trade and we’ll do that by leveraging agentic AI, our world-leading, 10 million-strong buyer-supplier network and the US$7tn in insights the global Coupa Community has been building for 19 years. We see a world where, in the future, supply and demand will be matched autonomously, in real time, allowing buyers and suppliers to connect seamlessly, creating a self-sustaining loop that saves everyone money while constantly learning and adapting. 

Agentic AI is pivotal in bringing our vision to life – and it’s what fuels the solutions and tools our customers use making them so impactful and effective. At Inspire this May, Coupa will unveil the next phase of our AI-native platform to help businesses eliminate silos and manual processes.

With the fluctuating tariff increases, how are you advising Coupa's clients to optimise their supply chains in response?

The net net is companies that can optimise fastest – be tariff ready – will win. Here are four ways we’re working with our customers to do that: 

1. Use AI to better predict the unpredictable. This will give insight into what goods are expected to raise costs and how to make the right trade-offs to better run their business. 
2. Improve supplier resiliency/scenario planning. Tap into buyer-supplier networks to run different scenarios to find nearshore or offshore suppliers, negotiate terms and re-route supply chains – rapidly. Essentially, enabling the quick pivot.
3. Optimise operations to improve on-hand inventory and cash. Planning and forecasting tools mean companies can compare supplier pricing, data and risk to optimise inventory now, giving them a cushion.
4. Assume total control over the spend lifecycle. Having insights and a holistic view of spend and suppliers allows agile changes in the supply chain to occur. 

You've mentioned that 'those who optimise fastest will win.' What is Coupa seeing when it comes to clients who successfully adapted to the new tariff landscape using Coupa's solutions?

We’re seeing measurable results when customers use Coupa solutions to be tariff ready. One example that comes to mind is a global CPG company. They are using Coupa to scenario plan with adaptive supply chain modelling to simulate the impact of tariff changes. With that kind of insight, they’re able to make adjustments early on and keep costs under control while ensuring profitability.

Another is a global frozen food company that is using Coupa supply chain modelling to optimise production flow with the imposed 25% tariff on certain goods between Canada and the US. They’re running scenarios for their most in-demand SKUs and using the results to renegotiate.

Given the current geopolitical tensions, how is Coupa helping its clients navigate the complexities of sourcing from different regions?

We’re continuing to help businesses be more resilient, agile and efficient. That’s the heart of what we do for our customers. In early days of tariff news, Barclays had indicated that tariffs could impact S&P 500 company earnings by 2.8%. After new ones were announced on April 2, the S&P 500 fell by 5% the next day. It shows just how dynamic and unpredictable this environment is.   

Companies must think and act differently. After getting the basics down – refining and reinforcing processes, belt-tightening, driving up working capital and cash on hand – planning becomes very important. Asking questions like “Who do I buy from? Where should I buy from? What are the working scenarios? Which ones are optimal?” and “How does that impact my P&L?” When you get the basics down, you can think about what’s next. 

Businesses shouldn’t think of these as just operational questions, rather as strategic levers. The ability to anticipate, model and act on these shifts will define the most resilient and competitive businesses moving forward.

Three really important things to remember. First, we’re in an era of complexity and unpredictability, whether it’s tariffs, trade wars, supply chain fragility  or natural disasters. It’s causing ripples, sometimes waves, of anxiety and it’s not enough to just react. Businesses need to get ahead of the changes by prioritising building resilience and agility into their operations. 

Next, technology can help, that’s really good news. The age of AI is upon us, and businesses can leverage it to build that resilience and agility into the business and help make better decisions. 

Finally – even better news – is the last time companies around the globe faced anything of this order of magnitude, they didn’t have monster data stores nor access to clean, ethically-sourced data. Our customers do and that’s a huge asset to have in navigating these really complex, uncertain times.    

With the rising concern over tariffs among logistics and supply chain leaders, as highlighted in the recent Descartes survey, how is Coupa innovating to address these challenges?

We have a long track record of helping our customers navigate disruptions. Taking it a step further, we believe we have a responsibility to continue investing in innovation to help them thrive in any environment. 

Customers are telling us what they need, and as their strategic partner, we are working alongside them so they can continue delivering growth and efficiency in turbulent – and less turbulent – times. While we do that, we’re also helping them double-down on their use of AI and Gen AI to better automate their operations. 

We are co-innovating new features to tackle the issues they're currently facing, and constantly anticipating and planning for future challenges. 

Coupa is already leveraging AI and real-time data to help customers with contingency plans to adjust supply chains should “what-if” scenarios become reality. But we’re not stopping there. As I mentioned, we have a bold vision to build the future of trade, where we leverage AI to ensure teams can automate mundane tasks and transform how they work giving them more time back to focus on strategic, higher-order work.

You've previously discussed the importance of scenario planning. How has the recent tariff implementation on aluminium and steel imports affected Coupa's approach to helping clients with their strategic planning?

Coupa provides a comprehensive view of all spend, whether direct or indirect, so businesses can better manage any changes in cost. Recent tariffs, whether that’s on aluminium or steel imports, show the critical importance of scenario planning as a strategic tool. 

Coupa’s supply chain solution provides business leaders with a full view of the costs associated with their end-to-end supply chain, all aspects of the costs such as inbound and outbound transportation, manufacturing and customer fulfilment are modelled. The platform automatically flags pricing changes beyond normal fluctuations so teams can easily and quickly find solutions. 

As businesses navigate shifting landscapes, it’s critical they’re able to adapt to changing market conditions, manage risks and make informed decisions, and this is especially true for our customers where the changing price of raw materials can have wide-spread implications on their business.

In light of the ongoing trade tensions, how is Coupa preparing its own teams to handle the increased demand for tariff-related solutions and consultations?

We are committed to staying ahead of the curve when it comes to addressing the evolving needs of our customers. As part of that, we’re constantly working on new features and innovations to help our customers make smarter, more profitable decisions faster and more efficiently. 

The majority of our customers have already updated their risk profile within SCDP to include tariffs, and are running 'what if' scenarios. While there is definitely increased anxiety around the constant fluctuations, we are not seeing any panic reactions from our customers. They know they’re well equipped to manage disruptions with Coupa’s AI-driven scenario planning solutions. 

How is Coupa planning to navigate the future of the tariff landscape, given how it can change in just a few hours?

The important thing is to embrace and lean into the old adage: change is the only constant. Supply chain leaders have faced one unprecedented event after another over the past few years and we’re not done with this current environment.

There’s going to be global reverberations, and an interesting ‘elastic effect’ for some time. Companies need to insulate themselves against that. Those that do and take the opportunity to grow, innovate and implement positive change, will thrive. 

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