P&SC LIVE Q&A: Ninian Wilson, CEO of Vodafone Procurement
Ninian Wilson, Global Supply Chain Management Director and CEO of Vodafone Procurement Company, used his keynote presentation to delve into the strategies and innovations driving Vodafone’s procurement operations, highlighting the importance of agility, digital transformation and sustainability.
He also discussed how Vodafone is navigating the complexities of global supply chains, ensuring resilience and efficiency in a rapidly changing environment.
Following his keynote, Ninian spoke to Procurement Magazine about the innovations in the space he is most excited about and his biggest takeaway from the event.
What inspired you to get involved in the procurement and supply chain space?
When I was at university, I had something called the milk round and I went for a number of potential jobs. I went to BP, Bank of Scotland, British Rail and British Gas. So four interviews and they were all in supply chain and supply chain management.
I was quite interested back then in logistics. That's how I got into the roles in 1990.
How has your perspective of the industry evolved over time?
Well, first of all, you've got to love procurement, you've got to love supply chain, you've got to love logistics. What I've seen over the years is certainly a rising of the strategic importance of procurement and logistics.
Company executive teams, management teams and boards taking a far more interesting look in supply chain and supply chain management, which I think is really good for the profession and it's really good for the individuals who are in the profession.
Looking ahead, what innovations or trends in procurement/supply chain are you most excited about?
I'm generally super, super excited with supply chain tech, the way that we can drive visibility and transparency through the whole supply chain down the different tiers and the ways in which we can empower the procurement professionals to do their jobs faster, quicker and better.
What has been your biggest takeaway or highlight from Procurement & Supply Chain LIVE so far?
The biggest highlight for me is really the new start-up companies who are here, especially around risk and resilience in the supply chain. That seems to be a real theme for this year's conference.
How do you see events like Procurement & Supply Chain LIVE contributing to the broader industry movement?
So I think events such as this contribute in two ways. First of all, they bring procurement and supply chain professionals together along with potential suppliers. So that's really, really positive.
I would hope that if one or two people go back to their businesses and think, 'oh, I think I can do some of the things that Ninian and Vodafone have done', then you move the whole profession forward. That's why I'm very supportive of events such as this.
How do you anticipate procurement/supply chain practices within your organisation to evolve in the next 5 years?
If I think of the key drivers now in procurement and supply chain, we've got a lot of opportunities and challenges. So the opportunities around generative AI, how we deploy that into our procurement systems and processes and tools, great opportunity.
At the same time we've got a lot of challenges around how we comply with our new ESG requirements, how we build resilience into the supply chain and how we monitor that we're actually doing a good job and all of those things and help support decarbonisation of the planet.
So the challenges are huge, the tech is great, the tech is going to help us meet the challenges.
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