Is your procurement organisation striving for world class? Well, if it is, as I imagine most are, don’t push too hard for perfection. That’s the message from the 2007 ELP Forum chairman, Christopher Barrat.

Using the analogy of “the perfect plumber” – an oxymoron if ever there was one, Barrat told delegates in his opening address that being world class didn’t have to necessarily mean doing anything out of the ordinary. “If you’re doing everything you should be then the chances are that you are already world class,” he said.

He pointed to the example of Northern Rock – who set out to deliver world class standards but who eventually ended up stretching themselves too far – as an example of what can go wrong when companies try to go the extra mile without thinking of the long-term consequences.

Sustainable targets and a sustainable strategy is key. There’s no need, as Barrat memorably put it, for CPO to start wearing their pants outside their trousers (in classic superhero style) just yet.

There’s something timelessly calming about flying in over the Alps and seeing the Med stretching out in front of you – although with the runway at Nice airport obscured from view you always, for a brief moment, think there’s a better than average chance you’re going to land in it.

Luckily for us, we landed safely and before you could say “ELP” had hopped in a taxi and made our way along one of the world’s most beautiful stretch of coastlines. Looming on Nice’s seafront is the Hotel Negresco – its neon lights guiding delegates towards the second ELP Forum of 2007. And with the event just hours away the excitement, both amongst my colleagues here at ELP and the attendees filing into the magnificent dining room for the networking dinner, is tangible.

Tomorrow brings presentations from some of the continent’s leading procurement figures and discussions around a range of topics that will strike a chord with everyone involved in the discipline.

It promises to be a great couple of days.

We have had a tremendous response to our call for entries for the first European Leaders in Procurement Awards 2007 and we are very pleased to announce the shortlist.

Some of the best known companies from around Europe have put forward individuals, teams and achievements for consideration by our panel of expert judges. The enthusiasm shown by our readers means the awards ceremony in London this month promises to live up to its title – Procurement Excellence in the Spotlight.

Shortlisted entries – featured below – demonstrate the base ELP has developed throughout Europe in less than two years, and represent several European countries and many different sectors.

The Future Leader Award

• Christopher Bormann - Head of sourcing, FinanzIT, Germany
• Caroline Booth - Group procurement relationship manager, Lloyds TSB, UK
• Lucy Haighway - Procurement lead for the BT Group transformation programme, Chorus, UK
  

The ELP Award for Procurement Excellence

• Marks & Spencer
• RWE
• SAP
• BAE Systems
  

The ELP Award for People Development

• France Telecom
• Vattenfall AG
• BP
• Volvo
  

The ELP Award for Innovation

• GlaxoSmithKline
• HP
• Vodafone
• DaimlerChrysler

The ELP Award for Corporate Responsibility

• BT
• Severn Trent Water
• Vodafone

Over the last year I have been enlightened by the Procurement Blog Community. However, my addiction to read the posts of from the likes of Spend Matters, Sourcing Innovation et el has been blighted.

The frustration stems from trying to access the posts whilst I am on the move, which normally means viewing the websites via a tiny screen on my Palm Treo (blackberry alternative). Even with the clever optimisation of pages by the browser, reviewing the different blogs can be a slow and cumbersome process.

But, thanks to a pointer from my collegue Alex Martinez my pain is no longer. Alex introduced me to xFruits, a new Web 2.0 service allowing you to manage all your RSS viewing pleasures. For example, it will take any RSS Feed and covert it to mobile friendly page - take a look at the mobile version of the European Leaders in Procurement Blog.
In addition, xFruits also allows you to:

1. aggregate a number of RSS feeds so you can review all your favourite blogs on one webpage
2. create an "RSS to Mail" fruit, which will email you with the last post from your favourite blog
3. create an "RSS to PDF", which dynamically creates a printer friendly PDF document of your favourite blogs eg. PDF version of the ELP Blog
   

Here are some of my favourite Fruits, which I use on a daily basis:

• aggregated webpage of my favourite procurement blogs
  
• Spend matters - mobile version
• Sourcing innovation - mobile version
• eSourcing forum - mobile version

Now nominations are open for the first European Leaders In Procurement Awards we thought it would be a good chance to talk with some of the members of our judging panel, to gather their views on the upcoming ceremony.

After speaking to them, it’s clear the panel, which is made up of some of Europe’s top procurement and business leaders, have at least one thing in common; they're all looking forward to finding out what some of the sector’s most influential and innovative individuals and organisations are going to come up with.

“The awards process is a great way to see what others are contributing to their organisations and the profession as a whole,” says Giles Breault, Chief Purchasing Executive of Novartis Pharma.

“And not only does it give me a chance to really see what best-in-class is, but allows me to benchmark among the very best.”

The inaugural awards represent a very rare opportunity for the best people the industry has to offer to meet and share ideas. Dr. Hans Elmsheuser, Head Global Purchasing at Basle-based Syngenta Crop Protection AG, is relishing the chance to see at first hand what the future of procurement holds.

“This is an exciting time for procurement,” he says. “I’m a firm believer in rewarding excellence, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what the entrants have to offer.”

With the quality of entries likely to be extremely high, our judges will have their work cut out, but each has their own ideas on why these awards, the first of their kind, are so important.

“While only a few win the awards,” says Giles Breault, “the opportunity to qualify and to compete for the awards helps all of us to improve what we do and how we do it.”

For Christina De Luca, Chief Procurement Officer for BP PLC Refining and Marketing Business, the reasons for entering are threefold, and involve the need to recognise not only individual efforts, but also company excellence and the value of team working.

“External recognition of your accomplishments feels great and paves the way for the next challenge,” she tells ELP.

So with a variety of nominations expected over the next few months, our judging panel, like our nominees, are likely to have their hands full.

To find out more about our panel and what they believe makes a winning formula, read our exclusive interviews in the ELP Awards supplement, due out with January's European Leaders In Procurement magazine.

There’s always a good feeling at the start of a New Year but there’s a particular buzz at ELP right now after the announcement that three of Europe’s top consultancies have joined us as global authors and supporters of the network in 2007.

Companies don’t come much bigger than Accenture, and when you add to them two of the European procurement sectors most influential consultancy firms in BrainNet and ProcServe, it’s little surprise that there’s some excitement.

Throughout the next 12 months these three companies will contribute articles, white papers and research to ELP, as well as sharing best practice information in procurement and supply chain management with our ever-expanding Network.

In a short space of time ELP has established itself as the most influential buying community in Europe, but, like the market itself, we’re not standing still waiting for things to happen.

Ideas and innovation are key concepts in procurement and 2007 is an exciting time to be involved in a business area that is taking an increasingly prominent role in the corporate agenda. Which is why bringing in outside views, opinions, and insight - whilst maintain editorial control - is important.

Their contributions will ensure that our members will, alongside our regular events, research, online news service and quarterly ELP magazine, continue to have access to the information that counts, when it’s needed most.

One of the most well received presentations at the October European Leaders In Procurement Forum was given by Haidé Villuendas of Royal Numico. In her inspirational presentation, Haidé explained the advantages of innovation as a source of growth and how Royal Numico has tapped into its suppliers' R & D budget to benefit.

Numico had benchmarked its Supplier Relationship Management programme - through the Supplier Working Relationship Index - to understand how their business was perceived and where they needed to focus to drive relations and innovation.

The case study is a great example of how a strong Supplier Relationship Management programme can enable procurement to drive value into the business.

If you were unable to join us at the this conference, you can now listen to Haidé's presention online by clicking here (ELP Network members only). Going forward, other selected presentations from the our conferences and events will be made available in the 'Community' section of the site. We hope you enjoy this new service!

A carton of baby milk was the evidence presented to the latest European Leaders in Procurement forum as real life evidence of how innovation from suppliers can be harnessed.

The demonstration was passed to participants at the forum by Haide Villuendas, global purchasing director, raw materials at Netherlands-based Royal Numico.

More than 100 senior procurement executives from several European countries took part in the event on the theme “value creation and innovation.”

Stephan Biesenbach of Swedish energy company Vattenfall opened the forum with challenging comments on the need to develop procurement talent.

“The biggest challenge now is to get the people we need to do what we have to do,” he said.

Christina De Luca, CPO of the refining and marketing business at BP made the apparently startling admission that she had no procurement strategy.

“I have not a procurement strategy but to help our businesses achieve their strategies,” she said.

The need to develop good relationships with suppliers was not just the responsibility of senior management.

“It’s not just about the individuals at the top looking after the relationship. It’s about everyone. So you need to do a lot of work with your global community.”

Results of the survey of senior executives by the ELP Network and consultants Efficio showing how the status of procurement has risen dramatically in the last six years were unveiled at the forum.

“The change has been a long time coming but in the past few years it has exploded,” Alex Klein, VP and COO of Efficio said. “Procurement has moved from the back office to the front office.”