There's an interesting interview with Keith Harrison, vice president of global supply at Procter & Gamble, in the Financial Times, in which he touts the supply chain as providing future top-line sales growth for the FMCG company.

"We're trying to make the supply chain into a growth engine for the company," he says. "A lot of the time, supply chain management is reactive, or passive, cost control. But we think there's also an opportunity for us to have the supply chain create top-line growth as well as bottom-line performance."

A couple of points.

More of our practitioners should aim to be interviewed in the general business media like this. It shows how involved the profession is in the fortunes of their company, and so will help to attract talent in the medium to long term. Bright graduates want to make an impact in their place of work and they want an interesting, well-paid and diverse career. Purchasing and the supply chain can provide all of that, but we need to do more to let people know...

Second, you might wonder how improvements in the supply chain directly impact on top-line sales growth. Happily, Harrison explains, in refreshingly direct manner. "If I do something with my supply chain to reduce my customer’s inventories, I want more than just the 'supplier of the year' plaque," he says. "How do we get that value that we’ve created at least partially reinvested in growing our business? Do we get sharper pricing, better features, more display, better shelving?"
 
You might think that P&G has the clout to force its vendors into doing pretty much what it wants. But when you consider that 15% of its products are sold by Wal-Mart alone, which provides a simple insight into the dynamics involved...