Across the global economy, supply chains have been hammered by the pandemic, forcing businesses to restructure their procurement operations in order to build resilience. Strategic sourcing, simply put, is an information-based process for developing a superior procurement ecosystem that strives to maximize total value for the organization. Once in place, the ecosystem extracts optimal value while obtaining market-clearing costs. It not only solves current procurement issues but also helps mitigate potential future ones.

This article introduces strategic sourcing and identifies six detailed steps to take to maintain a resilient procurement ecosystem during the pandemic and long afterward.