Keywords: shared services, finance shared services, procure to pay, purchase to pay, P2P, purchase-to-pay process owner, procure-to-pay owner, purchase-to-pay owner

What to look for when recruiting a purchase-to-pay process owner

Susie West | Article | 3 September 2012

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The question that stops most shared services leaders in their tracks is: ‘should the perfect P2P process owner be largely accountant or largely change manager?’

It’s a question most leaders wouldn’t have asked a few years ago as it’s only recently that the job of Purchase to Pay Process Owner has come into being.

A few years ago the title was a rarity. But now it’s recognised as a central component to the development of finance shared services.

However, like all new roles, this role begs a number of questions and I’m going to be examining them in this article, along with providing some possible answers.

Let’s start with the most commonly asked question on P2P process owners:

Should your P2P process owner be an accountant or a change manager?

A question similar to this was widely asked when companies started recruiting shared services managers in the days when the notion of shared services was still in a fledgling state.

Some organisations look at this role and its aims and think their current Head of Accounts Payable could do it. But thinking about the intentions of this role, how viable is this approach?

Being a P2P process owner usually means:

• Having the ability to scrutinise the current puchase-to-pay process
• Having the analytical mind that enables them to quickly see the source of the problem leading to poor performance
• Understanding how to approach the business areas causing the problem in a sensitive yet effective manner
• Planning, and actioning, and then monitoring the change in behaviour within the respective business areas

The skill set required for points 1 and 2 are in abundance within most Heads of Accounts Payable. But points 3 and 4 require skills that are more commonly found in the ‘front office’ than the back.

For points 3 and 4 to be excellently managed, a shared services organisation needs an individual who has skills which are more akin to those of sales managers.

This means recruiting someone who:

• Has a mind which understands process
• Is aware of the ramifications of non-compliance on the business and can convey this to different stakeholders in a way that engages them
• Understands how different business areas liaise with others and reporting lines
• Understands what drives these business areas, and what is important to them in the next 12 months (therefore understanding how an improved process can help them meet their business goals)
• Can read different personality types and appreciate how each type may respond to change
• Can work with senior management, selling them the idea of improved P2P so they back your methods
• Can educate senior management on the cost of being undermined
• Can meet with HR to see that business unit managers’ appraisals and bonuses include targets concerning purchase-to-pay metrics
• Comfortably meets with business unit heads and sells them the vision of a business with a better purchase-to-pay process, and translate how this would benefit them and their lives
• Is fluent in seeing and selling the value of a highly automated, standardised P2P process
• Can speak the language of procurement
• Can set KPIs so that they drive the right behaviour
• Has the ability and personality to change the behaviour of senior people in a sustainable way

You get the picture – this person needs to be relatively persuasive and is charged with securing buy in from a whole portfolio of stakeholders. And this ability is arguably more important to improving the P2P process owner than having purchase to pay knowledge.

What kind of a communicator should your P2P process owner be?

Communication isn’t about what you say; it’s about what’s heard by the listener. Often I am told by frustrated shared services directors ‘my business units aren’t listening, they just don’t get it’. My point is, the most sophisticated person to fit the P2P process owner role realises that improvement comes from asking the right questions and then messaging back to them language that pushes their buttons.

The ideal candidate would start by immersing themselves in the P2P process, understand why the steps exist as they do, see where the problem areas are and where the opportunities for improvement exist, and then build up an understanding as to why these problems are existing in the first place.

Appreciating the root cause of non-compliance and then actioning a campaign to change behaviour involves the mind of an individual who understands human behaviour. They will probably appreciate that a cookie-cutter approach of blasting out a uniform message won’t work effectively.

They also need to be senior enough to get the ear of senior procurement and senior management.

Holding eye contact with the CPO and asking them a series of relatively direct questions, and then getting the CPO to back the P2P process owner’s approach requires a level of confidence not widely available.

In summary you are looking for a communicator who can get the business excited about purchase to pay.

Should your P2P process owner be involved in the operational day to day running of purchase-to-pay?

Ideally, no.

Changing the behaviour of potentially thousands of people in the organisation is a huge job in itself. And depending on what your starting point is, there could be huge gains, and therefore significant workload, for the purchase-to-pay process owner to oversee.

To overheat this person with the day-to-day running of purchase to pay could be detrimental to your intentions.

If the P2P process owner doesn’t have an accounting background, working within the depths of puschase to pay will certainly help them gather information in the early weeks or months of their programme. But this ‘shadowing’ exercise should be contained. The trained up P2P owner should then be extracted from the day-to-day to focus wholeheartedly on the various streams enabling improvement.

What should the P2P process owner be expected to do?

There is a strong argument to suggest that the best P2P process owner actually comes from outside purchase-to-pay. This person will, by nature, question most parts of the P2P process, which those within it take as a given. And this is one of the key expectations of a P2P process owner. They are expected to challenge the process. (Skills in diplomacy are therefore also required.)

Their remit should involve the following:

• Analyse and understand the P2P process
• Identify problem areas, problem causes and areas for improvement
• Work with the business to reduce/eliminate problems and improve the process to support the shared services and wider business aims
• Own and sign off on projects that enable this improvement 
• Report progress to the shared services leadership team

In summary:

When you are recruiting a purchase-to-pay process owner, you may have to look outside finance. You may even have to look outside your business.

The ideal candidate will likely: have some kind of sales experience; be used to communicating with senior executives; understand what drives human behaviour; be highly process aware; will own a budget and take responsibility for technology and solution investments; be able to apply tact, but also call on the thickness of skin if change gets uncomfortable (though, if they are good, this discomfort should be avoided).

The trick with improving purchase-to-pay is knowing there are many small behaviours which need to change to get to the desired state. So your candidate is probably patient too. And finally a solution-focused attitude is key.

Recruiting a strong purchase-to-pay process owner could be the best investment you make this year. The best ones are a rare beast, so it’s worth spending a bit more money and making sure you get the right candidate. 2012 is the year of collaboration, and if you can get the individual who can bring together finance and procurement, and enable users in the process to point in one common direction, your shared services performance will see a much heralded improvement.

 

* Photo credit: Steve P2008