CEO MONTHLY / C-suite Awards 2023 14 Best Public Transport Chief Procurement Officer 2023: Jan Grothe Deutsche Bahn AG (DB) is the national railway company of Germany, and a state-owned enterprise. But what goes on behind the scenes is just as important as the customer-facing side of things. We find out more from seasoned procurement professional Jan Grothe, as he is named in the C-Suite Awards 2023. With more than 1,200 million travellers a year, over 60,000 million of which is goods traffic, Germany needs a strong rail system. And this is what Deutsche Bahn strives to provide. With its new supplier management, the Procurement arm of DB (managing a vast 27 billion Euro spend) is collaborating with current and potential suppliers even more transparently and intuitively so suppliers can find everything about the firm, procedures, and processes, as well as current information on contracts and projects, with just the click of a button. With nearly 21,000 suppliers under the main company’s belt, DB Procurement strives to ensure that the Group has access to materials, capital goods, and services that are readily available, costeffective, and of excellent quality to safeguard the company’s innovative strengths as well as its sustainable success in the market. The strategy of the procurement department is clear: to be the business units’ partner of choice by making procurement simple and intuitive; staying flexible in its actions and use its deep understanding of customers; to play a major role in making DB carbon-free by 2040; and to ensure the DB Group’s economic clout. Jan Grothe is the firm’s Chief Procurement Officer, taking on the position in March 2021. Born in Berlin in 1973, Jan’s previous roles at Deutsche Bahn include Head of Procurement Infrastructure and also the responsibility for principles, strategy, and IT systems in procurement. Ultimately, he has been with the company since 2001. Jan has noticed trends emerging over the last few years within the industry. For example, manifold influences on supply chains over the last few years have seen a paradigm shift due to the pandemic, war, and inflation. “We have had to ask suppliers to deliver us, not the other way around,” he explains. “We are experiencing delivery bottlenecks, price increases, logistics difficulties, and production pressure, but also concerns about a secure energy supply continue to weigh on the global economy. We have reacted with a more professional risk management, a more flexible organisation to be able to focus resources where mostly needed, plus an expansion of the supplier landscape.” Of course, the Covid-19 pandemic brought with it tremendous challenges, however it did also serve as a catalyst for digital innovation. The effects of the pandemic have made it clear that companies need to deal with structure and transparency in supply chains in order to reduce risk. Jan has also noticed that the entire ecosystem has become more complex, leading to an evolution of his role as CPO at the firm which he notes has become much more strategic, and detecting process efficiencies, ensuring cost control, and pure procurement expertise are now just one facet of the job. “Never before has procurement been of such operational and strategic importance as it is today,” elaborates Jan. “In my view, a good CPO is like a captain on a stormy sea: giving a clear direction and trusting his team to navigate the ship back to calmer waters – he relinquishes control.” And this is why Jan believes that it is all the more important to empower his teams and expand the strategic skills of employees to create powerful, strong, and independent teams. “My USP in the current role is analytic, future-oriented, and always open for new developments based on clear strategy,” he tells us. “I’m open-minded, curious, always looking for innovations, and I’m customer-focused, always putting them at the heart of our procurement strategy.” Recently, for his pioneering approach and ability to adapt to challenges, Jan was recognised in the C-Suite Awards 2023 and named Best Public Transport Chief Procurement Officer 2023 for his role at DB Procurement. Now, his vision for the future revolves around an increased human interaction and sustainability post-pandemic as he stands for a flexible organisation, with investment being the only sure-fire way to meet the demands and requirements of tomorrow. “I foresee procurement with the best possible impact on the environment, society, and the economy over the entire life cycle,” he enthuses. “Opening up markets with more resource-efficient products using various procurement levers, strengthening green and socially healthy supply chains, with specific measures and performance targets defined for this. “As for me, I shall continue to be a pacesetter in terms of intuitive, sustainable procurement, adding further value to the company through an outstanding procurement function and thus being an accepted business/strategy adviser at board level, while creating a procurement place that is inspirational for young talents.” Contact Details Contact: Jan Grothe Company: Deutsche Bahn AG Web Address: https:// lieferanten.deutschebahn. com/supplier
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