Creativity in Purchasing—What a Team Can Do

In times of economic, social as well as political turmoil and change, purchasing must continuously prove its worth to the business as a value-generating function. As the creation of top-line as well as bottom-line value requires purchasing professionals to devise novel sourcing strategies on a continuous basis, creativity has moved to the center of purchasing attention. Defined as the ability to develop novel and meaningful solutions for a problem, the purchasing function’s contribution to a firm’s competitive advantage strongly depends on its individuals’ and teams’ collective creativity. Against this background, this chapter summarizes the findings from a series of research projects designed to answer the following questions: What is creativity in purchasing? Why is creativity needed in purchasing? How to manage for creativity in sourcing teams? How to lead sourcing teams for creativity? Where and when does creativity matter? All insights have been generated following rigorous, scientific practices, and by involving individuals as well as teams from different industries. Data has been collected in the form of desk research, personal interviews via telephone or in person, focus groups with invited participants, workshops, and surveys.