How GfK reorganised its procurement and real-estate functions Becker joined GfK in November 2020 , when their procurement and real estate had already been combined under a single function .
“ However , I realised that there were category teams , as well as some regional teams and 25 direct reports ,” she says .
“ Some roles , job descriptions and titles were not defined accurately enough . So , I spent time revising all the job descriptions and titles so that we had the same across categories and countries , then worked with HR to standardise the grading and work on a career path that helped individuals understand what they need to achieve to develop themselves . In order to further support their career journey , I invested in a digital learning program which is accessible to every employee in Procurement . This not only gives my team full access to professional training on core Procurement skills like negotiations , contracting and stakeholder management but includes focussed modules and certifications on Sustainable Procurement which is equally important for us ”.
Becker created a category structure for GfK ’ s procurement functions and changed the roles of the regional heads , making them not only responsible for procurement , but also real-estate and facilities .
SUKI BECKER
TITLE : VICE PRESIDENT PROCUREMENT & REAL ESTATE
LOCATION : SWITZERLAND
Suki has led Procurement and
Real Estate at GfK since November 2020 . She lives and works in Switzerland and has worked in Global roles for the past 12 years . She started her career working in Logistics as a Production Planner in the Automotive Industry and continued to move industries , transitioning to Procurement over 17 years ago . Suki has worked in UK ’ s Ministry of Defence , UK Nuclear Energy , Pharmaceuticals , Industrial Engineering and Market Research , working within medium sized and global organisations , responsible for large teams and up to $ 3bn spend and is currently responsible for transforming GfK ’ s combined Procurement & Real Estate Global function .
Introducing new procurement tools Two years ago , GfK had several different contract databases for leases and also the way of storing contracts was different . The company then streamlined these by moving to a modern building lease contract database .
At the same time , GfK executed a tender for the procurement contract database to enable a single , integrated system for storing
EXECUTIVE BIO