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Portfolio Leadership Forum
Overview
CD&R inaugurated a number of portfolio-wide programs, collectively referred to as the CD&R Leadership Forum, in order to share best practices, pool resources and enhance performance across a wide range of functional disciplines including:
- Operating Partners Best Practices Forums formalize knowledge-sharing across Operating Partners/Advisors
- CEO Roundtable led by Senior Advisor Jack Welch and Operating Partner Paul Pressler focuses on accelerating professional development among portfolio company management.
- Executive Development Forum, which focuses on developing the next tier of leadership within CD&R’s portfolio companies.
- Continuing education opportunities for high potential portfolio company talent through a partnership with the Jack Welch Management Institute.
- Functional best practice forums for CFOs, HR executives, procurement leaders and Communications officers to discuss a range of topics of common interest, including cybersecurity, global sourcing and talent management.
- Portfolio-wide procurement program to leverage combined spending power and improve provider service levels
Portfolio Procurement Program
CD&R launched the Portfolio Procurement Program in 2011 to leverage the aggregate spending power of the collective group of portfolio companies in order to produce
meaningful savings. As of May 2015, CD&R had negotiated purchasing agreements with approximately 50 portfolio company vendors, spanning 28 spending categories and saving its portfolio companies approximately $60 million annually. In just 3½ years, CD&R portfolio companies achieved an 18% reduction in selected indirect spend categories, surpassing the original goal of 10-15%.
Today, the program has evolved into a community of portfolio company procurement leaders that regularly shares best practices and intelligence and is focused on peer-to-peer
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networking, improving relationships with service providers, creating economies of scale, adopting leading edge technologies and developing high potential procurement professionals to become the leaders of tomorrow. Project leaders selected from each portfolio company work in collaboration with CD&R to manage the selection and logistics of the savings categories undertaken. CD&R hosts monthly calls and semi-annual meetings for portfolio procurement leaders, and operates a website for procurement professionals to collaborate and keep up to date with the latest portfolio events.
CD&R Procurement Academy
The CD&R Procurement Academy was developed by CD&R and launched in 2015 as a comprehensive training program for procurement professionals to improve their knowledge and procurement skills. Each portfolio company CEO nominated up to two members of their procurement staff to participate in this tailored program, which entails three stages:
- Competency Assessment: Adapted by CD&R to the needs of its portfolio procurement professionals;
- conducted by a third party online training company to identify gaps in skill levels and design an online learning plan based on the results.
- Online Learning Plan: Uniquely developed for each participant based on skill and knowledge gaps identified from the Competency Assessment. Each participant must complete their learning plan as a prerequisite to registering for the Boot Camp, the final phase of the program.
- Boot Camp: In partnership with the Institute for Supply Management(ISM), CD&R created an intensive 2.5 day boot camp to enable practical application of key procurement best practices. The Boot Camp was led by industry-experienced instructors and participants were required to identify two projects to work on upon returning to their business that use the new skills they acquired over the course of the CD&R Procurement Academy. CD&R and the ISM instructors provide coaching through completion of each project.
