The Strategic Evolution of the CPO

// Extract | Executive Summary

Insights from the 2025 Inverto CPO Study

Procurement is undergoing an evolution. No longer confined to cost savings, it is emerging as a strategic enabler of growth, resilience, and innovation. Yet many procurement leaders still operate in the background, struggling to make their influence fully visible at the executive level.

This CPO Whitepaper, based on insights from 335 executives, including 20+ CPOs from Europe’s leading companies, shows how procurement can step out of the shadows and claim its role at the heart of corporate strategy. The findings are clear: procurement has never had more influence, or more responsibility.

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Key findings from the study

Impact Leaders set the benchmark by claiming their seat at the board table
Leading procurement teams are not just executing directives, they are actively shaping corporate strategy. By engaging directly with the executive committee (EXCOM) and measuring success with company-wide KPIs, these Impact Leaders deliver +2% higher revenue growth than their peers.
CPOs are the CEOs of tomorrow
The capabilities that define today’s most effective CPOs like strategic foresight, digital fluency, resilience, and cross-functional leadership, are the very skills needed to run entire companies.
Agility is business-critical
Disruption is no longer the exception but the norm. Leading procurement teams are embedding agility into their organizations through supplier diversification, nearshoring, and predictive analytics, They are turning uncertainty into a competitive advantage.
Innovation drives growth
Procurement is no longer about buying better but about building better. The most advanced teams co-develop with suppliers, run innovation programs, and shorten time-to-market, thus creating new sources of revenue and competitive differentiation.