Beyond the Value Mirage: How Procurement Earns Influence and Drives Enterprise Value

In Part I of this two-part Procurement Pathways series, host Stacy Joslin spoke with Omid Ghamami, President of the Procurement and Supply Chain Management Institute, and Darshan Deshmukh, President of ProcureAbility, about one of procurement’s most persistent myths: that most value is created at the negotiation table.

Now, in Part II, they turn to a different challenge. If procurement creates value, why do business stakeholders still hesitate to engage it early? Too often, procurement leads with policies, procedures, and compliance, creating the perception of a gatekeeper rather than a business enabler. Changing that perception requires procurement to understand stakeholders’ strategies, objectives, and challenges, then demonstrate how it can help them achieve better business outcomes.

The conversation goes beyond stakeholder engagement to examine several factors that continue to limit procurement’s influence. Omid and Darshan explore a critical capability gap, as procurement has spent decades learning how to negotiate externally but far less time learning how to influence internally, where money isn’t the primary lever. They also challenge the profession’s reliance on savings as its primary measure of success, arguing that business leaders are increasingly focused on growth, risk, and performance outcomes. From there, the discussion turns to AI, where they caution against using technology as a shortcut to better results. Instead, they argue that organizations must first address underlying process challenges before determining where AI can create meaningful value.

Key insights for procurement leaders include:

• Why business stakeholders engage procurement late, and what it takes to become a partner they actively want to involve early.
• Why internal influence requires different skills than supplier negotiation, and how business understanding builds credibility.
• How procurement can move beyond savings metrics to demonstrate enterprise advantage through business performance, growth, risk reduction, and supply chain agility.
• Why AI amplifies the processes behind it, and why organizations need to redesign work before automating it.
• Why procurement earns a “seat at the table” when business stakeholders advocate for its value, not simply when procurement asks for one.

Listen as Stacy, Omid, and Darshan discuss how procurement can strengthen its influence, build stakeholder trust, and contribute more directly to business success. Along the way, they challenge several assumptions about value creation, performance measurement, and the future role of procurement.

About our guests:

Darshan Deshmukh

Darshan Deshmukh has extensive global operations and delivery experience in the managed services and advisory fields. He has deep expertise in building global programs focused on procurement, strategic sourcing, category management, and supply chain/procurement transformation.

Prior to joining ProcureAbility, Darshan spent most of his career building large-scale, global delivery operations. He spent a decade in a series of global leadership positions in IBM’s Integrated Supply Chain organization and then joined Denali Sourcing Services as operations leader and was instrumental in establishing and growing the company’s global delivery capability. After Denali’s acquisition integration with WNS, Darshan transitioned to tech start-ups, OpenGov and Icertis, where he built their global professional services and customer success organizations. Darshan has worked with global clients in high-tech, financial services, manufacturing, retail, utilities, and healthcare/pharma.

Darshan holds an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering, a graduate degree in supply chain from Penn State, and an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management. He loves international travel, movies, and everything food, and divides his time between Seattle and Palm Springs.

Omid Ghamami

Omid Ghamami, MBA, CPSCM™ is a global procurement strategist, speaker, and consultant with 18 years of experience at Intel Corporation, where he led Intel’s Global Corporate Purchasing Operations organization with a $16 billion scope.

Since 2012, Omid has been recognized as a global thought leader in procurement, supply chain, and negotiations. He has worked in 31 countries and has had nearly half of the Fortune 100 as clients through training or consulting engagements, as well as the 50 CPOs of the U.S. Author of two best-selling procurement books, he has published numerous articles in leading industry journals, and has been featured in both Fortune Magazine and The Economist for his insights on Fortune 500 procurement strategies. He has received more than a dozen industry awards recognizing him as a leading global thought leader in procurement and supply chain.

Omid holds an MBA from the University of California, where he served as class president. He founded the Certified Purchasing and Supply Chain Manager (CPSCM™) program and is President of the Procurement and Supply Chain Management (PSCM) Institute.