Mirko Kleiner of Lean-Agile Procurement (LAP) shares insights on the necessity of facing modern-world changes and crises with strategic and informed business decisions.
Zurich, Switzerland, July 17, 2024 – Mirko, creator of Lean-Agile Procurement (LAP) became famous for sourcing a new ERP System in just two days! A strategic sourcing case that would take 12 months applying traditional procurement methods. This success story was recognized by Procurement Leaders and won the World Procurement Award 2020.
In today’s fast-paced world, businesses are encountering an increasing number of external challenges such as inflation, supply chain disruptions, and geopolitical tensions. Additionally, businesses are now more globally connected and interdependent than ever. Meanwhile, issues like the climate crisis and modern business cases add further layers of complexity. These factors underscore the urgent need for companies to act more collaboratively and become more resilient and responsive to changing market demands. The COVID-19 pandemic specifically highlighted how unprepared many businesses were to handle a crisis. Traditional management models, due to their transactional nature, were effective during predictable times. However, our complex, multi-dimensional world now demands a more adaptive approach to solving today’s problems faster and more collaboratively.
Mirko Kleiner, a Keynote Speaker, Author, Serial-Award Winner, Thought Leader & President of LAP Alliance, and co-founder of flowdays.net, is at the forefront of this shift. Mirko is recognized as one of the Top 10 Iconic Leaders in Procurement to Watch, 2024. He proposes nothing less than an entirely new Ecosystem Economy built on a win-win mindset.
“An Adaptive Partner Ecosystem will always out-perform a traditional Supply Chain”
Mirko Kleiner
Since the COVID-19 crisis, procurement and supply chain management have risen to the top three strategic topics in boardrooms. Surprisingly, few leaders realize that, on average, up to 80% of a company’s revenue in the private sector and 15% of a country’s GDP are managed by commercial roles. In other words, every improvement in these areas directly impacts a company’s overall performance.
Organizations in both the private and public sectors that have applied Lean-Agile Procurement report impressive benefits, including up to 800% faster time-to-market, up to 80% cost savings and risk reduction, and a 9 out of 10 recommendation rate from both buyers and suppliers. Remarkably, the fastest strategic sourcing case was completed in just one hour. After nine years, LAP has become the new global standard for strategic sourcing.
“Cross-Functional becomes Cross-Company Collaboration”
Mirko Kleiner
The Agile Movement, based on the Agile Manifesto, recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. Its core mission was to dismantle internal silos and foster cross-functional collaboration to improve delivery. Mirko has revolutionized the industry by applying these values and principles to strategic procurement. One of the key patterns of LAP involves co-creating proposals and collaboratively refining an Agile Contract with all shortlisted vendors in a Big Room Workshop™. You can discover more about LAP in his book, “Lean-Agile Procurement – How to Get Twice the Value in Half the Time”, which includes global success stories from various industries, both private and public sectors. For instance, the Shared Services of the Canadian Government is currently undergoing an Agile Transformation based on these values and principles.
As the business cases utilizing LAP have grown increasingly larger—for example, a $1 billion sourcing case for a Federal Agency of Transport procuring new trains —more suppliers have been involved. It quickly became apparent that the principles of LAP could also be applied on a larger scale to set up entire supply chains in hours or days instead of months or years. Mirko has challenged the traditional supply chain model, where a buyer places an order with a tier 1 supplier, who then orders from a tier 2 supplier, and so on. This conventional approach is too slow and static for today’s dynamic market needs. Furthermore, the automotive industry exemplifies a traditional supply chain that lacks a win-win mindset. Instead, it often operates on a win-lose basis, where the last in the chain reaps the most benefit. Under these circumstances, suppliers are reluctant to share ideas, engage in co-creation, or foster an environment of innovation. What if we could work across companies as closely as we do within our internal cross-functional teams?
“In Crisis there’s no time for Contracts”
Ugur Sahin, CEO Biontech
A great example of cross-company collaboration is the co-creation of the COVID-19 vaccine by three leading pharmaceutical companies. One of the CEOs mentioned Ugur at the World Agility Forum that their collaboration was based on trust and did not even involve a contract for this multi-billion-dollar investment.
With a multi-year track record of 20% annual growth in revenue and profits, Haier, a Chinese IoT appliances company, stands as one of the most successful companies globally. Mirko notes that Haier operates over 4,000 so-called Micro-Communities, or cross-company ecosystems, encompassing more than 80,000 entrepreneurs with minimal overhead. This Minimum Viable Governance (MvG) enables Haier to be one of the most adaptable organizations on the planet.
Mirko and the LAP Alliance are collaborating with the Haier Model Institute (HMI), the creators of the RenDanHeYi management model, and he recently joined the judging panel for the 2024 Haier ZeroDistance Awards. Inspired by Haier, Mirko has published a new tool, the Lean Ecosystem CanvasTM, designed to establish an Adaptive Partner Ecosystem with multiple partners in just hours.
Recently, Mirko helped establish an Adaptive Partner Ecosystem in the hydrogen industry between a scale-up and its strategic partners for sales, production, supply, and other areas. This included negotiating IP, cost- and wealth-sharing, and setting up the Minimum Viable Governance (MvG), allowing the ecosystem to become fully operational. This process, which traditionally could take a year, was completed in a single day.
As a global keynote speaker and President of the LAP Alliance, Mirko continues to push the boundaries of Business Agility, inspiring C-suite executives and their staff in leveraging this framework within their organizations. For example, he is currently assisting Roche, a global pharma company, in transforming their procurement into a capability and enablement organization.
As more organizations embrace cross-company collaboration, the not-for-profit organization LAP Alliance plans to further expand his work to North America. Engaging with some of the largest corporations and governments, Mirko Kleiner aims to drive significant economic, social, and environmental improvements through strategic partnerships and innovative procurement practices.
