60 seconds with…Réda Guiri, Toyota Insurance Management

We had the pleasure of chatting to Réda Guiri, Procurement Director, EMEA at Toyota Insurance Management, about the lessons learned from the pandemic, new opportunities for procurement and what pre-Covid practices he doesn't want to see return.

What is your top priority currently?

To strengthen our Group’s governance framework and improve the resilience and flexibility of our supply chain. 

What do you see as the main opportunities for procurement in the post-Covid world?

Obviously (more) digitisation and AI to move more from nice-to-have assets into must pillars for procurement operations. There is still room to improve productivity – undeniably Kaizen positive influence-, raise workflows efficiency and reduce value leakage. 

Where are you able to add the most value to your organisation right now? 

Essentially on strategic aspects to build a resilient vision, developing and implementing the tactics that will lead us forward. In parallel, playing a solid safeguard role to putting value and sustainability above any other decision making criteria. The COVID-19 global crisis showed us brutally how we live in a very fragile economic ecosystem. 

What pre-Covid procurement practices do you not want to see return?

Giving huge importance and focus to cost savings. Do not get me wrong, I have cost effectiveness as a permanent target. But having it as a driver is a big mistake. Especially in the long run. In field, our Automotive / Insurance, which are both super regulated, there is actually a lot more at stake, financially above all, than cost savings or cost reduction.

What do you want to see from your procurement team in 2022 and beyond?

More creativity to find new solutions and synergies with other business units. We define our purpose as to empower the business, a partner to business units to generate more value and higher operational efficiency.

Hear from Réda Guiri at ProcureCon Interactive on 8 June, 2021, as he joins the all star panel: How can you apply agility, resilience and risk management lessons learned from 2020 to ensure continued supply to protect your business?