As cost pressures intensify, procurement leaders must find new ways to deliver savings, manage risk, and accelerate transformation.
Over the past several years, procurement has steadily expanded its influence inside the enterprise. As supply chains faced unprecedented disruption, procurement leaders became trusted advisors to the C-suite on resilience, risk management, and sustainability. Their visibility increased and so did the expectations placed upon them.
Now, the playbook is being rewritten once again.
Research from the 2026 Economist Enterprise Report titled Procurement at a crossroads: from optimism to realism, sponsored by SAP, finds that financial performance has reemerged as the primary benchmark of procurement’s success. Drawing on a global survey of 2,648 C-suite executives, the report found that 54% cite cost control as procurement’s greatest contribution to the business, up from 43% just one year earlier. The findings point to a function that is increasingly stretched, yet positioned to deliver measurable business outcomes—if it can navigate a difficult balancing act.
Cost control returns to center stage
