When Tim King left the CEO's office after a quick meeting in early 2007, he wasn't sure what to think. It certainly wasn't the first time King had met with Andrew Liveris, the well-known CEO of Dow Chemical in Midland, Mich., where King had been working for more than three decades. But it was the first time he was told that he would soon be offered a new position within Dow and that "he should take it."

Less than two months after that meeting, King was the vice president of global purchasing at one of the largest chemical companies in the world, having received the formal offer from David Kepler, CIO, senior vice president and head of Dow's shared services organization, as Liveris predicted. But it wasn't King's procurement experience that won him the post—in fact, he had very little. It was the confidence his CEO and CIO had in him based on their past dealings with him.

While King's tale certainly describes a very different path to the C-suite than most procurement professionals will tell, the fact is that more procurement executives are gaining access to those carpeted office areas in their companies for a variety of reasons—not the least being the C-level's improved understanding of procurement's value. According to data from the Procurement Strategy Council, in 2004, 25% of procurement executives polled said they report directly to the CEO or CFO at their company. By 2007, it was up to 33%, a clear indication that procurement's standing in the organization is on the rise.

The Procurement Strategy Council report goes on to say that "procurement executives who report directly to the CEO experience the highest level of spend coverage of all reporting relationships...increased 'face time' results in higher levels of spend coverage and compliance."

But there's no magic formula for gaining access to the C-suite and winning executive level face time and support. Upon close review, it's clear that the procurement executives that have gained access to the C-suite have each done it from a different door.

While King brought the C-suite access along with him to his new procurement post, now a year into his job, he realizes that having C-suite access can help drive procurement initiatives much more effectively. "Having a reputation with the business leaders and having a proven track record makes the internal business leaders more receptive to what you have to say," he says.

Mitch Plaat, CPO at logistics giant Con-way in San Mateo, Calif., says while many procurement executives bide their time in hopes of gaining C-level access, recognizing the opportunity and making the most of it can be the difference. Plaat had been leading the IT and indirect purchasing efforts at Con-way until 2005, when new CEO Doug Stotlar came on board with a vision. Stotlar's plan was to merge the three major business units at Con-way into one and that plan meshed very well with Plaat's vision of a single, shared-services procurement organization, instead of the three different procurement organizations that Con-way had been organized under.

Plaat saw the opportunity he had long been waiting for to get executive-level backing for procurement and made the most of it. He suggested the creation of a procurement steering committee that included Stotlar and John Labrie, then a senior vice president of strategy and now president of Con-way Freight. Together the committee orchestrated a strategic sourcing transformation at Con-way that would likely not have been feasible without that kind of executive-level support.

"They took an interest and supported our investing in new procurement tools to improve our spend visibility, and that was a clear sign they saw our value," Plaat says. "They realized we couldn't identify our most important suppliers and we weren't measuring our suppliers enough. We got buy-in at a very high level to review any spend area and put anything out to bid we see fit. That opened a lot of doors and we got into areas like benefits, IT hardware, maintenance and other areas that were off limits before."

"Over the years it can be frustrating to know what you want to do but not get that audience," Plaat says. "You have to keep preparing so when the planets do align, you can recognize that and communicate what you think the strategy should be and what the next steps should be."

Like Plaat at Con-way, Alex Brown, vice president of global supply management at semiconductor firm AMD in Sunnyvale, Calif. is another example of how procurement can gain access to the C-suite when the timing is right. After years of working to elevate the view of procurement in the company, Brown received an invitation in 2000 to meet with AMD's new CFO, Bob Rivet, to discuss the procurement operations at AMD.

"I came to the meeting with a lot of documentation about what we had done in the past and a review of our operations and organizational structure," Brown says. "And he basically said, 'That's great Alex but what are you going to do this quarter and next?' It was then that I realized he was interested in supporting procurement, but more importantly I learned he was an actions guy and he wanted to see my action plan."

Two weeks later, Brown got his shot. At Rivet's request, he presented a detailed procurement action plan at a quarterly executive team meeting and focused on areas where he thought AMD could save money—specifically, the areas of the business where procurement had not been able to get clear penetration or visibility in the spend, such as legal and marketing. The executive team not only supported Brown in his plan, but asked him to come back to the meeting regularly to provide updates on where he was in the plan.

"We had been trying to do these kinds of things for years and had not seen much support, so when the new CFO showed interest and we realized his goals were aligned with ours in procurement, we knew this was our chance," Brown says.

Today Brown meets with AMD's senior executive team at a quarterly operations review meeting where he focuses on cost savings and supply risk management. He also has a quarterly one-on-one meeting with CFO Rivet where they discuss various issues, mostly focusing on capital management and payment terms. And while not scheduled, Brown says it's not unusual for him to present to the executive operating committee, which includes the CEO.

But in addition to the more frequent meetings in the C-suite, Brown says the level of procurement understanding at those meetings has changed as well. "I've been in procurement a long time and in the past 10 years there has been a big change in the level of expectations for procurement at the C-level," Brown says. "In the past, procurement was measured on cycle times and number of orders being placed. Today we're trying to place fewer orders and automate those we do place while we focus on ensuring supply of materials. We're measured by how we spend money, not just how much we spend or save."

The reporting structure within a company or industry can impact the amount of access a procurement executive can gain to the C-suite. If there are too many layers between the top buyer and the CEO/CFO, then it can be very difficult to establish a relationship. Brown says while he previously reported directly to the CFO, today he reports into the vice president of supply chain. But while it may seem like the extra layer could impede access, Brown says his previously developed relationship with Rivet means he's now got two strong procurement champions in the upper echelon of the company.

"I typically spend one to two hours a month meeting with the executive team where the focus is specifically on procurement or supply-chain related business and another two or three hours each month sitting in meetings where the focus is sales or operations," Brown says. "It's not a problem for me to get on the COO or CFO's calendar for a one-to-one with a few days notice for critical business issues related to supply."

Dow's King says reporting structures are important, but personal relationships can supplement the org charts. While King reports directly to the head of the shared services organization at Dow, he points out that "the VP of supply chain sits across the hall from me and several times a day we're in the hallway talking about a project we need to collaborate on."

Joanna Martinez, CPO at New York-based financial services firm Alliance Bernstein, says in the financial industry it's common for procurement to report directly to the CFO, as she does at her firm.

Perhaps not so common, though, is the amount of support she receives from both the company's CFO and COO. In fact, the COO at Alliance Bernstein has taken such an interest in the company's procurement and spending practices that he writes the company's Spending Smartly newsletter, educating employees on how to spend the company's dollars.

At planning meetings for the newsletter, Martinez says other executives on the cross-functional planning committee occasionally ask if she feels the project is encroaching on her area. "In fact, I view it as quite the opposite," she says. "I view that team as my board of advisors in a way because the dialogue that gets created across this team and the suggestions that come in often give procurement a mandate to do something we would not normally be able to get done so easily."

Most supply chain executives don't dare dream of the direct path to the CEO's office that Gerry Smith has. Smith, senior vice president of global supply chain at Chinese PC maker Lenovo, was brought to the company from Dell by president and CEO William Amelio, who was previously head of Dell's supply chain organization. That history gives Smith a major advantage in his dealings with the CEO.

"It's so powerful to have alignment with the CEO because I don't have to spend the time getting the CEO and the senior leadership on board," Smith says. "I feel very lucky to have a CEO with supply chain background because it gives the supply chain more credibility in the organization and among my peers on the senior leadership team."

Smith has one-on-one meetings with his CEO monthly and operations reviews regularly throughout the month.

If you've struggled long and hard to gain a champion or get time in the C-suite, you certainly want to make the most of the time you spend there. And the key to that is not getting bogged down in the details of procurement when presenting to or speaking with C-level executives.

"You've got to take off the blinders and look outside procurement and understand the environments of the business units and the business as a whole," says Plaat. "What are their pain points and challenges and how can you align your procurement strategies to help them? You have to develop a more strategic view of the business and procurement's role rather than just how to improve procurement in a vacuum."

Tim King, of Dow, echoes those sentiments and says in his meetings with top executives and business-unit heads he focuses on how procurement can add value and create competitive advantage, rather than get bogged down in the details of the procurement function.

"You have to find out what their goals and strategies are and show them how your organization can help them meet those goals," King says. "It requires knowledge of what they buy, showing how you can help them realize their results and then have metrics that track the work towards those results. That will help you keep a seat at the table."

Martinez, of Alliance Bernstein, says making the most of your time in the C-suite doesn't mean you have to "knock everyone's socks off with a big project." Sometimes, the best approach is to be more focused and have a more direct impact in a specific area to show value before launching a major project that may disrupt the supply base.

When Martinez was brought into Alliance Bernstein more than four years ago, one of the first areas she targeted was the travel spend. "There was not good alignment between procurement and our travel service and what policies we had were not being enforced," she says. "Sometimes getting to the dollars is step-two and just getting the folks in the C-suite to see the value of procurement is the first step. If you try to find their pain points that will help you win support."

It's clear that access to the C-suite and closer relationships with senior-level executives can help drive procurement's objectives, but many top buyers want to know if those ties will help their own career. Will having closer access to the CEOs and CFOs at their companies translate into a possible C-suite job of their own some day?

Well that depends on your industry, say some experts. For example, AMD's Brown says that in the electronics industry he's often heard that unless your background is in sales, engineering or manufacturing, you're never going to become CFO or CEO. And Martinez has been told similar things in the financial services industry—a procurement executive can only climb so high.

Others say a top procurement spot can be a launching pad into bigger and better things, and there are more than a few examples out there. King says some of his predecessors as the top buyer at Dow have gone on to bigger things, including heading up Dow business units, and at least one former procurement exec that went on to lead Dow's manufacturing before retiring.

Other examples of former procurement executives moving into broad roles at major companies include:

• Willie Deese who came up through procurement in the pharmaceutical industry and now heads up Merck's manufacturing;
• Shelley Stewart, a longtime procurement executive now senior vice president of operational excellence and CPO at Tyco;
• Rick Jacobs, who leveraged a supply chain background and now runs a business unit at Eaton Corp. (see "My Turn," page12).

And while a reporting structure where procurement is a layer or two removed from the C-suite may seem like a drawback in terms of gaining support, several procurement executives told Purchasing that such a structure offers a career "bridge" between procurement and the C-suite in their companies. While the jump from vice president of purchasing to CEO/COO/CFO may seem a stretch, the move from purchasing veep to a less functional-specific role such as shared services is certainly realistic.

And with a broader view of the organization as a whole, the keys to the C-suite may be yours.