How disciplined digitalization, stronger talent development, and risk based controls can improve a support organization without adding unnecessary complexity
Support functions rarely become excellent through one major transformation. They improve when leaders remove friction, build stronger teams, and make the ordinary work reliable enough that the organization barely notices it.
In this episode of MetaPod, Ron Crabtree speaks with Robert Semethy, chief procurement officer for Erste Group Procurement. His team manages about 1.5 billion euros in third party spending across 69 entities, eight countries, two alphabets, and multiple languages with fewer than 95 people.
Semethy's approach is practical. Digitalize work when it adds value, build evidence into the process, develop people from within, and keep reviewing controls that may have outlived the risk they were created to manage.
Digital transformation needs a business reason
A digital process is not automatically a better process. Semethy points to modern car dashboards as a familiar example. Replacing a tactile control with a screen may look advanced while making a simple task harder and less safe.
The same problem appears in support functions when teams move paper steps into software without improving the decision, reducing effort, or creating usable evidence. Before digitizing a workflow, ask why the work exists and what the organization will gain.
The data foundation also matters. Leaders should know whether the necessary information exists, whether employees can access it in a usable form, and whether the process creates a reliable history as the work happens.
Build evidence into the normal workflow
Procurement decisions may face scrutiny years after a tender closes. An auditor may ask who participated, when invitations went out, how suppliers responded, which evaluation criteria were used, and why the team selected the winner.
A mature digital process records those facts as part of the work. It does not force employees to reconstruct the decision from email, personal folders, and disconnected files three years later.
This requires more than buying an eSourcing platform. The workflow needs clear milestones, consistent records, and a structure that lets the team answer questions without a manual search. Leaders may also need to explain that a system log is valid documentation even when an auditor expects a PDF or Word file.
Use analytics to support judgment
A polished dashboard can create confidence without helping anyone decide what to do. Semethy calls that executive cartoons.
Useful analytics allow leaders to move between the summary and the underlying detail. A year over year increase in spending, for example, means little until the team separates higher business activity from inflation. One may indicate a capacity need. The other may reflect a market change.
Every report should help answer a question, explain a change, or support an action. If it does none of those things, the organization should challenge why it still exists.
Increase capability density
Semethy uses capability density to describe the concentration of skill across a team. His organization builds it through succession planning, external certification, internal promotion, and assignments that let employees learn without exposing the business to catastrophic mistakes.
Employees often enter through tactical roles, learn how the organization works, and move into sourcing positions as openings appear. About 90 percent of promotions come from within the procurement organization, and average tenure is about 13 years.
External certification gives the training a measurable standard and gives employees a credential they keep. The company benefits from stronger performance and wider coverage, while employees see a credible path forward.
Use risk to decide how much control is enough
Controls accumulate. A problem occurs, a review follows, and the organization adds another check. Years later, several controls may cover the same low risk while employees spend time producing evidence that does little to protect the business.
Semethy's management team built a risk and control matrix with nearly 500 lines. For each process step, the team recorded the risk, the control, the likelihood, and the impact. That work took months, but it gave leaders a systematic way to challenge duplication and remove low value activity.
The matrix also supports reasonable assurance rather than impossible certainty. Some mistakes will occur. The important question is whether the error can materially affect the result. When the answer is no, the extra control may cost more than the risk deserves.
Review thresholds as the business changes
Policies that made sense eight years ago may no longer fit current prices, volumes, or staffing. Semethy's team reviews procurement thresholds and adjusts them when inflation and business activity change the amount of work inside each control level.
The same principle applies to reports, approvals, and evidence requirements. Regular housekeeping keeps technical and process debt from becoming permanent friction. Leaders should ask whether the work still protects the business, whether a simpler control would work, and whether the customer receives any value from the effort.
Make continuous improvement part of management work
Quietly excellent functions do not depend on heroics. They improve through small changes that the culture can absorb. Semethy notes that a major transformation may establish the operating model, but years of steady improvement make the organization more capable and professional.
This work belongs with leadership. Semethy estimates that his direct reports spend roughly 30 to 40 percent of their time reviewing data integrity, process hygiene, controls, and opportunities to simplify work. As leaders move higher, more of their time should go toward questioning why the organization works the way it does.
Connect and learn more
A strong support function creates trust through evidence, judgment, capable people, and disciplined housekeeping. The result may look quiet from outside. That is often the point. The function handles more work without forcing the rest of the organization to manage its complexity.
To learn more, connect with Robert Semethy on LinkedIn. You can also connect with Ron Crabtree on LinkedIn or contact the MetaPod team at MetaExperts.com.