Javier Carnevali

Javier Carnevali joined Grupo Herdez® in 2012 as Strategic Sourcing Deputy Director, tasked with implementing the strategic sourcing process during a significant company transformation. 

Over the years, he rose through the ranks to become Sourcing and Procurement Director — effectively the Chief Procurement Officer — taking responsibility for the entire source-to-pay process.

"I entered the company to implement the strategic sourcing process," explains Javier. "Later on I became the Sourcing and Procurement Director. So, in that moment, I was responsible not only for the strategic sourcing process but also for the procurement process."

Now leading a team of 78 people based in Mexico, Javier oversees procurement for a company that exports to 21 countries worldwide.

Cultural transformation

One of Javier's primary challenges was evolving the company culture to embrace new methodologies.

He says: "My main goal was to make those processes work well together to promote good communication and to optimise all the different processes and incorporate technology to support different activities we are undertaking in sourcing and procurement.”

This cultural shift became even more crucial when he took over the strategic sourcing and procurement functions, which had previously operated as separate entities.

"The challenge was mainly a cultural challenge because we have two separate teams doing two processes with two leaderships and those teams have to work together to have a common goal," Javier reflects. "I started this journey of cultural transformation by trying to help people understand that we are one.”

Technology adoption

In 2016, Grupo Herdez® implemented Coupa for both strategic sourcing and procure-to-pay processes, marking another significant milestone in Javier’s tenure.

He enthuses: "This helped us to be more efficient, more transparent in our processes and to join efforts to make the whole company use the tool to become well optimised."

Now, Javier is focusing on incorporating more advanced technologies: "We are looking to add AI and advanced tools in order to improve in the future and these new processes of risk management and sustainability and also spend visibility."

A trio of challenges 

Javier identifies three key challenges his department is currently addressing.

"One of them is risk management,” he begins. “This year we will start a project around design, our supply risk management model and we'll support that also in technology in order to be able to do that efficiently.”

The second challenge revolves around sustainability. While Grupo Herdez® has long-established sustainable agriculture programmes with suppliers, the scope now needs to expand.

Javier continues: "We need to add a lot of more things in order to be sure that we are reducing our impacts to the environment, that we are contributing to the communities and that we have good governance in the company."

The third obstacle relates to spend visibility: "Our old systems didn't help us to have visibility of the spend. So our improvement actions were limited because we only could manage and to part of the spend, not the whole spend."

A shifting landscape

Looking ahead, Carnevali sees the CPO’s role as evolving from reactive to proactive.

He states: "I think the role of the CPO in the future is to be a facilitator and a connection with other areas and suppliers in order to bring the company the knowledge and the tools to be really good and systematic in all these processes.

"Our role is to be able to create the processes and technology and people in order to be able to anticipate those activities. So, this creates this capacity to be predictive instead of reactive to look to the future and act now."

For Javier, this represents the most rewarding aspect of his position: "The best thing about my job is being able to be part of a team that is really impacting the business."

To read the article in the magazine, click HERE.

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