Joe Arena
CEO of Procurement Australia discusses how working in partnership with buyers and suppliers delivers innovative buying solutions and value for its members.
Supply chain has always been a passion for Joe Arena, CEO of Procurement Australia. After completing high school, Joe worked on the factory floor of Craig & Seeley before being employed in the company's dispatch office where he coordinated the truck manifesto for drivers. Joe has worked in supply chain and procurement ever since. He joined Procurement Australia in 2013 and has provided leadership and strategic direction for the company since taking up his position.
Part of Joe's initial brief was to introduce structure and provide direction to Procurement Australia. "When I first came into the role, the organisation had been without a CEO and sales management leader for six months. The interstate sales people were resisting their appointed reporting line into a Melbourne-based acting sales manager. Changing the culture when I first entered the business was the biggest challenge."
"The other major challenge was that the financial performance of the business was actually deteriorating. We were looking at a potential full-year loss of approximately $1.4 million. Were not a big organisation, so to lose that amount of revenue was fairly substantial. Crucial to the turnaround was to put a senior management team in place and to start delivering to the new five-year strategic plan. By the end of our financial year, which is 30 September, we managed to reduce the loss to $928,000. It was still a very substantial loss for us, which resulted in a restructure of the organisation. We implemented an active risk-management program to clearly inform suppliers and members of the change to the organisation."