VODAFONE

Vodafone has one of the world’s largest mobile communications networks, with 83,900

employees serving over 370 million customers across more than 30 countries. Its top

four national markets are India, Germany, Egypt and Italy respectively, where it is

considered to be the market-leading provider of mobile services and devices.

The Vodafone brand has now been recognised as the fifth strongest global brand in

the world, following its successful sponsorship of the Formula One McLaren Mercedes

team, as well as other major global sporting events. It also owns and manages

over 2,200 retail stores, with a further 10,300 branded franchises throughout the

world. As well as providing voice, data and messaging services for consumers and

commercial businesses, Vodafone also produces its own-brand mobile devices, such

as smartphones, mobile handsets, tablets and USB internet network sticks. Its current

strategy is aimed at increasing the ‘average revenue per user’ through offering more

and more added value mobile services.

To manage the complexity of the supply chains for both goods and services at one of the

world’s largest companies can be a difficult challenge in itself, but when the company’s

top purchasing job also includes the fundamental transformation of several fragmented

supply chains into a single global function, then things take on an additional dimension.

However, this was the challenge that was accepted and taken on by the winner of the

2011 Procurement Leader Award1

, Detlef Schultz, the Global Supply Chain Management

Director and chief executive officer of the Vodafone Procurement Company.

The Vodafone Procurement Company was set up in 2008 with its headquarters based in

Luxembourg. The aim behind the subsidiary has been to leverage the scope and scale

of the global company through