Category management has its fair share of supporters and detractors - and that is just within the procurement community. But rumors of its pending demise may be premature. Rather than rejecting category management because circumstances and strategies are constantly changing, procurement should embrace category management because circumstances will always change and strategies must adapt accordingly. In this episode, Philip Ideson welcomes the first guest of 2023: Stephane Morel, a Global Process Owner within Strategic Procurement at Novartis. He is responsible for advancing, aligning, alleviating, accelerating, and automating strategic procurement processes. He also had the opportunity to lead Novartis’ highly successful stakeholder mapping exercise in 2016, an experience which shaped many of the perspectives on stakeholder partnership he shares in this interview. Philip and Stephane take this opportunity to discuss and debate: When and where category management should be applied, and how this connects to the future trajectory of the procurement operating model Whether digital maturity can address procurement’s previous failed attempts to engage the business in category management efforts The five essential workstreams that may make it possible for procurement to navigate the combined challenge of the economy, aggressive ESG targets, supply chain risk, and ever-evolving automation