Supply Chain Manager of the Year: Paterson spearheads change at IBM

In his distinguished career at Big Blue, chief procurement officer John Paterson has made purchasing more global and strategic to the company, and he has turned it into a profit generator.

By James Carbone -- Purchasing, 10/16/2008

John Paterson is not afraid of change.

In fact, in his 39-year career at IBM, Paterson has been an agent of change, helping drive the transformation of purchasing from a back-office function to a strategic role that helps IBM compete in the global marketplace.

In his eight years as chief procurement officer for IBM's Integrated Supply Chain organization, Paterson has led the charge, making IBM truly a global procurement organization with procurement headquarters in China.

He also established IBM procurement services, which generates millions of dollars from other companies that outsource purchasing to Big Blue. Paterson has also developed successful supply strategies that support the changing business requirements of IBM as the company becomes more focused on providing services to OEMs rather than providing equipment.

"Sometime down the road, China won’t be the low-cost source of supply and we will be looking somewhere else, maybe Africa.”  —CPO John Paterson

At the same time, he has made sure that IBM and its supply chain meet emerging environmental standards and regulations ahead of schedule. Paterson has also driven socially responsible supply strategies and standards and influenced such standards for the entire electronics industry.

For these reasons, Paterson is Purchasing's 2008 Supply Chain Manager of the year.

Paterson's IBM career began in a function very close to manufacturing. "I started in production control materials management at IBM's facility in Greenock, Scotland and worked extensively with the procurement community in those early days," says Paterson. "I was planning parts requirements and placing the orders throughout the organization."

He worked there for three years and then went to IBM's European headquarters in Paris, where he managed various aspects of manufacturing at several IBM manufacturing locations.

In the 1970s he returned to Greenock where he served in supply chain materials management, followed by stints in purchasing, finance and engineering. He eventually ran IBM's PC manufacturing business in Europe...

In the early 1990s, he moved to the United States and created a purchasing organization for IBM's PC business. Later, when the late Gene Richter became CPO, he moved to corporate purchasing where he led direct procurement and then indirect procurement.