Procurement Category Management

Category Management is a five-day category management course delivered by Mars Training Centre at international venues — in London, Paris, Dubai, Madrid, and Istanbul — designed for category managers, sourcing leads, and senior procurement professionals responsible for the strategic management of major spend categories.

Category management is the operating discipline that turns procurement from a transactional buying function into a strategic business contributor. Done well, it aligns sourcing decisions with corporate strategy, drives multi-year value beyond price reduction, and gives the business the depth of market knowledge it needs to compete. Done poorly, it produces shelfware: category strategy documents that no one acts on and savings claims that the business never sees.

Across five focused days, you will work through the full category management lifecycle from spend analysis through to plan execution. The week combines structured frameworks with category strategy exercises drawn from real spend profiles, and is delivered by senior practitioners who have led category organisations in industry. You leave with a personal action plan grounded in your own category portfolio.

What You Will Learn

By the end of this programme, you will be able to:

• Apply the category management lifecycle to a major spend category.
• Conduct rigorous spend analysis and category segmentation.
• Analyse the supply market using established frameworks.
• Engage internal stakeholders and build cross-functional alignment.
• Design a category strategy that delivers multi-year value.
• Select sourcing strategies appropriate to each category type.
• Build category plans with measurable, sequenced initiatives.
• Run effective category governance and reporting.
• Communicate category strategy to senior stakeholders.
• Track category benefits beyond price reduction.

How You Will Benefit

You will leave with a working category management methodology, the analytical tools to apply it, and a Mars Certificate of Completion.

Your organisation will gain a category leader who delivers category outcomes that go beyond savings, brings discipline to sourcing decisions across multi-year horizons, and builds cross-functional alignment around major spend.

Who This Programme Is For

This programme is designed for procurement professionals leading categories, including:

• Category Managers and Senior Category Managers
• Heads of Category and Category Directors
• Procurement Managers building category capability
• Sourcing Managers responsible for major spend
• Lead Buyers preparing for category roles
• Senior commercial managers in capital-intensive industries
• Supply chain managers with sourcing accountability
• Senior public-sector procurement leads

The seniority floor is manager level and above.