Inside Zip: Peder Gustafson thinks it’s time for procurement to stop hesitating

At Zip, we know that procurement transformation isn't achieved through technology alone. It requires deep expertise and a commitment to guiding each customer's unique path to success.

That's why we launched the Enterprise Transformation Office: a dedicated team of former Fortune 500 procurement leaders working directly with customers to drive large-scale transformation. Zip's ETO is comprised of leading practitioners who've sat in the seat, managed billions in spend, and led the kind of change most companies only talk about.

In this series, we're sitting down with each member of the ETO to learn how they got into procurement, what brought them to Zip, and what advice they have for enterprises navigating the AI era.

Meet Peder Gustafson

What brought you into the world of procurement?

Like many procurement professionals, I was brought into procurement partially by accident. As an early member of a dot-com startup focused on outsourced procurement management (this was the pre-P2P, BPO world) I quickly fell in love with the opportunity to build cross-functional relationships and apply creative solutions to complex problems.

Having spent my 26-year career in procurement, I've had the opportunity to span multiple industries and take lessons learned from each to drive value for my customers and clients. My procurement career has allowed me to serve in various functional roles, including CPO within Financial Services and a Fortune 5 healthcare organization.

My most rewarding times in procurement were spent transforming functions, end-to-end, alongside great teams. Several of those transformations included single front-door intake and harmonious process workflows, “orchestration,” and being witness to the profound improvement in outcomes, stakeholder satisfaction, and relationship trust.

What inspired you to join Zip?

Having leveraged orchestration as both a CPO and Strategy Advisor, the opportunity to join Zip felt natural. It offered me a chance to focus on an aspect of procurement where I have deep passion and that I know drives real bottom-line value for clients.

As part of Zip, I get to be part of the orchestration and transformation journey over and over, alongside my clients and some of the best organizations in the world.

What was your reaction the first time you encountered Zip?

In one word: "finally."

Finally, someone has created this into a product to meet a huge hole in the market. Having built orchestration internally, there was finally a market-leading option that takes the best practices and lessons learned across multiple industries, allowing procurement functions to focus on their core competencies of becoming trusted advisors to their stakeholders and stewards of shareholder value.

What are some of the problems in procurement you believe Zip helps solve?

Intuitive engagement. Assuming positive intent, people want to do the right thing. But when doing the right thing is obfuscated by complex processes, hidden rules, manual workarounds, and no visibility, engagement becomes inconsistent, if not impossible.

Zip provides a scalable option to overcome common hurdles faced by every procurement function. The ability to integrate across multiple platforms and displace them enables procurement functions to elevate the end-user experience through a common, end-to-end interface, without eroding functionality, and while improving data integrity.

What are you most excited about in the next era of procurement?

AI-supported, orchestrated processes will change how procurement is performed and how it is perceived by all stakeholders. I'm excited because it will unlock team capacity to truly operate at the highest end of their capabilities.

Through orchestrated, agentic-supported processes, the next era of procurement will allow teams to be strategic, enabling them to shift from the tactical process work that "must be done" to the strategic work that "always needed to be done" to unlock the most value for their organizations and stakeholders.

What advice can you give for those seeking digital transformation in 2026?

Don't hesitate. Identify quick wins, create momentum, and build a base of trust and demand from which to evolve. Embrace the pace of change through what is now possible via orchestration and AI.

In doing so, become the functional example throughout the rest of your organization for the benefits that can be unlocked. Be the lead.

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Ready to work with us?

It's time to find out how Zip can transform your procurement processes. Connect with our expert team to learn more.