So what do leading airline procurement teamsdo? In our view, procurement, first of all, shapes demand. The last thing the procurement team wants is to be brought in only at the last minute. Toomany procurement teams I know complain, “The business has already perfectly specified what it wants, and it even knows who it wants to come buy from, and it just hands over to us and says, ‘Now go and get the best price.’” And we all know that, at that point, you’ve got almost no negotiating leverage. So good procurement teams need to be involved early, working as a partner with the business in shaping what we buy.