Ways Forward in Public Procurement

This chapter summarizes the topics discussed in this public procurement book. It subsequently discusses developments and the ways in which public procurement is moving forward and has increasingly become a strategic asset for societal change. The move toward more value-driven, smart, life cycle-oriented, and relational ecosystem procurement processes has implications for the public procurement practices of the future, requiring more flexible and adaptive governance, integration of public value, different capabilities and competences, and a rebalancing of the different perspectives on public procurement. This chapter and book finish by explaining the need for change agents to emerge and challenge the reader to become one and bring public procurement into a new era and fully utilize its potential for achieving public value.