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30th January 2025
Spotlight Interview

Behind the Wheel at Octopus EV: Alvin Castillo on Honest Procurement

From launching a procurement function at an early-stage disruptor to leading in a thriving EV space, Alvin Castillo, Vehicle Procurement Director at Octopus Electric Vehicles, shares his roadmap for procurement success that kept him on course along the way.

Alvin has spent over 16 years in the automotive industry, with experience spanning dealer groups, OEMs, and leasing companies. Currently, he leads vehicle procurement at Octopus Electric Vehicles, a company he joined as the 9th employee and has helped grow into a thriving business of over 400 people.

Alvin is responsible for procuring both new and used vehicles, nurturing relationships with established OEMs and supporting the launch of new entrants into the UK market. His efforts have been pivotal in introducing Chinese brands like BYD and OMODA, positioning Octopus Electric Vehicles as the preferred leasing partner for their EV programs. Alvin’s strategic leadership continues to drive innovation and growth in the rapidly evolving electric vehicle sector.

Digital Transformation

Q

How would you describe the difference between a strategic and a transactional procurement function in today’s AI-driven world?  

A

Procurement has pretty much lived off Excel and Google Sheets for a very long time. A lot of the day-to-day is spent so focused on just getting stuff done. There’s not a lot of space for the strategic. The strategic bucket is almost an afterthought because you’re so busy just delivering what you need to deliver based on your current business needs.

Being able to reduce those transactional day-to-day tasks (which don’t get me wrong, are still very important), but don’t necessarily require people to do – that is the goal here. Being able to utilise the people that you have to really help drive forward change in strategy, while being a little bit less stuck in the day-to-day.

Q

What would you look for in a tech vendor that would resonate with you?

A

This isn’t just for tech vendors, but in general for anyone that we work with, is the ability to grow. With any partners or suppliers that we take on and that we decide to work with, it’s on the basis that: yes, right now you solve a need for X, Y or Z, but actually what you’re going to help us do is solve needs that we don’t even know exist yet.

As you grow as a business, no doubt your needs are going to change. The way that you work is going to change. The systems that you use are going to change. Is that program or is that piece of tech still applicable? The answer that we always want to have is ‘yes’. Not because it’s the same bit of tech that we purchased or partnered with you on three years ago. It’s the ability to have those constant iterations to work together, to continue to develop, to make your proposition better, and to also ultimately help enhance ours as well.

Q

What excites you most about the future of procurement?

A

In my own particular industry, it’s the amount of new product but in a more general sense, procurement is now becoming the industry that’s being focused on with regards to improve efficiencies. And procurement’s not had that time to shine yet.

We are now highlighting that procurement is a role and it’s a desirable role to go into in the business. The thing that I’m most excited about is that, for the first time, procurement’s really starting to come to the forefront from both a tech and people perspective and that’s such a great place to be.

Professional Journey

Q

You started your own career in sales. How did you find yourself moving into procurement, and in what ways has your sales background helped?

A

A lot of the automotive space was based around sales or operations. So you either had a sales role or had an operational role.

As we were transitioning from becoming a broker into a leasing company, my CEO Fiona said to me, “Well, Alvin, we’re going to need to buy some cars. We’re going to need to talk to car manufacturers and set up a dealer network”.

What I realised is, procurement is sales. The difference being is, you’re selling yourself and you’re selling your business, to be able to then buy products or services for your business.

When I moved into procurement, I ended up transitioning from owning the number to being a facilitator of the number. What I mean by number is, sales is very target driven. There’s always a number to chase.  My whole career, I was so focused on hitting that number. What I ended up becoming, was a facilitator of the number. If someone asked me if I wanted to go back into sales, the answer no. I love procurement. 

I love what I do.

I love looking at the supply chain, being there from end to end and really understanding how the decisions that I make are impacting the whole business.

Stronger Supplier Relationships

Q

You’ve said your role involves connecting with amazing people and brands. What’s your secret to building strong relationships?

A

It’s my own values. It’s the honesty. People buy from people, whether you’re in sales or procurement or whatever role you do.

I was having this conversation with my son the other day. One of the things that’s free in this world is your word. If you’re going to give your word to somebody that you’re going to do something, then just do it. And if you can’t do it, you can’t deliver it, then don’t tell them that you will.

The secret to my success is that I’ve always strived to be a man of my word. I was building those relationships, and people saw me as someone that they can rely on, someone that they could phone up or they can send an email to. If I told them it would get done, it would get done.

If I couldn’t get it done, they know it’s not for lack of trying. I’ll come up with other solutions as well. I can’t get this done but how about we do X, Y and Z? That’s all part of building relationships. The big secret to that success has been around my ability to be able to build relationships with people and stand on my word.

Q

What’s the one quality you’ve noticed that separates good partners from the truly great ones?

A

When it comes down to decision making, the answer is most times either a yes or a no. What separates a good partner from a great partner, is whether it’s a yes or a no, but understanding how they got to that yes and that no. 

How transparent can you be with each other? This helps form future conversations and negotiations that, if it’s a no this time, why was it a no? Let’s find out how to improve it or if there is something that we missed that someone else did better than us? How can we be that better partner so next time it will be a yes?

And then more importantly, if it is a yes, why was it a yes? How do we continue to make sure that it remains a yes? A lot of people, once they’ve won business, complacency kicks in. “I won it the first time, so naturally I’m just going to win it again”. Whereas that’s not the case because there are new products, there are new businesses, there are new people and new relationships that are being built.

The thing that separates a good partner from a great partner is the ability to maintain those relationships through the good and bad. You will always continue to strive and want to do better because there’s always going to be someone that’s looking at what you’re doing and is going to try and do it better.

If you don’t want to continuously improve yourself, how can you expect people to just carry on working with you when you’re still working the same way you did three years ago?

Disclaimer: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Interviewer
Deana Claessen

Deana manages community efforts and creation of thought leadership material at Kavida. For inquiries, reach her at deana@kavida.ai.

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