Answer:
achieve the lowest possible cost
Step-by-step explanation:
Procurement refers to the purchase of goods, materials and services that a company needs to be able to operate. Procurement's historical focus has been to buy from the supplier that offers the cheapest price which results in suppliers competing to provide a low price and sometimes a supplier ends up having struggles to fulfill the contract and the company can suffer problems like late deliveries and poor quality. Because of that, procurement has shifted to a different focus in which companies also take into account other aspects to guarantee that the right products or services would be available at the right times to avoid issues.
According to this, the answer is that procurement's historical focus in many organizations was to achieve the lowest possible cost.
The other options are not right because companies historical focus was on finding the cheapest price to get a higher profit and not on minimizing loss and damage or incur minimal supply disruptions. Also, a limited number of suppliers was not the focus as companies were interested in finding a good price.