Over the past couple of weeks, two attempts at humor have emerged in this space that, quite frankly, scare me. One is Ariba’s Spendman, covered recently on Spend Matters, and the other is Kinaxis’ Entertainment Center with Married to the Job, Sensei Bob, and the Late Late Supply Chain Show.
Whether you call it Purchasing, Procurement, Spend Management, or Supply Chain Management; Supply Management, the one area that is guaranteed to help any business in these troubled times, has been struggling to be taken seriously for over a decade. And, by and large, it’s still not at the table in most companies. And, as far as I am concerned, this is not a laughing matter … but yet we have a late late show I couldn’t watch more than 59 seconds of, a set of Second City skits that left me scratching my head wondering just what I was watching, and a comic book character?
You know what this says to me? And more importantly, what I think it’s going to say to the executives that still don’t get supply management? It says supply management is nothing but entertainment for low-level tactical purchasers (the late late supply chain show), that we’re nothing but back tactical office desk jockeys (married to the job), and that we’re not grounded in the real world (Spendman). After all, talk shows talk about irrelevant fodder, comedy skits make fun of that which is silly to begin with, and comics are fiction read only by losers who live in their parents’ basements while dressing up in costumes and speaking made-up languages. And while these generalized statements may not be entirely true, you have to admit they are the stereotypes … and I can’t see how supply management can benefit in any way from these stereotypes, with nothing but negative connotations, that will be applied by anyone who doesn’t get Supply Management and stumbles on the Kinaxis entertainment center or Spendman.
Maybe I’m overreacting, but what if I’m not the only one?