While Procurement needs to be able to deal from a full deck of skills (and SI has compiled a list of 52 unique IQ, EQ, and TQ skills a CPO will need to succeed, which will eventually be explored in future posts over on the Spend Matters CPO site once the outside-in issues, agenda items, and value drivers have been adequately addressed), many of the skills that Procurement requires rely on math. In fact, with so many C-Suites demanding savings, if a Procurement Pro can’t adequately, and accurately, compute a cost savings number that the C-Suite will accept, one will be tossed out the door faster than Jazzy Jeff gets tossed out of the Banks’ manner.

But, especially in the US, strong math skills are not in abundant supply. As per a 2010 SI post on how This is Scary! We Have to Fix This that referenced a MSNBC article on Why American Consumers Can’t Add reported on a recent study that found:

• Only 2 in 5 Americans can pick out two items on a menu, add them, and calculate a tip,
• Only 1 in 5 Americans can reliably calculate mortgage interest, and, most importantly
• Only 13% of Americans were deemed “proficient”. That means
  less than 1 in 7 American adults are “proficient” at math.

So even if the Procurement Leader has strong math skills, it’s likely that not everyone on the team does. And even if the Procurement team has decent math skills, the chances of every organizational buyer having decent math skills is pretty slim. So you need to figure out how to ensure poor math skills don’t affect your performance. What should you do?

1. Make sure you know your team’s math competency.

If you need to, have each team member take a math competency test. You need to know their level of capability, and if you can’t get university transcripts, then you need to figure out their university equivalent math competency.

2. If they are not up to snuff, get them the courses they need – at your expense.

You have smart people. You hired them. They have talent, they just need a bit more math. So allow them to enrol in college or university courses, give them the time to improve their skills, and pay for the courses.

3. Acquire systems that make the math easy.

Give them systems where they can collect all the data, run accurate side by side comparisons and analysis, define formulas, and automate computations. The easier it is for them to create the models, analyze them, and make the right decisions, the better.

4. If possible, acquire systems that guide them.

For example, an optimization-backed sourcing system that asks them about the type of constraint, the split in a split award, and any filters and then creates the equation for them, where they only have to approve, vs. your buyers trying to do complex modelling in a spreadsheet is going to be more accurate and save you more money.

For math competency to improve overall, the importance of a math education has to increase overall. That is going to take some time. In the interim, work with what you got.