At least, that’s my guess. As soon as the news hit the wire that Aberdeen was being bought by Harte-Hanks, I started hearing rumors of potential departure(s) at Aberdeen, possibly significant ones. Well, I checked the main analyst bios page on the Aberdeen site today, and, lo and behold, a very significant name WAS NOT there. It appeared that the rumors were true and that Sudy Bharadwaj had indeed left Aberdeen. With a little digging, I was able to confirm this. Where did he go? Good Question … I hope to have the answer for you soon. Who will replace him? My guess is that Vance Checketts will assume his position as Vice President, Global Supply Management. Not certain, but it is logical.
Category Archives: Miscellaneous
What makes a Procurement Professional?
Even though it had a very academic bent, a good presentation at the Fourth Annual International Symposium on Supply Chain Management was Paul Larson’s presentation on “A Survey of Professionals on Topics, Tools, and Techniques for SCM”.
In this presentation, he overviewed a number of surveys carried out over the past few years that, as part of their design, attempted to determine what skills were required by a procurement professional. All of these surveys demonstrated that an effective procurement professional requires a broad cross section of skills to succeed. This indicates, at least to your author, that a procurement professional needs to be a very talented and skilled employee and that a good procurement team has the potential to be the superstars of your organization.
A study by Giunipero and Percy in 2000 identified the following skills:
- Strategic
- Process Management
- Team
- Decision Making
- Behavioral
- Negotiation
- Quantitative
A study by Gammelgaard and Larson in 2001 identified:
- Teamwork
- Problem Solving
- Supply Chain Awareness
- Ability to see the BIG picture
- Listening
- Speaking
- Prioritizing
- Motivation
- Cross-functional awareness
- Leadership
And the recent study performed by the presenter identified the following top ten tools, topics, and techniques:
- Communication
- Negotiation
- Teamwork
- Computer (Analytics) Skills
- Leadership
- Contract Management
- Price and Cost Analysis
- Purchasing and Supply Management
- Supplier Selection / Evaluation
- Relationship Building
In other words, your average procurement professional needs the same breadth of skills required by a senior manager in any other department of your organization. Thus, it should be no surprise that a best-in-class procurement organization can make unparalleled contributions to your bottom line.
The Talent Series V.V: Breaking Update!
Two pieces of news to report to you today.
First of all, Jason Busch, The mighty Prophet of the spend management space of Spend Matters, has started his own mini-series on the issue. You can read “The Spend Management Talent Game (Part 1)”* through the link. I’ll summarize and post my thoughts when he finishes the series in a later post.
Also, Next Level Purchasing (acquired by Certitrek), which was recently recognized as the Innovative Business of the Year by the Pittsburgh Airport Area Chamber of Commerce (PAACC), is going to launch the first video installment of their “Purchasing & Supply Management Podcast Series” next Tuesday (October 17, 2006) on the importance of contract management. Be sure to take advantage of this free educational opportunity!
* All posts prior to 2012 were removed in the Spend Matters site refresh in June, 2023.
Who’s your favorite Weasel?
It’s that time of year again – when Scott Adams holds his annual weasel poll where you can vote for the weasliest pundit/reporter, celebrity, sports person, politician, industry, organization, company, and country. You can cast your vote now over at the Dilbert.com weasel poll. (Results from The Daily Cartoonist.)
I think it will be interesting to see who is voted the weasliest company – especially given the on-going scandal plaguing HP and the exploding laptops caused by faulty Sony batteries and who is voted the weasliest country, especially given North Korea’s recent cantankerous stance with regards to the rest of the world and continuing censorship in China.
The Need for Supplier Relationship Management Education
Capgemini recently announced some of the findings of its most recent research into supplier relationship management in a news release released last month. The findings demonstrated that a significant disconnect still exists in the state of the art of purchasing systems and the state of the practice. Although it found that businesses could expect to save 10-25% on their purchasing costs with an effective systems, it found that less than 50% of SRM users use the application to track orders and only 7% of purchasers use the reporting functions.
The study, which looked at priorities for global Chief Purchasing Officers (CPOs) from six different European countries in a wide cross-section of fields, also found that although many purchasers use spend information to prepare contracts, less than 40% can access the spend information in their SRM application and 30% said that they would need training to use the SRM application effectively.
Although neither the news release, nor the subsequent write-up on the European Leaders Network, discussed the issue, this indicates to me that business are still overlooking one of the key elements to success with any business system – user education.
Supplier Relationship Management, defined as creating an all-encompassing strategy where suppliers connect to your business in real-time, enabling you to gain control of your companies’ direct and indirect spend, transforming suppliers into business partners and extending applications to create value, can be greatly enhanced when well designed systems are used (providers include Apexon [acquired and merged with Infostretch in 2022], SAP, and Vinimaya [rebranded Aquiire and acquired by Coupa]), but only if the users know how to use the system effectively. Make sure extensive training is included as part of your deployment plan and you may find that you are one of the top performing companies achieving a 20% plus return.