Category Archives: rants

If You Think Social Media Will Solve Your Problems

Then I’d like to sell you some plans for a cold fusion reactor to solve all of your energy needs! At only $999,995, it’s a steal!

But, in all seroiusness, no business in the world should want a social media expert on their team because being an expert in social media is like being an expert at taking the bread out of the refrigerator. It’s easy. The hard part is pulling a scooby and shaggy and making an amazing sandwich with that bread. And you can’t do that if all you’ve ever done is take the bread out of the refrigerator.

The reality is that social media is just another facet of marketing and customer service and IT’S STILL ABOUT GENERATING REVENUE THROUGH SOLID MARKETING AND STELLAR CUSTOMER SERVICE, JUST LIKE IT’S BEEN SINCE THE BEGINNING OF TIME.

Thank you, Peter Shankman for this wonderful article on why I will never, ever hire a “social media expert”! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. Thank you!

Facebook is not worth 100 Billion. There’s no revenue in poking, prodding, tagging, flagging, and flailing around with a thousand people you never met. And Twitter certainly isn’t worth almost 10 Billion either. I don’t care that you thought that new spicy foods restaurant on the corner was the greatest ever until you ended up with food poisoning and spent the night worshipping the porcelain alter (which you described in glory detail, 140 characters at a time). Anyone who thinks these sites are worth billions is a nutjob still throwing off his clothes and running naked in the rain, waving his hands in the air, sure that this time it’ll be different, because this time it’s better! A whacko. A total loon.

And anyone who thinks you need a “Social Media Expert” to understand Facebook, Twitter, GroupOn, etc. is just as crazy. We should listen to Douglas Adams, round them all up, along with the wall street executives, politicians, and paper-pushing middle managers, and send them away on a spaceship just like the Golgafrinchans did. We’d be better off for it if we did. (Except we’ll learn their lesson and keep the “telephone sanitizers” because, let’s face it, some guys just won’t scrub their own telephones. [If you don’t get why, brush up on the history of the term.])

In the mean time, SI will never be hiring a “social media expert” either. And you should really, really check out Peter Shankman‘s wonderful article on why I will never, ever hire a “social media expert”! It made my day.

You Can’t Hire 100 People At a Time (Bonus NPX Take Away 1)

One of the things I heard at the NPX exchange put on by The Mpower Group is that there are companies out there looking to hire 50, 100, and even 200 Supply Management professionals — right now. What, what, what? I can’t believe I just heard that. While I’m sure most of you are saying that’s great news because, in your opinion, that means jobs are returning and/or faith in Supply Management is finally getting to what it needs to be, I can assure you this is not great news.

What this really signifies is that there is a deep fundamental problem in the organization in question. A well-run company should not suddenly need 200 people in its Supply Management organization. The first thing one has to ask when hearing that a company needs that many people is why. And “we’re centralizing operations” or “we’re expanding our global footprint” are not good reasons.

A company doesn’t have to hire more people to centralize operations, even if it is moving Supply Management headquarters. It simply has to relocate some staff on location and everyone else can work wherever they are. Now that most people have affordable video conferencing on their desktop, and it’s quick and easy to get just about anywhere in the world within two days, there’s no excuse for not letting people work where they are. (And any HR professional worth their salt will tell you that it’s much cheaper to relocate talent than to hire new talent and get them up to speed.) If the organization needs new people because it just got rid of a bunch, one needs to ask why. Did it really have that many people who couldn’t cut it and, more importantly, couldn’t be trained to cut it? If so, there is something fundamentally wrong with its hiring practices and talent management and it’s probably not somewhere anyone would want to work.

A company doesn’t have to hire that many more people to expand its global footprint either. It just has to hire a few local resources in the region and open an office. That’s 20 people, tops, not 200. If it needs more, then it’s expansion plans are too aggressive. There’s no way you can parachute 50 to 200 people into an organization and not expect everything to come to a screeching halt for 6 months. Even if you can figure out where to put 200 people, you need to get them equipment, train them on general organizational processes, assign them specific jobs, train them on the appropriate technology and specific processes, hold their hands until they know how to do their daily jobs, and have mentors readily available to answer questions for up to two years as they learn the ins and outs of the more complex aspects of their assignment.

In short, jobs returning to Supply Management are a good thing, but only if they are added in moderation.

Ariba Needs to Get Its Prescription Checked

Ariba recently released “Vision 2020 – The Future of Procurement”, which was intended to define what the Procurement function is going to look like in 2020. While it was a noble effort, it would appear that Ariba needs to get its prescription checked. While almost half of the predictions were on the mark, and others were close, some define the state of Procurement today, some define the state of Procurement yesterday, and some were just out to lunch. Since you know I can’t leave unanswered any report that I know is going to be taken as influential when it is not 100%, I am going to address each prediction one by one over the next six posts.

In particular, this series will divide the predictions into five categories:

  • Yesterday’s News
    These predictions clearly missed the boat that sailed a long time ago. Any organization that thinks this is Supply Management 2020 needs to take a close look at Supply Management 2000.
  • Today’s Blues
    These predictions would have been good if made in 2005 for 2010, as even though many of the capabilities have been around for a few years, most did not start to be adopted by leading Supply Management organizations until after 2005.
  • Tomorrow’s Shoes
    These predictions hit the mark. Leading Supply Management organizations are starting to embark on the journey that will see them realize these capabilities within 10 years, as they are necessary for these organizations to get to the next level of supply management.
  • Close, but no Cigar
    These predictions were close, but either went a little too far or a little to the side.
  • I Hope it’s Just a Ruse
    I don’t know where these predictions came from. They’re totally off base and anyone banking on them is in for a surprise.

Stay tuned! Agree or disagree, you can chime in with a comment or, according to the paper, join the conversation on the Ariba Exchange if you’re a registered member. SI prefers open discussions, but to each his own.

How Do I Find Top Supply Management Talent?

So, after reading yesterday’s post, you now know that if you can’t find* top supply management talent, it’s because you’re looking for a mythical resource that doesn’t exist. In fact, you have a better chance of finding a chimera. Wish all you want, but a senior buyer with a PhD and ten years of experience who speaks three languages, has expertise in multiple e-Sourcing and e-Procurement processes and applications, has bought twelve different categories, has sourced from multiple countries in Europe and Asia, has led global cross-functional teams, has participated in NPD, has financial chops and can help the CFO optimize working capital, is an SRM expert, has a high CQ, is an expert in global negotiations, is a master of spend analysis, can manage multiple projects simultaneously, and lead global services team is not someone out there waiting to be hired. You’d have a better chance finding a CEO for a Fortune 500 than finding a buyer with these skill sets.

So what do you do? You stop focussing on the super-resource and start focussing on the team. Yes you need all the skills, but you don’t need them all in the same person. Break the “super” buyer role into an analyst role, a global trade role, an engineering management role, a contracts role, and a set of buyer roles organized around compatible categories. Then, instead of looking for 7 – 10 “super” buyers, you’re looking for five different roles that will be much easier to fill. For example, the job description from the previous post would break down into the following descriptions:

Supply Management Analyst

  • expert in should cost models, TCO models, and global logistics models
  • experienced user of e-Sourcing and e-Procurement applications and expert in e-Negotiations and award optimization
  • expert in spend analysis
  • working capital management skills
  • financial reporting experience
  • expert at market intelligence

Global Trade Specialist

  • expert in negotiations with a global supply base
  • buying experience in Europe and Asia
  • speaks two or more languages
  • expertise in import/export requirements of the US, the EU, India, and China
  • in-depth knowledge of REACH, WEEE, RoHS, and similar regulations
  • high CQ

Innovation Engineer

  • great project management skills
  • risk management skills
  • innovative and capable of leading cross-functional innovation teams
  • NPD experience
  • experience with CSR and sustainability initiatives

Contract Specialist

  • excellent communication skills
  • excellent writing skills
  • experienced in contract drafting
  • familiar with regulatory requirements
  • experienced with compliance programs

Senior Buyer

  • great communication skills
  • bachelor’s degree with 5 years of experience, master’s preferred
  • buying experience in one or more of manufactured goods, services, IT & Telecommunications, legal, marketing, and temporary labour
  • supervisory experience of global business teams and outsourced services preferred
  • implemented multiple successful SRM initiatives
  • great leadership skills

And your chances of filling these positions are much better than finding a mythical chimera.


* Again, only referring to “find”. There are a number of reasons that you might not be able to “hire” such talent if you can find it, but they are not the subject of this post.

Why Can’t I Find Top Supply Management Talent?

The simple answer: you’re looking for a resource that is so rare it may not even exist! And I’m not the only one who thinks so. After talking with a number of thought leaders at the Hackett Best Practices conference, it’s become clear that this is the most common reason Supply Management organizations can’t find talent. (Note that this is only the case with respect to “find”. There are a number of reasons a Supply Management organization can’t hire talent.)

As Supply Management has become more and more challenging, the average reaction of a supply management organization has been to continually augment the job description of a supply manager to the point where the individual is expected to not only be a jack of all trades but master of all. This has resulted in a search for senior buyers with an eclectic collection of skills and experience so rare that you can probably count the number of global supply professionals around the globe that make the grade. For example, whereas the average job description for a senior buyer ten years ago might have looked like:

  • good communication skills
  • college degree
  • negotiation experience
  • buying experience in chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and energy
  • some supervisory experience

Today’s average job description for a senior buyer looks like:

  • great communication skills
  • excellent writing skills
  • master’s degree with 10 years experience, PhD preferred
  • expert in negotiations with a global supply base
  • buying experience in manufactured goods, services, IT & Telecommunications, legal, marketing, and temporary labour
  • supervisory experience of global business teams and outsourced services
  • buying experience in Europe and Asia
  • speaks English, Hindi, and Mandarin fluently
  • experienced in contract drafting
  • expertise in import/export requirements of the US, the EU,
    India, and China
  • in-depth knowledge of REACH, WEEE, RoHS, and similar regulations
  • expert in should cost models, TCO models, and global logistics models
  • experienced user of e-Sourcing and e-Procurement applications and expert in e-Negotiations and award optimization
  • expert in spend analysis
  • great project management skills
  • risk management skills
  • working capital management skills
  • financial reporting experience
  • innovative and capable of leading cross-functional innovation teams
  • NPD experience
  • implemented multiple successful SRM initiatives
  • experience with CSR and sustainability initiatives
  • expert at market intelligence
  • high CQ
  • great leadership skills

See the problem?