The Most Underrated Purchasing Skill
Each year, Next Level Purchasing conducts research on what thousands of purchasing professionals consider to be the most important purchasing skill and compiles the results in our annual Purchasing & Supply Management Career & Skills Report. Year after year, negotiation and communication duke it out for the top spot.
But there is one important skill that is never among the leaders, yet is as equally important in my opinion. What is that skill?
New supplier integration/implementation.
A couple of things have gotten me thinking about this.
First, we "eat our own cooking" here at Next Level Purchasing. We use smart purchasing as a driver of profit improvement just like we teach our customers to. So, this year, we have taken advantage of it being a buyer's market, sourced aggressively, and are replacing some old suppliers with new suppliers who offer better cost, service, delivery, and quality.
Because we obviously have lots of good purchasing experience, I expect these transitions to go smoothly. But I've observed many cases where amateur purchasing departments unseat incumbent suppliers for a lower cost and then all heck breaks loose. With Purchasing being counted on to help cut costs in these challenging economic times perhaps moreso than ever, I expect lots of heck to break loose in a lot of companies.
Doing a good job of sourcing and finding a new supplier is only half the cost reduction battle. The other half of the battle is actually implementing and integrating that new supplier successfully so that there are no disruptions or unpleasant surprises.
Another thing that got me thinking about the importance of having skills in new supplier integration/implementation is that some of our new suppliers have "New Client Implementation Specialists" that are our single points of contact during the transition period. It's a good idea for them and gives me a lot of confidence as a customer. I think that Purchasing needs an equivalent.
I've googled "supplier integration specialist" and "supplier implementation specialist" and only got about four results total. I think that this is a position that all large companies should consider.
Just as strategic sourcing is a repeatable, multi-step process based on best practices, supplier integration/implementation should be, too.
To Your Career,
Charles Dominick, SPSM
President & Chief Procurement Officer
Next Level Purchasing, Inc.
Struggling To Have A Rewarding Purchasing Career?
Earn Your SPSM® Certification Online At
http://www.NextLevelPurchasing.com
posted by Charles Dominick, SPSM @ 9:24 AM
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6 Comments:
This is really good. However,in my opinion, THE most underrated purchasing skill in todays' culture and economy is INTEGRITY. Our leaders and role models may have the right technical and educational accreditions from the most prestegious institutions; but they continue to fail in this one skill that errodes everything else good they might have done - leaving a trail of corruption, broken trust, and resentment behing them. Sadly, we see this in nearly every organization, institution, and business across the globe. Just listen to your latest news on what person or business has toppled due to the failure of this one underrated skill - integrity!
Very well said, Anonymous.
Here at Next Level Purchasing, we have a list of our top six priorities. Do you know what #1 is?
Integrity.
It's something I try to instill into the culture of every employee of this organization. Unfortunately, most companies don't have the same priority hierarchy.
Integrity is beyond being a purchasing skill, though. It's even beyond being a business skill. It's a life skill - it needs to permeate every part of your life.
The Madoffs, Enron execs, and everyone else get caught for their indiscretions eventually. I welcome the news stories that show the downfall of someone with poor integrity. It shows that an unethical life just isn't worth it.
I would agree completely, and actually for years now have been asking for this specific skill during my interviews for Indirect Buyers and Sourcing Managers.
My only difference is that I don't think this is a specific Job, but an INTEGRAL part of every category leaders job. I believe the integration process is where you will see your cost savings or efficiencies, and if the Category Manager does not play the key role, they lose valuable experience and knowledge that must be applied in future negotiations and Sourcing Teams.
Thanks for sharing your insight, JohnG.
In smaller companies, you are absolutely right - every category manager needs to be skilled at new supplier implementation. But, as I stated, in large companies with huge procurement teams - I'm talking like $30B in annual revenue and 200+ purchasing employees - I think that dedicating positions to new supplier implementation is a good idea. It is in these companies, where internal politics rule and there are business units scattered throughout the world, that new supplier implementation is even more challenging and requires even more TLC.
Thanks again for chiming in!
Charles,
Instead of hiring a dedicated resource, the solution may be to get a consultant or two in the door that do it all the time. One of the most important thing that we do (Source One) is assist our clients in the implementation of a new process, product or a new supplier.
We are not the only ones doing it, there are a few capable procurement service providers and even some individuals out there, but we probably all do a poor job of advertising it, just as your "googling" indicated.
I agree with you, Bill, for the most part. One of the benefits of good consultants is exactly what you stated - they do certain things all the time and have gotten quite proficient at it. This makes perfect sense to small, mid-size, and even some large companies who may not integrate new suppliers on a continuous basis.
But for those large companies that do - especially those large companies that are highly political - an in-house resource who knows how to navigate the organizational culture and has established relationships with the power brokers in the business units is quite an asset. In these cases, new supplier integration/implementation needs to be a core competency of the procurement team.
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