Procurement – Is it a Shining Shimmering Crown? | CPO INNOVATION

Procurement function looks like Shining Shimmering Crown but like other Business Functions, it carries a lot of risk and responsibilities.

I was discussing with one of my friends about my Procurement profession and he was praising my profession but I saw that he was having few myths about this profession. I would say “Don’t judge a book by its cover” to understand it, you need to take a deeper and closure look at it.

As a Procurement Professional, I’m trying to express my views about this profession from the angle of myths he was having.

Procurement job looks to be very attractive to other people who deal with Procurement team to get their requirements fulfilled. But the people who are managing it or working in the Procurement world will agree with me that Procurement job is extremely hard but also a highly rewarding one.

Procurement buyers/managers are always working with suppliers on a daily basis and therefore the job would require them to have a high level of confidence and also a high level of intelligence to be able to work in their profession. Along with it, one of the most important qualities of diplomacy is extremely required for this profession.

As a Procurement person, you need to handle a lot of things at a time or need to work on multiple requirements at a time and while doing so, you still need to keep the vision of getting the best supplies for your company at the top priority. Sometimes it’s a risky thing as you need to execute each transaction flawlessly for fulfilling requirements of your internal customers.

Sometimes few of the transactions take a lot of time for internal approvals, maybe for any of the internal reasons, at that time it is a skill of Procurement buyer to keep supplier informed as well as motivated to bear with him for his internal process to get over. Balancing all these things for each requirement that you are working on at a time is little difficult task and only seasoned procurement professionals can manage it better.

Moreover while managing all procurement requirements and dealing with various suppliers at a time, procurement guy needs to keep his patience and tempo all the time so that he can be polite and thorough professional with all the suppliers he is dealing with. Ultimately keeping Supplier Relationship at high level is his KRA.

Most importantly while you are dealing with multiple suppliers for one deal, you have to select only one supplier at a time for one deal where the job of Procurement guy is to convey other suppliers that they are not selected. In my opinion that is the most difficult job of Procurement buyer, because while doing so he also has to keep that supplier motivated so that those suppliers shall support his next requirement.

I wish to touch base on the next important aspect of this profession that is Integrity. There is always a trust concern any Management may have with its Procurement team. Since Procurement people handle money of an organization and hence prone to various lucrative offers of suppliers to entertain them, it is highly challenging for them to have integrity with the organization. Integrity is one of the most important characters or attributes of Procurement Profession.

Even though you do all negotiations and transactions sole heartedly in the interest of company, you have to comply with all documentation to prove your integrity in each transaction.

Procurement is a business function, but nowadays it is being brought into the spotlight more frequently. When we think of Procurement, we often immediately think of cost and cost reduction as the primary focus of procurement. Though this is a crucial component, it is certainly not the only topic we should keep our eyes and ears focused on.

Traditionally, procurement professionals are thought of as “number crunchers” who are working extremely hard to achieve the highest quality product or service for the lowest cost. In this core concept alone, there are many subtopics that businesses need to emphasize in order to achieve these better products, services, and costs.

As the world of procurement expands and increased emphasis is placed on it, there will be more variables that businesses will need to keep high on their radar in order to lead their teams to greater success.