Confessions of a Corporate Shopaholic

I think I am cursed.  Just two days ago I had to go to a new hair salon because my regular stylist was sick at home.  Aside from the obvious dialogue on styling preferences, the new guy asked me the one question which I dreaded the most.  You will know what that is from my very first blog post here.  “Sir, what do you do?”

This question is one of the very fundamental reasons why I themed this blog around my work.  Since I am not the type of person who will just mumble some ambiguous crap to dismiss such questions, watching other people’s blank stares has always been my biggest fear.  I therefore tried my best to describe my work in the most conceptual manner.

It seemed to be working.  My new stylist seemed to be genuinely interested and kept asking me follow-up questions (or maybe he was way too courteous to yawn in front of me).  Soon enough I found the other stylists as well as assistants eyeing our way.  I think they were just puzzled to hear some weird chap babbling about his career at a high decibel.  Also, you can clearly see from their eyes that they have never heard of such profession in their lives. 

“How can one enter this profession?”

“What are the qualifications for your job?”

“I have never met any client who do what you do!”

It’s exhausting to answer these questions as I never want to misrepresent my profession, if the other party is genuinely interested.  After hearing my elaborate answers, my new stylist jokingly said that I should start a teaching career.  I told him that was partly what I did on a corporate level instead of a commercial one. 

“So what is your title?” I think he was asking for what my company put on my name card.

When I answered “procurement” both in English and in Chinese, he confessed that he had never heard of it in his entire life.

Alright there is just something seriously wrong here.  I am not trying to glorify what we do here, but when there is this low level of general awareness around us, we need to take responsibility.  Perhaps we have been doing a sucky job in the past that makes us so redundant.  Maybe the results and deliverables we generated can’t really be traced back to our efforts.  Maybe we were never good at advocating our value in front of clients, and perhaps even chose to stay in the comfort zone of assuming tactical purchasing roles that is increasingly commoditized. 

I can’t depend on the others, and so I will try my best to continue doing my part to help elevate such awareness, especially when I know there is immense value we provide to our employers.  I won’t be an obnoxious geek when I hang out with my friends and peers, but I surely won’t be shy in front of business clients and partners. 

There I said it.  Let’s see if I will get killed one way or another.  If you don’t know what I mean, read this!