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Archive for the ‘Hope’ Category

Get Off Your Butt!

Posted in Hope, tagged on December 14, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Setting cost savings targets for the team is a daunting task.  It is always a stretched goal but it has to be realistic and attainable at the same time.  Although it is often the collective hard work of a team or even the entire regional organization, the company will always convince you that your personal bonus is tied to how well you are achieving your cost savings targets. 

Very well.  Let’s be realistic for a moment.  Even though there are plenty of other measurement metrics like customer satisfaction, employee retention, training & development, or policy & regulatory compliance to report, the single biggest and most representative proof of why we are worth our paychecks is how much cost savings we are delivering to the company.  Finance is all about numbers, and we know the rules of the game from day one.

So how to come up with the target is an art by itself.  The more experienced your boss is, the easier and more straightforward that conversation will go.  I have had this past experience that my boss had absolutely no idea what addressable spend is, nor what pass-through costs mean.  There are also financial controllers who mix all things up in one pot, which I can understand since they only care about the bottom line and not the details.  I just cannot imagine some senior procurement executives simply put a percentage of total spend as savings target.  They usually have relatively less experience with services buying and the outsourcing arena.

The key to having a civilized discussion with your boss on target setting is to be entirely fact based.  Get the top 80% spend supplier list ready.  Go through each one and identify what is negotiable and what not.   And with that, check if there is any room for negotiations in the coming year.   Next go through businesses one by one.  Discuss what each of their priorities are next year.  What are their budget plans?  How can we get in and help?   Finally go through the areas which are not attacked so far and explore tactics to engage.  Who should do it and how?  What are the carrots we can provide?  Do we have enough resources for it and does it make sense?

With a bottoms-up approach the conversation usually can turn more comfortable.  Don’t skip the details including inflation and currency appreciation factors.  Your boss may not find it welcoming to hear so many bad news at once, but we have to acknowledge collectively that it’s no longer an easy job for anyone.  I don’t want to be penalized at the later end of the year that I have not provisioned for the risks of the target.  So I make sure I document all my points with as much facts and evidence as possible, in case there are colleagues who have forgetful minds.

My other advice is to set accountability right from the start.  Some accountability are totally within the team in terms of project execution and quality, but a few dependencies are entirely top-down.  Someone needs to get management buy-in, and to what level that buy-in will require depends on the company and/or business line culture.  We all need to get off our butts to knock on stakeholders’ doors to get new businesses.   I have done my very good share of going to people 3 or 4 levels above my rank for new businesses, so I get quite irritated if I see a leader not doing just that when all of us have exhausted our abilities to get roadblocks removed solely due to a lack of seniority on the corporate ladder.

I have seen tons of organizations with low morale mostly due to unattainable savings targets.  Leaders who alienate themselves from team members because they don’t want to know the details or have no intention to dive in to play his or her part only makes the matter much much worse.   That’s usually how companies lose their brightest people, and it’s one mistake no company can afford to bear.

 

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Angry Much?

Posted in Hope, tagged on December 7, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I have my good share of pleasure interacting with and managing angry customers, whether they are internal or external.   Internal customers often deviate from the original purpose of the meeting and instead ramble on and on about matters, people, process or projects that are probably not even under my jurisdiction.  Of course, there are also instances where it was indeed my team’s fault.  I have heard name calling, have seen dismissal faces and also forwarded complaints from country heads sent to them directly from pissed off department heads. 

Procurement after all is a service function.  We don’t get to be as authoritative as HR or Finance or Legal where users are in general feared or at least respected.  Instead, we get blamed, scolded and yelled at for a job that everyone thinks is crap.  We do know a thing or two about handling angry people.

Externally, a client might have been badly burnt by an ex-colleague, or sometimes it’s just a result of bad human chemistry.  Some client teams could also get really offended when we were obliged to recommend or report process or behavioral improvements to client management.  Regardless of the situation, there is no other way but to tough it up and handle the situation face-to-face, man-to-man.

This is probably the worst job of all having to sit in a meeting where you know what the outcome is, no matter how you act and behave.  However this is also an opportunity to shine if you come out in one piece while retaining dignity of yourself as well as your organization or company.  Think about it, do you have one or two names popped up to your head whenever you need to assign someone from your team to handle a messy situation?  I bet there are, and sometimes in today’s virtual working environment, he or she may not necessarily be the appropriate ranking officer, meaning there is no ONE person that is really responsible for the matter at hand to make the obvious choice.  Why do you pick these few people?  What are their common traits?  What are they good at?  Why don’t you pick others?  What are they bad at?  If you are an experienced leader, it will not be difficult to identify the best ways in dealing with angry customers simply by answering the above questions.

1. Do Your Homework

You need to know what the objective of the meeting is.  Are you asked to go in to explain yourself, or are you asked to offer a solution or a fix?  Who will be present at the meeting and what decision-making power do they each have?  Who are you supposed to be, or what role would you take up in this whole mess?  What is the situation in detail?  If it’s not your personal case then make sure you speak with those involved in your team beforehand to get all the facts straight.  If you need to make an offer, get the advance approval beforehand.  Always go prepared.  Nothing is more infuriating to the customer if they are in front of an ignorant messenger who isn’t even prepared in the first place.

2. Be A Good Listener

The meeting is there for the customer to talk and vent their frustration.  Even if you don’t agree with them, listen well with the occasional smile and nod.  Project sympathy.  Hear it from their angle.  Try to gauge what their objectives and personalities are.  Don’t inject your comments until the client is finished.  The situation will usually turn more calm and objective once the customers have the opportunity to get everything off their chest.

3. Be On Their Side

When you are ready to offer solutions, make sure they are in tune with what the customers want.  Do they want exceptional approval?  Do they want speed and flexibility?  Do they want one voice accountability rather than bureaucracy?  What drives their behavior?  If you know that your clients feel insulted by your process, any approach that will help them regain their credibility and glory in front of their bosses will be well received. 

4.  Actions Speak Louder

Needless to say, all angry customers will remain skeptic for a fairly long period of time.  You may be able to calm them down a bit at the meeting, but you can expect to be watched intensely for the next few months at least.  Let your actions do the work.  Make sure you live up to what you have promised, and make sure your other team mates support you in the process.  Let your boss speak with them at a later time to manage progress, before something gets to boil up to another potential fiasco.

5. Don’t Speak Ill of the Organization / Company

A very tempting tactic by many is to be so sympathetic with the customers that the individual begins to criticize his own organization/team/company openly.  That is not smart.  You will be perceived as someone who knows about the problems but do not have the guts or the power to do anything about them.  Then why would the customers want to trust you now?  Placing the blame on your bosses or team mates or management is petty, unprofessional and childish.  You will be surprised how soon words can spread, and I can assure you that these individuals will soon be deserted by both customers as well as their bosses.

An all time asset to organizations around the globe is having the ability to turnaround difficult or angry customers and bring everyone back to the table to move forward.  Don’t take this too lightly.  You don’t get to dismiss complaints as isolated cases too many time.

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So Long, Insecurity (Part Two)

Posted in Frown, Hope, tagged , on December 1, 2010| Leave a Comment »

As leaders, arriving at a changing or even turmoil environment can be a daunting reality.  There is a lack of trust in the air from the people left behind.  You can hardly find anyone with enough facts to put the puzzle together.  Everyone is saying what you can and cannot do.  Neighboring departments all seem to be using the chance to grab a piece of your empire.  Your comrades are all skeptic.  You don’t know who to trust.  Your boss hired you into the situation and expects you to turn things around, fast. 

This sounds very common to all professions of all industries.  Those days of hiring you into an established post already with good processes and good people are long gone.  We are all expected to improve, land better results, and accomplish the so-called impossibilities.  If not with the latter, your subordinates would have already been qualified for your job.   From day one, you should have already set your expectations right.

I am still surprised to see how many new leaders performing below expectations, not only in the first quarter, but for the first full year.  Yes I know how challenging any new environment is, and how insecure we can all become, at least secretly, from all the observations and disasters landing our way right from the start.  However, there is just no way to look back and ponder.  In my opinion, they have nothing much to lose if they are hired to turn things around in the first place.  Things cannot get any worse, and timing cannot be any better, in reality.

Speed is critical.  People need to see actions, attitudes, opinions, and bold drives.  Employees need to see hope and change.  Though there is no guarantee (is there any, ever?) of the outcome, new leaders need to be able to articulate his or her vision and couple with a few tangible action plans quickly, usually no later than the first quarter assuming office. 

Doing nothing, hiding in his or her comfort zone and let the whole situation plays itself out is by far the worst thing any new leaders can do.

Insecurity?  Please, no time for that.  Don’t start putting the blame on people and the predecessors.  Yeah yeah, that’s why new leadership is sought.   I have seen new leaders complaining about how they are left with no alliances, soldiers and culture.  Yet they always fail to realize that they are the leaders of change as well.  They have way more ammunition than they thought.  They can hire and fire.  They can instill new thoughts and culture.  They can set examples by getting their butts off meeting internal customers, stakeholders and senior executives to remove obstacles and attain buy-in.  Without that,  they can hardly expect their subordinates to change, just like that.

We all need a large mirror to reflect on what we do, behave and run away from.  It is particularly difficult to see the truth when you are a leader because there are very few who would dare to hold up the mirror against you.  Needless to say, knowing how to pick and utilize your talent pool is probably the most critical and very first thing any new leader should master.  Identify the good people, know what their strengths and weaknesses are, and spot the ones who are marginally effective.   Only then would you be able to take in the right advice and recommendations, from the right people.

Insecure leaders, on the other hand, tend to be skeptic of competent staff members due to reasons listed in Part One.  To me, these are just signs that they are still acting as managers, and clearly not yet leadership material. 

This, is where executive coaches come in.   One coach used to say “Getting past your insecurity and embracing contributions from talented staff is the best starting point of becoming a new leader.”

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Who Wants To Be On Top?

Posted in Grin, Hope, tagged , on November 30, 2010| Leave a Comment »

“You don’t look like a procurement person!” is what I hear time and time again from my clients and end users.  Since I am shameless I usually take it as a compliment.  Tell me the truth, if you are one of the rare few who actually know what procurement is, ninety percent of the time you would be expecting to run into a dull, stone-faced, old-fashioned man or woman in his/her 40s or 50s.  Quite honestly, this fits most of the physical characteristics of professionals I have seen in this circle across the globe, except perhaps in Mainland China.  In China, the average age is a lot younger since the number of low-cost sourcing positions is the fastest growing in the world.

Don’t tell me dressing the part makes no difference.  Don’t tell me you never judge the book by its covers, or publishers won’t spend millions of dollars researching for the right design, illustrations, fonts, colors and catchy titles for their books.  Don’t tell me you give people more than 5 minutes to make a first impression. 

The same goes for my profession. 

Just because we work behind the scenes with spreadsheets and calculators and putting our noses to the 68-page contract and request for proposal drafts 13 hours a day, there should never be an excuse dressing like a 60 year-old history professor.  If you are indeed a strategic procurement professional, you are likely to spend plenty of time in front of suppliers, departmental users, CFOs, CIOs, lawyers, auditors and regulatory officials.   You need to represent, negotiate, convince and argue all at the same time.  We need to armor up with facts, strategies, baits and bullets.  Dressing the part is increasingly a make-or-break situation.

 I dress to meet with the savvy senior business development teams from IBM, Accenture and WPP.  I dress for site inspection trips to China Mobile and China Netcom in Beijing meeting state officials.  I dress to go over the new year’s budget plans with the SVP of marketing operations.  I dress when I meet the lawyers.  I dress when I conduct trainings.  Hey, do I need any reasons not to dress for the part?

It’s not only the dress as well.  I also care about posture.  I know, this is no America’s Next Top Model contest, but we need to project professionalism and confidence – all the time.  Otherwise, no one is going to entrust you with the millions of dollars worth buying decisions.  No one is going to take you seriously at the negotiation table.  No one is going to give you a raise (though we all sadly know this is out of our hands most of the time).   No one is going to believe that you take the laws and regulations seriously.  Have eye contact at all time.  Speak clearly and decisively.  Use the right gestures to project approval or doubtfulness.  Head up, shoulders back and walk straight ahead.  Be fierce and let people know you mean business.  Gosh, this does sound like something Tara Banks would say.

Dressing well and projecting confidence sends a clear silent signal before I even start to speak up:  I respect what I do.  I respect you and your time.  I am above the topic at hand and I focus on the long-term objective.  I don’t have time to waste.  I am not the type that would take bribes.  I am not going to take no as an answer.  I am not to be fooled.  I am secure enough to say what’s right without worrying over repercussions from my boss, colleagues or people with devious motives.  Most of all, I am a brand of my ownand I will bring credibility and efficiency to the company.  So, listen up!

Sounds narcissistic?   No, if you want to send at least one of the above signals across.

Time to start thinking about what your personal brand is, stand up, refine your speaking techniques, check your posture and switch on Tara!

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Professionals Anyone?

Posted in Hope, tagged on November 26, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday I have my routine workout at the gym, for the past 7 or 8 years.  My friends are always astonished to see me working out with a personal trainer and they all think that it’s an utter waste of money.  Well, I won’t exactly say it is affordable and all but it adds discipline to an otherwise lazy soul.  Besides, I am leaving it for the pros so I can concentrate on pulling, pushing, lifting and breathing without counting the laps or remembering what weights I lifted the last time.  Is it worth the extra hourly rate I pay?  For me yes, but for many others, it seems not.

Fine, but I believe in professionals.  Of course they have to be true professionals to earn my respect.  A personal trainer better knows all there is about the physical body, nutrition, sports injuries, and human biology.  I expect the sweet lady who sells me fruits at the local hawker stand to know all there is about seasonal fruits and how to pick them.  I expect the butcher to recommend me cuts of meat which I like, and the seafood vendor to teach me how to cook the fresh shrimps that I am about to buy.  I trust my tailor to give me advice on what fabric to pick that does not wrinkle as easily, and I always leave it to the sommelier to recommend me the best wine to pair with my entrée selection.

Yes when it comes to topics that I am not as knowledgeable of, I trust the professionals.  Or I should say I expect them to behave and treat themselves like professionals in their field.  The same goes for all service people at all levels.  I will never look down upon other people’s professions because I swear I will never be able to do their jobs at their proficiency or efficiency levels. 

There is so much knowledge around us that no matter how smart we think we are, we should always be humble enough to consult the professionals simply because we don’t know it all.  I do not feel insecure asking for help.  Time and time again it proves that if I respect people around me as professionals, they feel respected and dignified and will become extra accountable in whatever they do.

On the other hand, if I see below-par service performance bad enough for me as a novice to voice out, I protest but I will not do so in a condescending way.  Instead, I question their professionalism.  If you are not committed or passionate to what you do, no one deserve to be ill-treated by you.

That is exactly the same level of standards I am holding on to myself.  I do not think that procurement is trivial, as some customers or executives choose to believe.  I don’t think anyone can do my job in sleep, although sometimes I echo we are not rocket scientists.   I hold on to high moral and ethical standards to help the company gain efficiencies, cut down on wasteful spending, and improve profitability.  Well not everyone may see that right away, but my results will become proof soon enough.  You may not agree with my priorities, objectives or sometimes even the tactics I play, but I am asking you to at least respect me and let me work together with you.  Of course, I need to earn that trust and make sure I will not mess up any of your valuable relationships with internal partners, management and outside vendors.

Whenever I see fellow strategic procurement colleagues struggling to get a seat at the decision table, I usually advise them not to see themselves as only support people.  Speak up, build a case with evidence, have an opinion, and be humble but strong.  Even if your suggestions are going to be turned down anyway, make it a point to speak out and have yourself heard.  Give your stakeholders some credit.  They may not always agree with you, but at least they should respect you.  The pre-requisite of course is that every point and suggestion should be fact-based and consistent.  People are going to remember what you said earlier.  If you have been yelling compliance on the top of your lungs all along and this time you are proposing flexibility, you may lose your credibility as a professional, unless you have a really good case for it.

Whenever I make hiring decisions I always ask myself whether I can see the candidate going solo with the President or CEO of the company.  If I can see him or her having the passion and stamina without easily intimidated by seniority or ranks, our procurement organization will be in good hands. 

 

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Run! Compliance is Coming!

Posted in Hope, tagged , on November 25, 2010| Leave a Comment »

One other career possibility that I can think of to add to my list in No Way Out, is compliance.  Of all the potential corruption, reciprocal trading, kickbacks, and policy & regulation violations that I have been talking about these days, procurement professionals also need watchdogs to ensure we are conducting our business ethically.  Yes there are also internal and external auditors, but they usually focus on internal company policy adherence.  Compliance however, covers a much broader perspective, in my opinion.

The first generation of compliance covers all government policies’ compliance that the company needs to operate within.  What’s legal in the States is not necessarily legal here, and compliance needs to ensure they are well versed of the latest policies and regulations in order to draft and enforce local company policies for all users to follow.  Procurement also needs to ensure we help advise our users what not to do, and very often we discuss with our suppliers to make sure no one is breaking the law.

Not long afterwards there are different streams of compliance being developed.  Related to my profession, I increasingly see new posts named supply chain compliance and vendor management compliance  popping up everywhere, particularly in financial institutions.  These posts require thorough analysis of the company’s vendor base, identify high risk relationships, determine remedies, and enforce remediation plans.  Candidates of these positions preferably should have a procurement background to add to his or her credibility.  Shortcomings do not only come from the vendors, but very often the users and procurement professionals ourselves.  Without the needed technical and process expertise, compliance will find its job much harder to do, and results far from substantial.

Compliance is generally hated and made fun of by everyone in the company.  What’s better to have procurement people assume the role when they already are so used to the same love-hate reputation all along? 

I know this probably doesn’t sound like the most interesting job in the world, but what really is? 

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No Way Out

Posted in Frown, Hope, tagged , on November 18, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I can certainly sympathize with people in my profession who think they are in dead-end jobs.  However it does not have to be this way.  It depends on what you are specialized in or which end of the spectrum you are located.  If you are more of an operations professional, the work is definitely going to be a bit more repetitive.  Yet for those who go for stability and domain excellence, they are in no better place.

With all due respect to my colleagues, I prefer to meet new people and lead new projects.  That keeps me on a constant learning mode.  Some headhunters questioned whether I would run out of “excitement” after the variety of projects, commodities, companies and industries I have been working in, and I told them not to worry.  We are living in an ever-changing global economy where the products and services we buy and sell are evolving.  Who would have thought that companies can now advertise in digital media and social networks like Facebook 10 years ago?   It’s never more fulfilling working with your colleagues on brand new ideas and challenges which is very much what a management consultant would do on a daily basis.

Therefore whenever I am asked what kind of career future there is for a strategic procurement professional (note that I have added “strategic” to mark the difference), I usually paint the following possible scenarios:

1. Climb the corporate ladder.  Easiest and most natural thing to do is to excel and position yourself in your bosses’ jobs.  Make sure you acquire broader domain knowledge by rotating yourself across different teams before you can become leadership material.

2. Go into the businesses.  Only if you have built up your credibility within the procurement arena and you have been regarded as a trusted partner by your internal customers.  Check the internal job posting site for roles that could leverage your existing skills and expertise.  If there is a role that needs constant dealings with external business partners, or daily management of outsourced providers, you could be a good fit.  Although it may be a bit risky for the businesses, it is still probably better to pick someone who have been with the company for a while who understands the company culture and already liked by the teammates.  This is not easy of course, but being considered or shortlisted is already a huge honor to the procurement team.  If you feel that you are already in a respected company that you can see yourself staying for a much longer time of your career life, don’t rule this possibility out.  Start knowing more people and build a network not only professionally but socially.

3. Be a consultant.  Academic background and soft skills are vital.  The assets of a consultant is his brain, and his problem solving skills.  You need to be very independent.  You may not have anyone report into you meaning you need to roll up your sleeves to lead a project from start to finish.  You need extremely high EQ.  You need to work extremely long hours and may hardly see your wife and kids.  Sorry I don’t mean to scare you off, but those who make fun of consultants should re-assess what they have to work with in the first place.

There are spend management or corporate turnaround consultancies which smart aggressive strategic procurement professionals could consider.  It is a very rewarding experience.

4. Sales.  In my previous post I mentioned that all of us are very good salesmen or we won’t be successful in negotiating or securing that last production quota.  Companies like to know how procurement think so that they can adjust their selling strategies ahead of time.  I have seen time and time again where procurement professionals joined the sales force because of the wealth of experience they carry.  You just have to figure out what kind of companies you want to get into.

5. Public Sector.  Well, this is not exactly a different category, but with increasing scrutiny over how our government is spending and the pressure from public policy watch dogs, this is an area worth investigating.  Not everyone has the stomach for opportunities like this.  Nevertheless, the screening criteria is fierce.

Obviously there are other possibilities out there.  If you know of any, do share!

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“Face It, We Are Salespeople” – from CPO Agenda

Posted in Hope, tagged , , on November 16, 2010| Leave a Comment »

On Measure Me This, one of the many measurements of procurement people is how much cost savings we can bring to the company.  Another common scorecard item is how much of the overall spend we get ourselves involved in.  It would make us redundant if we deliver fantastic results but over a very small fraction of the entire spend is unaddressed.   There  is of course a distinction of in-scope or out-scope spend as identified in almost every procurement policy in most established global companies, but we as strategic procurement professionals always strive to push that boundary further.

The key is whether we can add value.  There is no point of getting involved in things that we will only drag down the process.

If we are convinced there are value-adds to bring to the table, we need to bring our strategies, similar successful case studies, potential solutions as well as our execution plans and knock on our internal customers’ doors.  That is very much like a salesperson. 

I recently came across an article on CPO Agenda (CPO stands for Chief Procurement Officers, an executive role that is gaining prominence over the last decade), “Face it, we are salespeople” by Paul Snell, which includes a quote from Roy Anderson, CPO of financial services firm State Street.

“… the ability to implement change was primarily down to the staff you employed.  Do you have people in your organization who are intelligent enough and confident enough to drive change and can be the authority in that category?…”

“… do your staff have the skills to explain change and innovation throughout the business?  They might be a great negotiator or market analyst, but for this, they needed to communicate and sell.  Face it, we are salespeople.  Procurement is definitely long gone.  We sell concepts to internal customers, we sell to our supplier base to be more innovative in their solution set and we sell to the internal customers to explain what the changes need to be…”

Personally and especially in this part of the region, I am seeing very few procurement professionals who do this well.  They are either too boxed-in to their comfort zones of negotiating and bidding, or way too customer oriented that they end up being “corporate servants” which they do not deserve to be.  Striking the balance is a lot harder than it looks, and therefore whenever I hire in my specific area of strategic procurement, I look for these soft skills which are much harder to be groomed comparing to product knowledge or negotiation techniques.

If you are interested, more of Paul Snell’s articles can be found on his blog. 

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Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

Posted in Hope, tagged , , , on November 13, 2010| 2 Comments »

Negotiation skills in my opinion are nothing too technical.  Sales people today are already well prepared for intensive bargaining by the buyers and sometimes even the users themselves.  I refuse to believe that we achieve fantastic results because of our expert negotiation skills, unless we are talking about business partnership deals where there are lots of variables to trade mutually.  The latter takes strategic planning, homework and role-playing.

More often than not,  the users or stakeholders do not even know what they want in the first place.  They are confused over why they need what they are buying.  In turn they end up buying things expensively, and sometimes even buying things they don’t need.  It sounds silly, but also ironic that it appears the more “educated” people make more of these mistakes – just because they think these trivial matters are just not worth their valuable time.  Well, that’s why I am paid to help them.  I often spend a considerable amount of time interviewing my users and find out what is the current stage and where they want to go from there.  They will usually have some strong ideas about what they want to buy or may have received proposals already from suppliers.  I help them pin down to what are the necessities and what are the bonuses.  I try to put a limit to customized  requirements in hope to broaden the supply base from a few niche players to a more commoditized market.  This may not be practical at times and I may actually approach it the other way round and look for players that provide me with solutions rather than cookie cutter off-the-shelf products.  This takes experience and I of course need the help and expertise from the users as well.

If you keep asking questions like a 5th grader, you are already half way toward success.

 Pinning down what we want and identifying our true needs is quite a significant milestone.  Sales people love ambiguity because they can pad hidden costs and allowances into their product offering.  I want transparency, accountability and fairness.  With these simple principles, it does not take a genius to drive pricing down.

Some of my colleagues use good old traditional “threat” as their negotiation tactics.  I respect everyone’s individual negotiation styles, but it’s just not my cup of tea.   Today’s suppliers can be larger and more powerful than my employers.  We may actually need to depend on them though we are paying the bill.  When I pick people in my field of strategic procurement, I always go for talents who have expert communication and problem solving skills.  Critical thinking is a must.  The low hanging fruits are long gone, and we are presented with new unprecedented and complex problems.  I need  people who are fast learners, innovative and eloquent.  I used to be told that people who possess these qualities will put procurement jobs as their last resort.  True.  Good people are in demand everywhere.  However, just because such qualities are so rare, they can become truly niche players in the field, and the opportunities are endless.  To raise the bar and professionalism of strategic procurement is partly the objective of me starting this blog.

Cheers!

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Confessions of a Shopaholic

Posted in Hope, tagged on November 10, 2010| 2 Comments »

If you think you are visiting a fan site of the popular Isla Fisher’s starred movie, sorry you have to move on.  I am conveniently stealing the catchy movie title in an attempt to help readers understand what I do and what I am writing about.  Believe me, it’s never easy to describe what I do to friends and families.  I believe as of this date, my mom and dad still have no idea what I do as a living. 

There are two sides of a coin for this however.  We do get typecast sometimes but only to those in the know, or at least to those who have rather strong opinions about “people like us” in their workplace.  I may not agree to what they think, but at least you could have a conversation with them afterwards.  It’s professions like lawyers, bankers, realtors, and financial planners which people sometimes make fun of by reflex, which I still do not understand why.  Well, I console myself thinking that at least I don’t drive people away, but to be honest, too many people I met still have no idea what I do as a living after the several times that I told them.  Perhaps Superman or Batman should use my profession as disguise.  Unflashy boring work that nobody would remember.

Perfect.

So cut to the chase. I am a shopaholic.  I buy things for a living, and I mean on a daily basis.  Its value can sum up to millions of dollars and I do that without the blink of an eye.  In fact, a 10 dollar buy and a 10 million buy is not much of a difference to me.  Well, what I buy is not for me, but for my employers.   “Oh I get it!  So you are a fashion buyer? ” I get this a lot, perhaps due to the overwhelming popularity of “The Devil Wears Prada”, or that Hong Kong houses a lot of merchandising and fashion buyers in this megacity famed for its re-exports and international trading.  No, I am not.  I buy things for the corporate that I work for, and they are nothing glamorous or flashy like putting merchandise on the racks of Dolce & Gabbana or Gucci.  This is where I lost most people.  They politely smiled and winked at the next better acquaintances they see hoping to be pulled out of this boring conversation.  I fantasized I am Superman while adjusting my square glasses and moved on.

Instead of rushing into a public telephone booth to rip off my suit and reveal my awesome Superman outfit, I return to my office to follow-up on  work stuff just like any 9 to 5 white-collar job.  Unlike  Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher), there is no rush or high from shopping for the corporate.  There is no plastic (ahem, there actually is, which I shall tell later), no personal shopper, no gift wrap, no 30-day unconditional return guarantee.  Very often I don’t even want to make the purchase because the needs are either unwarranted or, like Rebecca Bloomwood in her case, we are simply broke.

Yes, for all the hard work that the product or service salespeople put in to reel in the cash, large multinationals do get broke merely because they have spent it all away.

And we are here to help prevent that.

Well, don’t get me wrong.  There is nothing heroic about it.  The profession has been here for ages but the recognition and awareness just isn’t there.  I don’t intend to make this an academic blog of my profession, and in fact I’d love to take a more light heartened look of myself.  If my readers happen to get a bit of professional knowledge from my posts I would be grateful.  I will be equally delighted if my readers get a kick out of my observations over a drink or two.  I believe it is our individual personalities that shape our work and results, and I want my readers to feel my personality through this blog.  Better yet, I am still looking for the perfect and concise answer to the simplest cocktail party question: “What do you do?”

*Blush*

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