I was just looking an article from Purchasing Magazine in which they discuss the biggest challenges that Purchasing professionals reported in their annual survey.
Before you read the article, stop and ask yourself what you think your three biggest challenges are.
Here's my list:
1) Rising costs of goods and services, which make it increasingly harder for us to achieve savings numbers if the prices on things that we've negotiated continue to rise with their industry indexes.
2) Lack of respect/understanding for the importance of the Purchasing Department in an organization
3) Rogue spending within an organization, which undermines the work that Purchasing has done.
No cheating...now come up with your list.
Now, go read the article here.
How do your concerns stack up against your peers?
I agree with the 3 points in your list, Matthew.
I would add another point which I think relates to #2:
4) lack of management commitment for developing purchasing/sourcing professionals
The hallmark of a "profession" is the emergence of a large group of people who have committed their lives to their chosen field. Not only are they committed to their profession while at work, they're also committed while away from work (by joining professional associations, subscribing to professional journals and trade publications) and otherwise associating with like-minded folks and spreading their gospel to non-believers. Speaking of which, another key element of a profession is that its members view their work not only as a way to earn a decent living, but they actually BELIEVE in what they're doing - that their work is valuable, needed and oftentimes critical.
I believe there is already an army of purchasing/professionals out there who are this way. However, almost all of them would agree that although the profession has come a long way since its emergence in the early 1990's as a strategic function - purchasing/sourcing still hasn't reached its holy grail. I believe one reason for this is that management (both within and outside the purchasing/sourcing dept) haven't focused enough on cultivating furtile soil in which talented professionals can stay and grow. Instead, management is too single-mindedly focused on short-term savings at all costs and thinks about little else.
While savings is of huge importance, management shouldn't neglect the need for creating fertile soil for future harvests. Management should appreciate the long-term value of growing a learned corps of professionals that knows what it's doing because it's been around long enough to figure it out. Once clients realize they're working with pros, they'll stop "going around" purchasing/sourcing.
Posted by: Greg Richardson | March 7, 2006 9:52 AM | Permalink to Comment