In Chris Arnold’s post “Procurement in 2016 and its Perpetual Talent Challenge” one is reminded again that to evolve and to change are paramount to continuing to be relevant in business and in life.
My daughter is just finishing her A-levels and told me a couple of weeks ago that she was asked to write down in the Year Book where she saw herself in 10 years. She said she did not know and I told her to say “Empress of the Universe”. It can be a job title and she is my daughter…
Maybe when Procurement reached its A-levels stage (in 2000) someone had to ask it what it wanted to be in 15 years’ time. I wonder what the answer would have been because I am certain that the function is miles away from that vision of itself. Is it time for Procurement Leaders finally sit down and write a dynamic life plan for this Function or should it be a discussion with all organizational functions? I believe the Procurement Function can only grow up and become a Strategic Function if the other organizational functions allow it to do so. Procurement is seen, in most organizations, as the red-headed step child and therefore does not get the recognition as a fully-fledged member of the family. However, it is not helping itself by becoming bogged down by poorly formed practitioners, limited resources, alienating stakeholders and, every two years or so, going through an existential crisis. For the other functions to recognize it as a true blood sibling it needs to help them see it as valuable to the collective. Is this the full answer? I don’t know, but what I do know is that Procurement will never be able to self-actualize if it has not defined what it wants to be when it grows up.
