Why are purchasers paranoid?

September 19th, 2006 at 07:50am David Bush - Iasta

Reading SupplyManagement.com, I came across the short article Purchasers support paranoia theory that stated procurement is overly concerned about how it is regarded by others in its organisation and that of the 167 people who responded to the survey, the majority (70 per cent), agreed that procurement is too worried about how it is viewed by those outside the function. I can’t help but wonder why?

After all, financially speaking, no other employee in an organization can have as much of an impact on the bottom line as a purchasing professional. Considering that, in most organizations, a dollar saved is worth at least five dollars in revenue, generally speaking, no other employee is as valuable.

If I were to hypothesize, I’d say it was generally due to one of two reasons:

1. Senior Management doesn’t appear to appreciate purchasing.

In this case, I’d have to agree with Peter Sammons, Director of Buy Research, who said if senior managers cannot see the value of professional value-chain management then they should not hold senior positions. If this truly were the case, I’d advise them to seek other positions, since purchasers are in hot demand.

2. Purchasers don’t see the impact they’re making.

In this case, it’s just a matter of visibility and the fix is easy. Tools that can capture, analyze, and report on the savings obtained. After all, once it becomes clear how good you are doing, the confidence will follow.

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Entry Filed under: General, Technology / SaaS