The SPSM certification story continued

March 11th, 2008 at 06:13am David Bush - Iasta

Today, I welcome Charles Dominick, of Next Level Purchasing, who took my offer to elaborate more about his own procurement certification program.

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In a recent post here on eSourcing forum, David Bush shared his interest in the story behind the rise of the Senior Professional in Supply Management (SPSM) Certification. He shared his curiosity about how the SPSM Certification came to prominence in perhaps an unlikely marketplace that seemed to be dominated by the Certified Purchasing Manager (C.P.M.) certification in earlier years in the USA.

Specifically, David pondered: “What was wrong with the C.P.M. that created a business opportunity? What was the ‘A-ha’ moment? How long did it take before the dam broke and acceptability was easier?”

Let me begin by answering the last two questions first.

You may be surprised to learn this, but the impetus for the creation of the SPSM Certification was not originally to take advantage of the weakening status of the C.P.M. Actually, creating the SPSM Certification was inspired by our students!

You see, in 2001 through 2003, Next Level Purchasing simply provided online training to purchasing professionals. That training was designed as a veritable how-to program for delivering measurable results in the workplace.

Then, students started telling me: “I’ve learned so much through your training. I’ve implemented so many things and my performance has improved dramatically. I should be certified for this.”

The first couple of times I heard such things, I didn’t think much of it. But as I heard these requests for a new certification over and over, I realized that I need to be listening to the market.

So, my team and I researched ISO 17024 – the international standard for personnel certifications - to learn what it would take to create a valid certification program. We also carefully examined the marketplace. And what we realized was that there were no globally recognized purchasing certifications.

Sure, here in the US, lots of people had known about the C.P.M. being that it was created way back in 1974. But in England, we found sentiment that the C.P.M. and ISM (formerly known as the National Association of Purchasing Management) were pretty much irrelevant there. CIPS was the big national institute there. Of course, nearly no one in the USA knows or values CIPS. The same thing with Canada, India, and pretty much every major industrialized country – they have national associations and/or certifications that are meaningless outside of their own borders.

Of course, business today is conducted globally. Purchasing professionals deal with suppliers from around the world. When negotiating or developing relationships with these suppliers, purchasing professionals should want these suppliers to know what caliber of counterpart they are dealing with. With national certifications and international suppliers, that just wasn’t happening.

So responding to marketplace requests and seizing the opportunity to create the only globally recognized purchasing certification were the two main factors in deciding to launch the SPSM Certification in 2004.

The question “How long did it take before the dam broke and acceptability was easier?” is an interesting one. I don’t know if the dam broke early, hasn’t broken yet, or if there never was a dam.

Right from the beginning, prestigious Global 2000 companies began both enrolling their purchasers in the SPSM Certification Program and advertising jobs for which they preferred candidates with the SPSM Certification. In addition, the SPSM had gotten a lot of positive coverage early on in publications like Purchasing Magazine and Supply & Demand Chain Executive. So the SPSM Certification has been on a steep upward trajectory of growth since its inception.

But what I think really helped the SPSM Certification gain acceptance is simply the fact that it is a results-based program. Its priority is not to teach a bunch of definitions to remember. The priority is to teach students how to deliver measurable results.

So if there was any formula to gaining widespread acceptance, I’d have to say that it is simply knowing the results that employers want and actually delivering on our promise to help them get those results in the real world.

Now, getting back to that question: “What was wrong with the C.P.M. that created a business opportunity?”

Well, not too long after we started gaining major traction with the SPSM Certification, ISM made the announcement that it would soon no longer be awarding new C.P.M. certifications. In fact, later this year is when ISM will cease allowing people to register for the C.P.M. exams.

So did this factor help the SPSM Certification rise to prominence more quickly?

I believe it did. Naturally, professionals do not want to invest their time and money in credentials that are obviously on the road to obsolescence, if not already there.

The SPSM Certification represents a long, bright future of career success for the purchasing professionals who pursue it.

Of course, we can’t take credit for another organization pulling the plug on its own certification. But as they say: “timing is everything!”

So, it has been a very interesting story. Seemingly out of nowhere, the SPSM Certification came onto the scene and today has purchasing professionals from places as near and far away as Macedonia, Germany, Tunisia, Canada, Lebanon, Singapore, all across the USA, the United Arab Emirates, and so many other places using the SPSM credentials after their names on their business cards.

And Next Level Purchasing is not done growing the SPSM Certification yet. Not by far.

So consider this just Chapter 1 in long story with a major impact on the purchasing and supply management profession.

Charles Dominick, SPSM
President & Chief Procurement Officer
Next Level Purchasing, Inc.
http://www.NextLevelPurchasing.com

Entry Filed under: General, Supply Management Best Practices