10 ways to explain why a procurement professional is a “value add”
- A mature procurement function enables the organisation to have competitive advantage. Procurement professionals deliver value by controlling third party spend more efficiently than competitors
- De-risking projects where large sums of money is committed, allows the organisation to invest in areas that increase market share
- Buying goods and services whilst taking into CSR and environmental needs allows the organisation to meet its wider needs
- Money, whether public or private is well spent, using professional skills to buy at the right price and quality
- Procurement helps with supplier engagement both pre- tender and post tender via contract management/ SRM
- Procurement professionals are trained to be commercial, we look at things from a different perspective compared to HR or Marketing
- We think about project risk and try and mitigate against these
- We like structure which means we normally operate within a strong governance process
- Procurement professionals brings different departments needs together to assist with matrix working
- We provide commercial support and can be the link between finance and legal for commercial decisions
Throw away the idea that procurement professionals as being barriers to getting things done, I have heard the term procurement with a capital ‘P’, avoid them, they only want to make savings. This may be true in less mature procurement departments, or sometimes we can be the problem i.e. when procurement professionals make life difficult for their stakeholders because they want to assert power over others. Remember to be flexible. Bend the rules if you are not breaking the law, but put your foot down when you need too. If you go in one direction all the time it’s likely that your stakeholder management skills need working on.
Procurement is a strategic function and getting the right balance of being assertive without alienating key stakeholders is difficult but not impossible.
Gaining credibility takes time, and through your actions over time you will win over your stakeholders. The above 10 points are just some of the ways we can add value, there are plenty of other options, play to your strengths and use different team members in different ways to build a high performing team.
If you like this article on procurement professional value add, you might want to read about other value adding activities from a finance perspective