Next Level Purchasing

Next Level Purchasing Association Launches New Site & Services, Part II

Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2 1/27/2012 9:33:00 AM

In Part I of this series, I announced how the Next Level Purchasing Association has launched its new website and I introduced you to one of its new features: Procurement Preschool. Today, I'll introduce you to another new section of the website covering on-site procurement seminars (http://nextlevelpurchasing.com/procurement-seminars.php).

The Next Level Purchasing Association has always been known for its top-quality online purchasing courses. However, we have also quietly provided to our top clients the option of having live procurement seminars conducted at their facilities. We have recently expanded our offerings, increased our instructional resources to handle a larger client base, and now have 19 such seminars available for you to bring on-site if you have a large procurement group.

Titles of some of these seminars include:

• The Finance For Procurement Crash Course
• The Procurement Ethics Crash Course
• Winning The Backdoor Selling Battle
• Leadership When The Targets Are Moving & The Times Are Trying

If you are a team leader and want to bring the Next Level Purchasing Association's world-class purchasing training to your facility for a group, please go to http://nextlevelpurchasing.com/procurement-seminars.php, identify the seminar(s) you are interested in, and contact us at 1-412-294-1991 or busdev@nextlevelpurchasing.com for a quote.

To Your Career,
Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2
President & Chief Procurement Officer
Next Level Purchasing Association
Struggling To Have A Rewarding Purchasing Career?
Earn Your SPSM^® Certification Online At
www.NextLevelPurchasing.com

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Does Successfully Sourcing Services Sometimes Require Seducing Suppliers?

Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2 1/26/2012 9:46:00 AM

The answer to this question is "yes - you sometimes do have to seduce suppliers when sourcing services."

Now, when I say "seduce," I'm not talking about wearing clothing that exposes more flesh than typically shown in a business environment or splashing yourself with a designer scent or using a cheesy pick up line. I'm talking about giving service suppliers the impression that there is a decent chance of them "getting lucky" (i.e., earning your purchase order).

You see, it is relatively easy to get product suppliers to respond to your RFP. Service suppliers, however, are a bit more skeptical.

While products are often standardized - meaning every customer gets products with the same specifications - services are often customized for each customer. So, pricing products isn't nearly as labor intensive as working up a quote for services.

Services suppliers sometimes see responding to RFP's as a lot of work with a small probability of success. Therefore, if they don't know much about your company or your project, they may be likely to simply ignore any RFP's that you send their way.

For products, if you send out an RFP to, say, eight product suppliers, there's a good likelihood that you'll get six or seven proposals. Send out an RFP to eight service suppliers who you've had little to no dialogue with, and you might be lucky to get two or three proposals. And those two proposals may be high priced or from the most desperate suppliers or otherwise suboptimal.

So, how can you prevent a low response rate the next time you source services?

Seduce the prospective suppliers!

Have a conversation with each prospective bidder. And make that conversation more than "Hi, I'm sourcing such-and-such services. Would you like to receive the RFP?"

Tell them the details about your project. Tell them why it would be beneficial to them to earn the order. Tell them what's great about doing business with your company (e.g., you give testimonials, pay quickly, etc.). Tell them what other services they provide that your company currently buys or may buy in the future. Make the suppliers feel enticed at the prospect of doing business with you.

If you fail to take this little bit of time to seduce the supply base, the day that proposals are due at your office may feel a little bit...lonely.

To Your Career,
Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2
President & Chief Procurement Officer
Next Level Purchasing Association
Struggling To Have A Rewarding Purchasing Career?
Earn Your SPSM^® Certification Online At
www.NextLevelPurchasing.com

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The Purchasing Audit: A Quick Introduction

Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2 1/25/2012 9:26:00 AM

The goal of a purchasing audit is to determine whether policies and procedures have been followed within the purchasing department to ensure that no fraud occurred, that all decisions were made with the best interests of the organization in mind, and that suppliers were treated fairly. This assumes that the purchasing department already has policies and procedures that have built-in controls. Some of the questions that a typical purchasing audit will look to answer include:

• Was proper documentation retained for all purchases for which it was required?
• Was competitive bidding used in all situations where it was required?
• Where competitive bidding was normally required but not used, were procedures for exempting a purchase from competitive bidding complied with?
• Were all supplier selections made in accordance with the published selection criteria?
• Were there any instances where a lower scoring or higher priced supplier was selected? If so, is the documented justification and approval acceptable?
• Do any relationships exist between any successful bidders and the individuals who decided to award business to those bidders?

Typical frequencies for purchasing department audits range from every one to every three years.

To Your Career,
Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2
President & Chief Procurement Officer
Next Level Purchasing Association
Struggling To Have A Rewarding Purchasing Career?
Earn Your SPSM^® Certification Online At
www.NextLevelPurchasing.com

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Remedies For Supplier Screw-ups, Part III

Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2 1/23/2012 1:13:00 PM

I hope that you have enjoyed the article "Remedies For Supplier Screw-ups, Part II."

In Part I of the series, I wrote that "If a supplier's product fails to comply with acceptance criteria, there are five common contractual remedies that procurement professionals use: replacement, supplier repair, self-repair, refund, and contract termination." I gave two checklists to guide your use of the first two remedies in Part I and two more checklists to guide your use of the third and fourth remedies in Part II. Today, I will provide the last checklist, which is related to contract termination.

If contract termination is your chosen option:

• Do you need to give the supplier the opportunity to fix the problem prior to invoking your right to terminate the contract?
• If you terminate the contract and you paid a deposit, what percentage of that deposit will you be entitled to recover?
• If you terminate the contract and deposit money is owed to you by the supplier, how soon must the supplier pay you?
• If you terminate the contract, how much money (if any) will you owe the supplier for work performed but not completed?

That wraps things up for this series. I hope that you never have to deal with supplier screw-ups. But, if you do - and, let's face it, you probably will at some point in a long procurement career - I hope that you're prepared with some contractual remedies that will make your recovery from those screw-ups much less painful.

To Your Career,
Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2
President & Chief Procurement Officer
Next Level Purchasing Association (NLPA)
Struggling To Have A Rewarding Purchasing Career?
Earn Your SPSM^® Certification Online At
www.NextLevelPurchasing.com

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Next Level Purchasing Association Launches New Site & Services, Part I

Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2 1/20/2012 4:26:00 PM

If you've been wondering why I've been so quiet on here lately, it's because things have been busier than ever at the Next Level Purchasing Association. A few weeks ago, we launched our new website and, with it, several new features which I will be describing here in a series of posts. The new feature that I'll talk about today is "Procurement Preschool."

One of the most commonly bad processes in a procurement department is onboarding a new procurement employee. Usually, the onboarding process involves instructions from a manager that go something like this: "Welcome on board, Sarah. Today and tomorrow, I'm going to have you sit with Jim so he can show you how to get around on the system. By Wednesday, you'll be ready to be on your own. Go get 'em!"

Now, we have always had our online class "Mastering Purchasing Fundamentals" to teach new buyers the finer points of tactical procurement. However, sometimes, these newbies need things broken down even further than most managers realize. They will have super-basic questions like "What is FOB?", "What is an RFP?", and "What is a PO?"

Well, we wanted to make it easy and fun for them to find answers. So, we recruited some future procurement leaders in the 7-9 year-old age range (they're my kids, lest you think about any violations of child labor) to shoot some videos explaining some of these basic topics in a simple-to-understand, non-threatening manner. This collection of videos is called "Procurement Preschool" and, below, you will find a link to Procurement Preschool on our new site; the Purchasing Certification Channel on YouTube, which hosts the videos; and an embedded video of its own.

Soon, I will be back to tell you more about the new features of our site. But, for now, it's back to work on the numerous other exciting launches we have coming up this year. 2012 is going to be a rockin' year in the procurement world!

Procurement Preschool

The Purchasing Certification Channel



To Your Career,
Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2
President & Chief Procurement Officer
Next Level Purchasing, Inc.
Struggling To Have A Rewarding Purchasing Career?
Earn Your SPSM^® Certification Online At
www.NextLevelPurchasing.com

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The NLPA Dedicated Member of the Month for January 2012 Is...

Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2 1/6/2012 5:08:00 PM

Every month, the Next Level Purchasing Association (NLPA) recognizes a purchasing professional who has made impressive progress in learning more about his/her field. We are excited to announce that the NLPA Dedicated Member of the Month for January 2012 is...

Randy Jenson, a Senior Buyer at SJE-Rhombus in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, USA. In December, Randy completed all six Senior Professional in Supply Management® Program classes! "As a purchasing professional for over 15 years I was looking for a program to enhance what I have learned in the past as well as grow & learn new ideas/techniques. The Next Level Purchasing SPSM® Certification Program was exactly what I was looking for. "I credit my success on completing all courses in 1 month thanks to technology and the SPSM® Program design. With mobile devices such as smart phones & tablets the course was always accessible to me. Whenever I had a few spare minutes I would read through a few pages, then jot down some notes."

The NLPA and the procurement community around the world congratulate Randy and his dedication to having a more successful purchasing career!

To Your Career,
Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2
President & Chief Procurement Officer
Next Level Purchasing, Inc.
Struggling To Have A Rewarding Purchasing Career?
Earn Your SPSM^® Certification Online At
www.NextLevelPurchasing.com

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New Procurement Book Revolutionizes Learning For Supply Chain Leaders

Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2 1/3/2012 4:28:00 PM

While many of the procurement books out there are dry and often snooze-inducing, an exciting, new book released today has finally made learning how to implement procurement best practices fun. Next Level Purchasing founder Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2 and Dr. Soheila Lunney, SPSM, have co-authored "The Procurement Game Plan: Winning Strategies and Techniques for Supply Management Professionals" - a fresh, innovative text that combines step-by-step procurement techniques with sports analogies for a reading experience that is as entertaining as it is educational.

Sure to become a go-to asset, "The Procurement Game Plan" encourages procurement leaders and practitioners to "take the ball" by offering an easy-to-follow game plan with strategies that can be implemented to improve supplier relations, achieve measurable cost savings, reduce risk, and attain operational efficiency. These strategies ultimately lead to improved margins and competitiveness for the organizations of the procurement leaders who implement them. "The Procurement Game Plan" is the guide that all procurement professionals need to take their performance to the next level.

"The Procurement Game Plan" has already begun receiving rave reviews from industry leaders, including R. Gregg Brandyberry, a Senior Advisor for A.T. Kearney Procurement and Analytic Solutions, who called the book "a purchasing classic, a tutorial that everyone will want to have close by," and Westinghouse Electric Company‘s CPO, Juan Molina, who dubbed the book "a candid and comprehensive look at how to succeed in procurement—a must read for procurement professionals and everyone from college graduates to CPOs."

"Dr. Lunney and I set out to provide procurement leaders with something that they were sorely missing – actionable strategies in a format that is both practical and enjoyable," said Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2 – the President and Founder of Next Level Purchasing, Inc. "I think we have accomplished that with 'The Procurement Game Plan' and we are looking forward to seeing the measurable benefits it brings to procurement organizations throughout the world."

The Procurement Game Plan is available directly from the publisher, J. Ross Publishing, at http://tinyurl.com/procurementbook or Amazon.com at http://www.amazon.com/Procurement-Game-Plan-Strategies-Professionals/dp/1604270675.

About the Authors

Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2, is the President and Founder of Next Level Purchasing, Inc., a globally-recognized provider of high-quality education for procurement departments and supply management professionals and the exclusive source for the Senior Professional in Supply Management® certifications. Through the content he has developed for Next Level Purchasing, Mr. Dominick has trained procurement professionals from over 100 countries. Mr. Dominick is a highly sought-after speaker and his articles have appeared in numerous prestigious publications.

Dr. Soheila R. Lunney, SPSM, is President of Lunney Advisory Group LLC, a firm that provides procurement and supply chain management coaching, mentoring, and training services. Dr. Lunney is also a Director of ASSET, Inc. — an education improvement nonprofit organization. Dr. Lunney was previously Vice President of Procurement for Education Management Corporation and Deputy Director to the Chief Procurement Officer at Bayer Corporation. Dr. Lunney is also a frequent speaker at educational events throughout the world.

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Next Level Purchasing Wins Better Business Bureau Torch Award For Marketplace Ethics!

Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2 12/29/2011 11:36:00 AM

earns ethical business award

Pittsburgh, PA – December 29, 2011 – Next Level Purchasing, Inc., a provider of online training & certification for purchasing professionals, has been awarded the 2011 Torch Award for Marketplace Ethics by the Better Business Bureau of Western Pennsylvania.

The BBB Torch Award program is open to all for-profit companies (accredited and non-accredited businesses) who are located in the 28 county service area of Western Pennsylvania. Companies were evaluated against criteria that included commitment to and demonstration of ethical practices in the marketplace; high standards of behavior toward customers, employees, suppliers, shareholders and the communities in which they do business; long-term value of ethics policies to shareholders, customers and employees; and training and communications programs to assist employees in carrying out established ethics policies.

As a winner, Next Level Purchasing "clearly demonstrates superior character on a daily basis and consistently exceeds marketplace standards for ethics in its relationships with customers, employees, suppliers, industry peers and the communities in which it does business,” said Warren King, President of the Better Business Bureau of Western Pennsylvania.

“Ethics and integrity is of paramount importance to Next Level Purchasing as we not only operate with high ethical standards, but our clients – mid-size and large businesses – trust us to teach their employees how to do business with their suppliers ethically and profitably,” said Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2 – the President and Founder of Next Level Purchasing, Inc. “It is a true honor to win the Better Business Bureau’s Torch Awards as there is no name more synonymous with business ethics than the BBB.”

Among its many ethics-related initiatives, Next Level Purchasing released an Express Course in 2011, “15 Rules for Ethical Supplier Interaction,” to help all clients’ employees that interact with suppliers do so in a way that meets the highest standards for business ethics.

About Next Level Purchasing

Next Level Purchasing is a leading provider of online training & certification for purchasing professionals. Its training includes the globally-recognized SPSM^® and SPSM2^® Certifications for world-class supply management success. Its services enable organizations to lower costs, support operations, and reduce risk by improving purchasing processes and expanding the capabilities of supply management organizations. Visit Next Level Purchasing at: www.NextLevelPurchasing.com.

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Contractual Remedies (For The Procurement Goldilockes)

Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2 12/13/2011 10:34:00 AM

I hope that you have enjoyed the article "Remedies For Supplier Screw-ups, Part I."

Remember the children's story "Goldilocks & The Three Bears?" How, Goldilocks makes her way into the home, finds three versions of certain amenities, and decides that two versions of each are flawed for polar opposite reasons but the third version of each is "just right?"

Well, I am eager to hear from all of the "procurement Goldilockses" out there to know whether you think that the above linked article is too strategic, too tactical, or just right.

You see, I feel that the advice laid out in this article is applicable to any product purchase, whether it's a one-time, small value order or a multi-year contract. But the danger of writing such an "all-encompassing" article is that it will be perceived in one of two ways: (a) so tactical that people in strategic roles won't pay attention, or (b) so specific to contract writing that people in tactical roles who simply place purchase orders won't pay attention.

Well, I'm here to tell you that this little article has advice that can benefit both constituencies!

Those of us in procurement always talk or hear about how the need to "put out fires" keeps procurement professionals from doing strategic work. Well, if you prevent fires, you won't have as many distractions. This article is all about preventing fires - thinking about what could go wrong in advance so that, if something does go awry, remedying the problem won't be a matter of "putting out a fire" but simply a matter of following the predetermined next step in a procedure to minimize disruption. To me, preventing tactical work overload is a pretty strategic pursuit.

So, pretend you're Goldilocks. What do you think of this article?

Too tactical? Too strategic? Or just right?

To Your Career,
Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2
President & Chief Procurement Officer
Next Level Purchasing, Inc.
Struggling To Have A Rewarding Purchasing Career?
Earn Your SPSM^® Certification Online At
www.NextLevelPurchasing.com

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How To Develop Leadership Skills Within Your Procurement Department

Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2 11/28/2011 9:49:00 AM

I hope that you have enjoyed the article "How To Develop Buyers' Leadership Skills."

In the article, I gave three ways that you, as a procurement leader, can help develop the leadership skills of your buyers. I also promised to share a fourth way on this blog, so here it is...

4. Give Buyers The Opportunity To Judge Character – Effective delegation is a two-sided deal: the leader has to be comfortable delegating but subordinates need to be cooperative and competent, too. With that second aspect in mind, it should be infinitely clear that it is important to hire the right people. Hiring the right people involves being a great judge of a candidate’s character based on limited interaction with that candidate. If a buyer doesn’t have supervisory responsibility, they may never get the opportunity to judge a candidate’s character. You can help this situation by allowing buyers to be part of a panel that interviews candidates for other buyer positions. Candid conversations and coaching after these interviews can help cultivate buyers’ character-judging skills.

If you came to this blog post from the original article, click here to return to the article.

If you want more good guidance on leadership within the procurement function, download our whitepaper "Purchasing Leader's Guide To A More Successful Team" by clicking here.


To Your Career,
Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2
President & Chief Procurement Officer
Next Level Purchasing, Inc.
Struggling To Have A Rewarding Purchasing Career?
Earn Your SPSM^® Certification Online At
www.NextLevelPurchasing.com

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The Procurement Manager's Thanksgiving Prayer

Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2 11/23/2011 9:18:00 AM

Tomorrow is the Thanksgiving holiday here in the US. While Thanksgiving is often associated with traveling to be with family, eating turkey, watching football, and, this year, going out late because Black Friday shopping has bled into Thursday, a central tenet of Thanksgiving is to think about and express how much you appreciate the good things you have in life.

So, what does a successful procurement manager's Thanksgiving prayer sound like? How about this?:

• I am thankful for my internal customers, who are open-minded and eager to learn how their needs for goods and services can be satisfied while complying with corporate procurement policies
  
• I am thankful for my suppliers, who provide high-quality goods and services on time and with excellent service and occasionally going above and beyond the call of duty to keep my organization's operations running smoothly
• I am thankful for my buyers, who effectively and ethically achieve impressive cost savings and consistently exceed the targets for their key performance indicators
• I am thankful for my management, who gives my department the support necessary to drive change through the organization
• I am thankful for other departments, such as Legal and Human Resources, who work quickly and diligently to ensure that the procurement department is properly supported in its more complex initiatives
  
• I am thankful for my peers, who help me to stay current on emerging practices and technologies in the profession

These represent key relationships necessary for maximum success in the procurement profession. If you've laughed or scoffed at reading one or more of these because the situation is different in your organization, please understand that, if you want change, you have to be the catalyst of change. Take action to build any subobtimal relationships over the next year. Then, next Thanksgiving, this list can be your list.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

To Your Career,
Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2
President & Chief Procurement Officer
Next Level Purchasing, Inc.
Struggling To Have A Rewarding Purchasing Career?
Earn Your SPSM^® Certification Online At
www.NextLevelPurchasing.com

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Procurement Parable - A Procurement Certification or MBA?

Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2 11/21/2011 12:42:00 PM

Everyone that knows Gary had noticed that his mood had changed. Always known to be chipper and talkative, Gary was seemingly distracted in recent weeks.

After watching Gary be aloof for so long, Chas had to intervene. Chas, like Gary, is senior buyer in Fictitious Company, Inc., a mid-sized engineering firm. Both Gary and Chas started out as buyers for Fictitious in the late '90's and both got promoted to senior buyers when the company went public five years ago. They both report to Jim, the procurement manager.

One day, Chas said to Gary, "Hey bud, what's up with you lately? You haven't seemed like yourself. Is everything alright?"

"I'm just mulling over some decisions I'm thinking of making," Gary replied.

"Anything I could help you with?" Chas asked.

"Well, here's the deal," said Gary. "You know how Jim has been procurement manager since before we started?"

"Yeah."

"And how he'll always be procurement manager til they haul him out in a body bag?"

"Haha, yeah!"

"Well, I need advancement," explained Gary. "I want to be a vice president of procurement some day and that isn’t going to happen here at Fictitious.”

“You’re probably right about that,” nodded Chas. “So you’re trying to decide on another job offer?”

“I wish,” sighed Gary. “I’ve been sending out resumes and I’ve even been on a decent number of interviews. But every procurement management job I’ve applied for requires either a purchasing certification or an MBA.”

“By MBA, you mean a masters in business administration degree, right?” asked Chas.

“Yeah,” answered Gary. “And I’m having trouble deciding which one to go for.”

“Why not get them both?” Chas asked. “They’re not mutually exclusive, you know.”

“Yeah, I know that,” Gary declared. “And if I didn’t have a wife and kids, I probably would go for both at the same time. But they both cost money and they both take time out of your week for studying. With my responsibilities, I can only do one at a time and I’m not sure which to do first.”

“Wanna know how I’d decide?” asked Chas.

“Sure,” said Gary. “I need something to break the tie.”

“Well, I’d look at my financial situation,” Chas replied, speaking slowly as if he was thinking up his answer on the spot. “If I could afford the most expensive option right now, I’d do it. Yeah, the economy is going well now, but it’s been so unstable over the last decade or so, you never know if you’ll have the money to do the most expensive thing at a later point in life.”

“Hmmm,” said Gary, aloud. “That’s…a….different way of looking at it.”

“But doesn’t it make sense?” Chas retorted, not giving Gary a chance to respond. “The problem with saving your pennies for a rainy day is that when that rainy day comes, something else has already come to take your pennies. If you can afford the more expensive option now, do it. Then, if you want to do the less expensive option later, you’ll need less time to save.”

Chas’ advice didn’t exactly resonate with Gary. Actually, Gary felt a little uncomfortable with Chas’ suggestion as it was quite a contrast to the way Gary usually made decisions.

Sensing Gary’s apprehension, Chas tried to comfort Gary: “Look, I know it’s a big decision. So, take your time and just think about it. I gotta run to a meeting.” With that, Chas patted Gary on the back and walked down the hallway.

“Stupid idea,” Gary thought to himself as he returned to working in his cubicle.

But later that night, Gary pulled out some paperwork from when Fictitious went public. All current employees got generous stock options at that time and, since then, Fictitious’ stock price had gone up, up, up with the rest of the market over the past couple of years.

Gary found that, by cashing in his stock options, he could cover half of the cost of the MBA. And with his savings – or at least the portion of the savings that he and his wife didn’t need to keep as an emergency fund – he could cover another ¼ of the MBA tuition. He thought that getting a loan to cover the last quarter of tuition would be more than reasonable. Maybe Chas did have a good idea after all.

Gary decided to go for his MBA. It wasn’t easy convincing his wife of his choice. His wife had a hard time getting past the idea that the cost of a purchasing certification was 30 times less expensive than an MBA. But she and Gary had always supported each other in their career decisions – she left her accounting job to be a greeting card illustrator to fulfill a lifelong dream – so she deferred to Gary’s judgment.

Gary enrolled in an executive MBA program at a local university, where he attended class on evenings and weekends. Within three years, Gary had his MBA.

One week after graduating, Gary had not one, not two, but three interviews for vice president of procurement positions at other companies. The job market, like the economy, was going as strong as it had in his memory, yet still Gary was pleasantly surprised at his success in securing interviews.

Though two of the companies for which he interviewed sent him rejection letters, Gary did get offered the position of Vice President of Procurement at the third company – Mean Business Construction. He accepted.

The day he accepted the job and turned in his resignation at Fictitious, Gary went to Chas’ cubicle and thanked him for the advice. “Man, that was some odd advice you gave me about getting my MBA a couple of years ago, but you know what? It led me to the right decision!”

Chas was glad he could help his friend. He had no plans to ever leave Fictitious, so he felt no competitive angst as many coworkers might. He was happy to see his friend succeed.

Gary was thrilled with how things were turning out. He didn’t exactly make the average salary of other procurement VP’s due to the fact that this was his first supervisory position, but he did get an office with a nice view and an assistant who catered to his every professional need. He had arrived!

Gary’s first few weeks at the new job were chaotic and perhaps a little surprising. He didn’t anticipate that the other senior executives would expect him to “rule with an iron fist.” Gary was a pretty low-key type of guy, so being tough with his employees was out of character for him. The company’s successful run of the past few years – as well as the economy – was beginning to be subjected to downward pressure, so the company’s leadership was feeling stressed. But Gary felt he was adapting.

However, things took a turn for the worst around the time that Gary was celebrating his three-month anniversary with the company. Waning sales combined with the fact that a major account canceled its construction plans the day before it was scheduled to sign a contract with Mean Business Construction put some severe financial pressure on Mean Business. It had no choice but to shed employees to stay near profitability.

Gary was called into the CEO’s office one day. The CEO explained that, because Gary was one of their most highly paid employees and he had the least seniority, that his job was being eliminated. Gary was devastated.

Yet, Gary remained confident. “I have an MBA and now VP-level experience,” he thought to himself. “I’ll be fine.”

But the more time went on, the less “fine” Gary felt.

The economy began to crumble before everyone’s eyes, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average shedding over a quarter of its value in a month’s time. There weren’t many available procurement jobs to be found on job sites. And the interviews that Gary did get didn’t go so well.

Gary would interview for senior buyer jobs, similar to the one he held at Fictitious. Yet, the hiring managers would tell him that an MBA and experience as a vice president overqualified him for them. Though Gary explained that he did a similar job for over 15 years and he would be happy to do it again, his pleas fell on deaf ears.

Gary would also interview for procurement vice president jobs, similar to the one he held at Mean Business. Hiring managers at those organizations told him that three months of leadership experience paled in comparison to the years of experience the many other candidates were able to offer. Apparently, Gary wasn’t the only procurement VP displaced by the bad economy.

Gary tried to keep his chin up. But, after nearly a year searching for a procurement job – any procurement job – Gary was still unemployed.

One day, Gary was entering the office building for the region’s largest employer, on his way to interview for a procurement manager job. As Gary was walking in, who did he see walking out but his old buddy Chas from Fictitious.

After exchanging pleasantries, they realized that they were both interviewing for the same job. Five weeks earlier, Chas was laid off by Fictitious.

Chas remembered his conversation with Gary years ago when Gary was trying to decide whether to get a purchasing certification or an MBA.

“Dude, you were so smart to cash in your stock options when you did,” Chas told Gary. “You probably got a fortune. I didn’t cash mine in until they canned me. Of course, with the stock market tanking, I only got pennies on the dollar. You were able to get an MBA out of it. Oh well, at least I got enough to get a purchasing certification. Looks like I’m gonna need it.”

“Yeah,” Gary thought to himself. “Now that stinkin’ MBA is actually doing me more harm than good.”

Chas ended up getting the job for which both he and Gary were competing. However, the story does have a happy ending. One month later, Gary got a buyer position making almost as much money as he had when he was working at Fictitious during good economic times. The part that Gary was bitter about, though, was the strategy he had to use to get it: he actually excluded his MBA work from the “Education” section of the resume he submitted.

Whenever the topic of graduate education came up at family gatherings, Gary would always half-heartedly joke “For every job that an MBA qualifies you for, it disqualifies you for a million other jobs.”

To Your Career,
Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2
President & Chief Procurement Officer
Next Level Purchasing, Inc.
Struggling To Have A Rewarding Purchasing Career?
Earn Your SPSM^® Certification Online At
www.NextLevelPurchasing.com

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The NLPA Dedicated Member of the Month for November 2011 Is...

Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2 11/18/2011 9:54:00 AM

Every month, the Next Level Purchasing Association (NLPA) recognizes a purchasing professional who has made impressive progress in learning more about his/her field. We are excited to announce that the NLPA Dedicated Member of the Month for November 2011 is...

Vicky Schuler, an Associate Buyer for the Kenton County Airport Board located in Hebron, Kentucky, USA. In October, Vicky completed five Senior Professional in Supply Management® Program classes! Vicky says: "I had been looking for on-line classes to take for certification in the supply management field without having to have a Bachelor and/or Master Degree. That is when I came across the Next Level Purchasing website. Your website gave me the incentive and 'push' I needed to move forward in my career. "I enjoyed all of the courses and found them to be challenging and insightful. I am in the process of reviewing all of the material so that I can schedule the SPSM® exam. I hope my dedication and hard work pays off. If so, I will definitely enroll in the SPSM2® Certification program. "Thank you again Next Level Purchasing."

Next Level Purchasing and the procurement community around the world congratulate Vicky and her dedication to having a more successful purchasing career!

To Your Career,
Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2
President & Chief Procurement Officer
Next Level Purchasing, Inc.
Struggling To Have A Rewarding Purchasing Career?
Earn Your SPSM^® Certification Online At
www.NextLevelPurchasing.com

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Free Procurement Training Budget Tool

Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2 11/17/2011 2:48:00 PM

Ah, November and December. That wonderful time of year where procurement leaders have to put together their budgets for the next year.

One of the budget line items that procurement leaders have traditionally struggled with is the procurement training budget. If you're like most procurement leaders at this time of year, you're asking yourself questions like:

• What training does my team need?
• Do I train everyone on the same thing or customize the plan for each individual?
• How much will that training cost?

Coming up with answers to these questions has always been challenging...until now!

The Next Level Purchasing Association has a solution for you. We are offering our "Procurement Training Budget Planning Tool" for free!

Not only is it free and will help you quickly arrive at the answers you need to have when planning your procurement training budget, but it is easy to use! It's just an Excel spreadsheet with some intelligence built into it to help you identify what training is right for which employee, see how much that plan will cost, and then tweak until you arrive at a number your CFO can live with!

Click the link below to open the spreadsheet.

http://www.NextLevelPurchasing.com/procurement-training-budget-tool.xls

To Your Career,
Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2
President & Chief Procurement Officer
Next Level Purchasing, Inc.
Struggling To Have A Rewarding Purchasing Career?
Earn Your SPSM^® Certification Online At
www.NextLevelPurchasing.com

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Free Procurement Innovation Webinar This Thursday!

Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2 11/16/2011 4:36:00 PM

This Thursday - November 17, 2011 - at 11:30AM Eastern US time, Next Level Purchasing and Denali will be leading a webinar entitled "What's Next for Procurement: Innovating to Drive Value." This webinar is free to all members of the Next Level Purchasing Association (NLPA) and membership in the NLPA itself is free and instant.

Here's how to register for the webinar:

If you're already an NLPA member: Log in to the association at
http://www.NextLevelPurchasing.com/login.html and navigate to the "Webinars" tab. There you'll find a registration link, be sure to enter a valid email address as attendance details will be sent to you by email.

If you're not yet an NLPA member: Sign up for your free membership in the Next Level Purchasing Association at http://www.NextLevelPurchasing.com/free.html. After doing so, you'll receive an email with information about how to log in. After logging in, navigate to the "Webinars" tab. There you'll find a registration link, be sure to enter a valid email address as attendance details will be sent to you by email.

Registration is free but may be limited, so sign up soon to ensure access to this event. I hope that you will join me for this exciting webinar!

To Your Career,
Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2
President & Chief Procurement Officer
Next Level Purchasing, Inc.

Struggling To Have A Rewarding Purchasing Career?
Earn Your SPSM^® Certification Online At
www.NextLevelPurchasing.com

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Cleaning Up Your Supply Chain Resume

Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2 11/15/2011 9:44:00 AM

I hope that you have enjoyed the article "4 Words Your Supply Chain Resume Needs."

Sometimes, I write a PurchTips article and, immediately after it gets emailed to our 220,000+ members, I thought of something I would have liked to add to it. Such was the case with this article.

But thank God for this blog!

Here's what I wanted to add...When you use those four words mentioned in the article - saved, increased, reduced, and improved- you need to follow those words with an answer to the question "How much?" or "By how much?"

For example, if you improved the productivity of a department, it's not enough to say "Improved the productivity of my department." You should say "Improved the productivity of my department by 12%."

In most cases, it is best to list monetary amounts (in Dollars, Euros, or whatever currency you use). However, I recall a purchasing class that I took quite early in my career and an incident that happened that made me realize that it may not be appropriate to list monetary amounts in all situations. Another student was talking to the instructor about rewriting his resume and thought that he could get any job he wanted because he saved his employer $19,000.

The instructor, who worked for a large, Fortune 500 company, said "Uh, that's not really a lot of money." This statement shocked my fellow student, who thought he was worthy of induction into the procurement hall of fame.

While a $19,000 cost savings is nothing to sneeze at, the instructor's point was well-taken: if you've worked for a small company and are applying to work at a big company, you have to take the employer's perspective into consideration. The lesson here is that, in these cases, it may be best to express your achievement in terms of percentages rather than currency.

Having situational awareness is never a bad thing. Especially when you are trying to secure a new purchasing job.

To Your Career,
Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2
President & Chief Procurement Officer
Next Level Purchasing, Inc.
Struggling To Have A Rewarding Purchasing Career?
Earn Your SPSM^® Certification Online At
www.NextLevelPurchasing.com

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Sourcing Tools

Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2 10/31/2011 1:53:00 PM

I hope that you have enjoyed the article "Are Advanced Sourcing Tools For You?"

This article came out of another great podcast with guest expert Jason Busch of spendmatters.com. Beyond just what's in the article, the 30 minute podcast also covers topics like developing financial justification for investing in advanced sourcing tools, how advanced sourcing tools can help procurement and its stakeholders get "on the same page," and how to properly evaluate some sourcing tools that your ERP system provider may have available.

All in all, if you're researching eSourcing beyond the reverse auction and basic RFx functionality, the podcast is a must-listen resource for you. You can download it for free from http://www.NextLevelPurchasing.com/supply-management-podcast.php.

To Your Career,
Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2
President & Chief Procurement Officer
Next Level Purchasing, Inc.
Struggling To Have A Rewarding Purchasing Career?
Earn Your SPSM^® Certification Online At
www.NextLevelPurchasing.com

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The NLPA Dedicated Member of the Month for October 2011 is...

Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2 10/27/2011 2:59:00 PM

Every month, the Next Level Purchasing Association (NLPA) recognizes a purchasing professional who has made impressive progress in learning more about his/her field. We are excited to announce that the NLPA Dedicated Member of the Month for October 2011 is...

Henry Oraih, a Group Materials Auditor for ALLTERRAIN SERVICES GROUP (ATS) in Accra, Ghana completed all six Senior Professional in Supply Management® Program classes and passed the SPSM® Certification Exam during the month of September! "After almost 15 years career in logistics & supply chain management and obtaining several qualifications, I realized that I need to expand my purchasing knowledge to adapt successfully to the rapidly changing business environment. I decided to enroll for SPSM® Certification and having completed the courses, I would say that it is one of the best decisions I have made in my entire career. All the course materials were exceptionally detailed that I just could not stop reading. The program is great and well worth the time and money! I am privileged and proud to be a member of Next Level Purchasing Association and SPSM2® Certification is next on my agenda."

Next Level Purchasing and the procurement community around the world congratulate Henry and his dedication to having a more successful purchasing career!

To Your Career,
Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2
President & Chief Procurement Officer
Next Level Purchasing, Inc.
Struggling To Have A Rewarding Purchasing Career?
Earn Your SPSM^® Certification Online At
www.NextLevelPurchasing.com

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APICS vs. ISM: A 10-Point Conference Comparison

Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2 10/26/2011 1:22:00 PM

I spent the past three days at the annual conference of the American Production and Inventory Control Society (APICS). Earlier this year, I had attended the annual conference of the Institute for Supply Management (ISM). This was the first time that I attended both conferences in the same year.

At lunch yesterday, I was asked by a fellow attendee how the two conferences compared. I rattled off several points of comparison and thought that you may be interested as well. So, here it is: a 10-point comparison of APICS' and ISM's conferences!

Disclaimer: Some people consider Next Level Purchasing to be a competitor of ISM and, to a lesser extent, APICS. I have made the effort to make this a balanced review, giving credit where credit is due to both organizations. Keep in mind that some elements of this review are inherently subjective, just like anyone else's review would be. For example, what is a "good" workshop to one person may be a "poor" workshop to another. Who is right? Neither - it is an expression of two opinions, not facts. Me writing that a workshop is "poor" is me expressing my opinion, not an unfounded attempt to discredit a competitor. Like I said, credit is given when due so any constructive criticism is necessary for a truly balanced review.

Size of crowd: Based on the hosts' claims and my own personal observations, I'd estimate the ISM crowd at around 2,000 attendees and APICS a little less with around 1,500.

Composition of crowd: Despite the fact that APICS and ISM get compared a lot, I found that the crowds were drastically different when it came to the positions held by the attendees. APICS seemed to be mostly planners, inventory managers, operations managers and directors, logistics coordinators, and others on the more blue collar end of the supply chain. ISM attracted mostly buyers, purchasing managers, and purchasing directors. While ISM seemed to be equally male and female, APICS was decidely more male - 70 - 80% by my estimation!

Topics of workshops: The topics matched the attendees' roles at both conferences. APICS' workshops were very deep in operations management and blue collar supply chain with very little attention given to purchasing, sourcing and supplier management. Conversely, ISM's workshops mostly centered around purchasing, sourcing and supplier management with little to no attention given to operations management or the areas of supply chain beyond the receiving dock.

Organization: Time for a little "constructive criticism" for APICS. APICS' audience lacked some serious etiquette and APICS did nothing to help. In many of the sessions I attended, there were dozens of people standing in the back. Yet, there were a good number of empty seats in the middle of rows. Instead of encouraging attendees to move to the middle and give some of the standees the opportunity to snag an end seat, APICS did nothing and let their attendees - who paid handsomely to be there - stand for 75 minutes! Shortly after one session started, I mentioned to the APICS coordinator that he should encourage people to fill the empty seats so almost everyone can sit. He replied that it's too late because the presentation started. Pssssshhht, I say! A classic non-profit move - no care for the customer. Then, in every session I attended, as soon as the speaker got to the Q&A slide half the audience rudely bolted for the doors! Not only was that unprofessional, but these people missed what are sometimes the best parts of presentations! APICS, help your people out and teach them two aspects of seminar etiquette: (1) fill in the seats in the center when you have a packed room and (2) don't leave until the speaker says "thank you" and everyone claps.

Professionalism of visual atmosphere: Despite the lack of etiquette among attendees and APICS' abject lack of help for them, the professionalism of visual atmosphere is where APICS put ISM to shame. From the signage to the consistent look of each presentation, APICS projected a professional brand. ISM gave the impression that it picked its "i-dotters" and "t-crossers" and marketing people right off the street. As an example, here's a photo that I snapped at the ISM conference. Notice anything wrong with the spelling of "excellence?" Kind of an ironic word to misspell, don't ya think?


Size and selection of workshops: APICS had fewer sessions with bigger audiences (200-300 people) whereas ISM had more sessions with smaller crowds (50-75).

Exhibitor-friendliness: Next Level Purchasing did not exhibit at ISM but did exhibit at APICS, so perhaps it is unfair for me to compare the two here. But I will share our experience as a vendor. And that experience at APICS? Ugh, horrible! First of all, they really had no dedicated time or special "draw" for people to be among the exhibitors in the exhibit hall. The exhibit hall was on a separate floor from all of the workshops and the only excuse to be in there was because you had to walk through the exhibit hall on the way to lunch. Not only that, but the path through the exhibit hall to the lunch area was not through the middle of the exhibitors! It was down the far end of the booth area, where APICS had its books. So that aisle got a lot of traffic but the remaining aisles got comparatively little traffic. Actually, those remaining aisles not only got little traffic, they got little light - the convention center being a "green" building uses a lot of natural light instead of artificial light. Well, in cloudy October, there's not a whole lot of natural light in Pittsburgh! Many booths were in the virtual darkness. In comparison, ISM had many scheduled events (e.g., continental breakfast, dessert, networking receptions, etc.) right in the exhibit hall during times when there was nothing else going on. The exhibitors' fees cover much of the cost of a conference. It was a shame they got shafted at APICS.

Diversity of speakers: I have to give APICS some props here. APICS had a great variety of speakers including practitioners, consultants, and professors. ISM was mostly practitioners except for a few consultants who are part of the "old boys network." APICS was definitely more consultant friendly, which I like. While a practitioner can tell you what worked well in one situation - and that's valuable - s/he usually doesn't put much thought into what can make their success transferable to other organizations. On the other hand, consultants can experience success in multiple organizations and, therefore, understand what the true common threads of success are and what things need tweaked to fit other organizations' cultures. For example, one speaker consulted on something like 41 ERP implementations. I find that more helpful than a practitioner who may have succeeded at one and thinks that his/her methods will work everywhere without an explanation of what needs to be adapted for slightly different situations.

And now the aspect you've all been waiting for...

Quality of workshops: Frankly, both APICS and ISM were hit and miss - some bad sessions, some OK sessions, and just a couple of nuggets. I've already written about the highlight of ISM's conference, so I won't regurgitate that here. There were two presentations that absolutely rocked at APICS. First, Gary Smith, Supply Chain Operations Director for New York City Housing Authority, gave an excellent presentation of cost savings through sustainable initiatives using a total cost modeling approach. And, second, there was Michael Martin, Global Supply Chain Planning Strategy Manager for Stanley Black & Decker, who gave an absolutely incredible presentation on multi-echelon inventory optimization principles. He was such a rockstar of a speaker that he had a large crowd around him waiting to chat with him after the presentation. I waited 20 minutes and gave up on meeting him because I had another session to attend. He was that good.

Overall: Given the price of these conferences - which is more than the cost of earning the SPSM^® Certification which will serve your career for years, not days - you'd expect that they would be great. Unfortunately, you only get one or two truly good workshops at these conferences and have to sit through average or worse sessions the rest of the time. That being said, hey, it's like a company-funded vacation for just about all attendees, so you won't hear them complain. But that's not cool - the companies funding these conference passes deserve better. I'm thinking that it's time to bring consistently high quality education to supply chain conferences. With over 220,000 members, the Next Level Purchasing Association is the largest purchasing association in the world. Even though we have focused on being modern and all online, perhaps it's time to show these old fart associations how it should be done. I'm thinking that you should keep your eyes and ears peeled for an NLPA conference announcement in 2012 or 2013...

To Your Career,
Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2
President & Chief Procurement Officer
Next Level Purchasing, Inc.
Struggling To Have A Rewarding Purchasing Career?
Earn Your SPSM^® Certification Online At
www.NextLevelPurchasing.com

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Prospective Suppliers: Why Do You Think What You Think About Them?

Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2 10/21/2011 11:09:00 AM

When considering doing business with a prospective supplier, many times those of us with procurement decision-making authority have certain impressions of that supplier.

Maybe we think they're big. Maybe we think they're good. Maybe we think they're expensive. There are almost an infinite number of adjectives to describe how we may perceive a supplier.

But have you ever stopped to think why you think what you think?

Collectively, suppliers spend a gargantuan amount of time and money to influence their prospective customers' perception of them. Many of them work with ad agencies who know all of the psychological triggers associated with creating the desired perception. That's called branding.

So, does it work?

Do you think in a way that the supplier has tried to make you think?

How much of your perception is based on what the supplier communicates vs. what you find independently?

Is your perception accurate?

What makes you think that a supplier is big?

What makes you think that one supplier is more trustworthy than another?

Think about some well-known suppliers that you are not currently doing business with. I'll list a few to get your brain started, although you may be doing business with some of them:

• Ariba
• Grainger
• Dell
• IBM
• AT Kearney
• Staples
• Apple
• Waste Management
• Xerox

What's your impression of each company you're NOT doing business with? That's a rhetorical question, you don't have to post an answer (although you're welcome to if you want).

Isn't it interesting that you have certain perceptions of these companies. Now, where does that perception come from? Does it come from:

• Advertising?
• Word of mouth?
• The press?
• Past experience?
• Your research?
  
• Something else?
• A combination of things?
  

Or do you really not know why you have the perception that you have?

It's interesting to ponder, isn't it?

To Your Career,
Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2
President & Chief Procurement Officer
Next Level Purchasing, Inc.
Struggling To Have A Rewarding Purchasing Career?
Earn Your SPSM^® Certification Online At
www.NextLevelPurchasing.com

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Whitepaper Wednesday - Procurement Team Certification

Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2 10/19/2011 3:16:00 PM

Welcome to another installment of Whitepaper Wednesday here on the Purchasing Certification Blog. Today, I'll be reviewing a whitepaper entitled "Procurement Team Certification: 5 Benefits That Procurement Leaders Can't Afford To Ignore" from Next Level Purchasing.

Procurement transformations are being done everywhere. New leaders are coming in, deciding that things need to change, and setting the wheels of procurement transformation in motion.

These procurement transformations are anything but simple. They often involve implementing new technologies, hiring people from the outside, and virtually starting from scratch in terms of setting goals and establishing KPI's. In short, it takes many things to make a procurement transformation successful.

One of the components of procurement transformation with arguably the most potential for improving business results is procurement team certification - getting every member of the procurement team certified. However, with the veritable tornado of activity surrounding new technologies to be implemented, new processes to introduce, new people to hire, and new goals to set, not every procurement leader has enough time to explore the benefits of procurement team certification and, as a result, fail to ask themselves questions like:

• How will procurement team certification improve relationships with management and stakeholders?
• What is the financial payoff of procurement team certification?
• What changes in employee performance can result from procurement team certification?
• How will procurement team certification affect relationships with the supply base?
• What effect on the procurement leader's brand will procurement team certification have?

This whitepaper goes into detail in answering all of these questions and more. It's a straight-to-the-point guide for any procurement leader who needs to quickly understand what procurement team certification can bring to the table for a procurement transformation.

You can download your own copy of the whitepaper from the Next Level Purchasing website (registration required).

To Your Career,
Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2
President & Chief Procurement Officer
Next Level Purchasing, Inc.
Struggling To Have A Rewarding Purchasing Career?
Earn Your SPSM^® Certification Online At
www.NextLevelPurchasing.com

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Performance-Focused Negotiation

Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2 10/17/2011 12:12:00 PM

I hope that you have enjoyed the article, "How To Negotiate When 'Time Is Money'."

The article gave an example of how you can negotiate in order to give your supplier the incentive to deliver on time. Of course, on-time delivery is not the only aspect of good supplier performance, so I'll use this post to provide a couple more examples...

"What you've proposed is what we consider a premium price. We usually push for rock bottom prices. However, we'd be willing to pay a premium price for premium performance. Here's what we propose: you reduce your price by 10%; however, if your deliveries conform to the 4 parts-per-million defect rate that you promised, we'll pay the price in your proposal."

"What you've proposed is what we consider a premium price. We usually push for rock bottom prices. However, we'd be willing to pay a premium price for premium performance. Here's what we propose: you reduce your price by 10%; however, if you respond to all service calls within 10 minutes as you promised, we'll pay the price in your proposal."

The point I'm trying to make with the above-linked article and this post is that you should never approach a negotiation without considering the criticality of supplier performance and how you might be able to negotiate creatively to assure - and not decrease the percentage chance of - satisfactory performance.

To Your Career,
Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2
President & Chief Procurement Officer
Next Level Purchasing, Inc.
Struggling To Have A Rewarding Purchasing Career?
Earn Your SPSM^® Certification Online At
www.NextLevelPurchasing.com

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Free Webinar on 10/20 Will Help You Increase Your Productivity

Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2 10/14/2011 1:55:00 PM

* Do you formulate goals only to get sidetracked by a busy life?

* Are you living life unfocused and overwhelmed?

* Do you, often times, wish you had more time to complete tasks?

* Would you like to identify steps to minimize and ultimately eliminate procrastination?

If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, sign up for this month's Next Level Purchasing Association webinar. In this webinar, you will join Dr.Renee Galloway to identify time tested tools and strategies that can help you achieve the satisfaction of personal accomplishment by increasing personal productivity. Dr.Galloway is the author of Done! Prioritize, Plan and Perform to Accomplish Your Goals and has 15+ years as a Supply Chain Management/Supplier Diversity Professional.

This webinar is free to all members of the Next Level Purchasing Association (NLPA) and membership in the NLPA itself is free and instant.

Here's how to register for the webinar:

If you're already an NLPA member: Log in to the association at
http://www.NextLevelPurchasing.com/login.html and navigate to the "Webinars" tab. There you'll find a registration link, be sure to enter a valid email address as attendance details will be sent to you by email.

If you're not yet an NLPA member: Sign up for your free membership in the Next Level Purchasing Association at http://www.NextLevelPurchasing.com/free.html. After doing so, you'll receive an email with information about how to log in. After logging in, navigate to the "Webinars" tab. There you'll find a registration link, be sure to enter a valid email address as attendance details will be sent to you by email.

Registration is free but may be limited, so sign up soon to ensure access to this event. I hope that you will join us for this exciting webinar!

To Your Career,
Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2
President & Chief Procurement Officer
Next Level Purchasing, Inc.
Struggling To Have A Rewarding Purchasing Career?
Earn Your SPSM^® Certification Online At
www.NextLevelPurchasing.com

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What Type of Personality Does A Procurement Leader Need?

Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2 10/12/2011 2:54:00 PM

Who do you think of when you think of business leaders? Do you think of loud, charismatic people like Donald Trump? Or do you think of more reserved, almost nerdy people like Bill Gates? Or do you think of both types?

Is there one right personality for good business leadership? Or, to be specific to our profession, is there one right personality for good procurement leadership?

Personally, I've seen both types succeed. And I've seen both types fail. But I read an interesting article in Kelly Services' SmartManager newsletter today that gives some insight into what conditions are necessary for both types to succeed.

According to the article, a study of a chain of stores revealed that stores with the "combination of extroverted managers and relatively passive employee groups achieved high profits. However, those stores with proactive employees, when managed by introverted people, earned equally impressive bottom lines." The study also discovered that stores earned "lower profits when extroverted managers were supervising proactive employee groups."

Essentially, the point of the article was that either type of leader can succeed if their underlings collectively have the type of personality most conducive to the leadership style. Certainly good news, especially if you ever worried that your lack of Trump-ish charisma may limit your success.

A clear implication, however, is that, regardless of your leadership style, you have to be good at hiring the right people. While I personally may not be as strong as I'd like to be in every skill area, one thing that I consider a core competency of mine is my ability to hire great people.

When you're good at choosing a team, so much takes care of itself. Regardless of whether you're more like Trump or more like Gates.

To Your Career,
Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2
President & Chief Procurement Officer
Next Level Purchasing, Inc.
Struggling To Have A Rewarding Purchasing Career?
Earn Your SPSM^® Certification Online At
www.NextLevelPurchasing.com

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Is Procurement's Hypocrisy Why Internal Customers Refuse To Cooperate?

Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2 10/7/2011 9:44:00 AM

Strategic goals of a typical procurement department include things like reigning in more spend categories, reducing maverick buying, and getting involved earlier in the product development and procurement process. These are among the more challenging procurement goals because internal customers are often resistant to earlier, more, or even any procurement involvement in the responsibilities that they have historically handled.

Procurement departments typically try to overcome such obstacles by explaining what their strengths are: procurement can identify all the alternatives and then lead a well-defined process to select the best option. And, at the end of the day, the company will end up with better quality, lower cost, and minimized risk.

Instead of doing things the way they've always been done, procurement departments encourage internal customers to really think through things with an open mind and do everything the best way using the best available information at the current point in time. Sounds good.

But does the procurement department eat its own cooking?

Think about the things your procurement department spends its discretionary budget on. Does your procurement department apply the same strict process to those purchases?

Maybe it does. But I see plenty of procurement departments make at least two decisions where they do things because "that's how we've always done it."

What are those two decisions?

1. Which procurement association they join; and

2. Which procurement certification they get.

Can you honestly say that your procurement department has investigated all alternatives for these two procurement decisions every time it's ready to spend company money on them?

Is there a less expensive association out there? Is there a higher quality certification out there?

Your internal customers are watching. Is your procurement department guilty of hypocrisy?

If so, how will you ever convince internal customers to follow directions that you don't follow yourself?

To quote Mahatma Ghandi, "Be the change you want to see in the world."

To Your Career,
Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2
President & Chief Procurement Officer
Next Level Purchasing, Inc.
Struggling To Have A Rewarding Purchasing Career?
Earn Your SPSM^® Certification Online At
www.NextLevelPurchasing.com

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