What do Procurement people tweet about when they get together?

The inaugural #procurementhour took place last night and as the invite didn’t get to all our procurement professionals in time I wanted to encourage you to join next Thursday evening at 2000 BST.

If you’re not familiar with a #twitterhour it’s much like following a person on Twitter but you follow a hashtag for a specific hour instead and everyone uses it during the discussions and peeps exchange ideas, ask and answer questions and generally have a chin wag over a drink of your choice about a topic you’re passionate about. Which means there will be one for where you live, for hobbies, passions and professions etc #cumbriahour #LDchat #BBCQT and now #procurementhour

This hour was facilitated by @deltaprocure @kershaw_MCIPS and whilst many future #twitterhours may involve more questions, and focusing on specific topics, it was q3 that got the party going.

Q3 if you could change one thing about procurement (processes, legal, governance, culture, other) to make delivery better what would it be.

What would you have said? And how would you have provided solutions to facilitate that change?

With so many tangents from this question I suspect this is only my interpretation of the key topics: 

• Culture – to make embracing change easier
• Stakeholder engagement – engaging them and doing so earlier because we understand the process but they understand what they want “we’re in this together” 
• Mindset – to stepping outside our comfort zones
• Process – ensuring it’s fit for purpose not a hurdle for innovation
• Performance measurement – what would Unilever or Steve jobs do and would it really be so reliant on compliance?

Tweets that had me going “hell yes” included

@MCulleyMCIPS procurement isn’t boring, it’s there to change the way goods/services/works are purchased to deliver better things, it’s not all about saving money.

@noursidawi leadership is the difference – and we lead, and are led, at all levels.

#ProcurementHour reminded me we’re not alone, and need to work together to be the change we want to see.

Hope you’ll join the conversation next week to help do that.

Alison Smith @purchasingcoach