Monday 8 July 2019

Forget digitising procurement, I want more humanity



Digitisation is coming to Procurement.

We’re embracing 4.0.

It will deliver huge benefits and transform how we work.

Really?

If we talk to our suppliers or to our internal stakeholders they’re telling us there’s one thing missing.

Our humanity.

It feels like we’re running before we can walk with many of us still struggling to get to 2.0.

Of course there are some trail blazers getting the mix right and delivering real value, but there’s plenty of examples that suggest there are Procurement peeps stuck at 1.99.

Someone on a category management workshop once said “oh, I didn’t know I could do that” when I simply suggested they use a wider range of their behavioural skills with a stakeholder i.e. be human; not a computer running a stereotypical programme from the 80s.

On another workshop we had a heated debate about whether there was room for kindness in procurement. Ok, it was me that got heated when I was told their KPIs wouldn’t let them be kind.

Which is why I don’t apologise for bringing the following qualities others have used to describe me into the soft skills procurement development I do:

Heart-led, intuitive, insightful, real, creative, trustworthy, unconventional, and passionate.

Because these are the qualities I want to see more of in Procurement.

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