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A Fine Balance
Purchasing is a practical discipline. At least it’s usually thought of that way - and it’s easy to see why. Supply managers are expected to establish tangible goals and achieve tangible benefits. Even when buying services instead ofbody things, a large part of the job consists of assigning definite values to what’s being bought, balancing estimates of those values against the estimates of the ‘opponents’ - or counterparts - in the selling organization, and using that balance (or the gap between the values) as a basis for negotiation. Whether it’s something as difficult to quantify as consulting services or literally nuts and bolts, the goal is to give the buyer’s team an easily grasped handle on the value of what it’s buying.
But when you think about it, there’s a fairly high degree of abstract thinking required in supply management, at least at the higher, more strategic levels. Partly that’s because any line of work becomes more intellectually stimulating and challenging at the more senior levels, but there’s also a particular conceptual dimension to supply management. Strategic sourcing and the negotiation required to establish long-term supply partnerships and conclude actual deals require the ability to ‘read’ a lot of factors and incorporate them into the process: the state of any given market at any given time; the supplier’s position in that market; the degree of need of the buying organization; the importance of that organization as a customer of the supplier; the strengths and weaknesses of the individual participants on both sides of the table... it gets to be a long list. At the end of the day you wonder how anyone could balance two such dissimilar ways of thinking.
That’s why it was such a pleasure to speak with Prof. Jean Nollet at the PMAC conference in Halifax (last week as I write this). A supply chain veteran at HEC Montreal, Prof. Nollet occupies the new Chair in Supply Management established by the Canadian Purchasing Research Foundation (CPRF). He seems to have an approach that mixes the theoretical and the practical, and he views his new position as an opportunity to establish a research culture that draws on and contributes to what both spheres have to offer.
“I’m open to many different topics,” Prof. Nollet told me when we chatted after the new chair was announced (for more on that, see the “buylines” and “PMAC pulse” sections). “I’ll take the best direction I can to fulfill the expectations of CPRF and PMAC, with a balance of fast, short-term results and longer-term research. Also, I think finding that balance will be a bit easier because the topics will be determined by an orientation committee made up of practitioners and researchers, and they’ll be reassessed after five years.”
Prof. Nollet faces some high expectations in his new position, but it sounds as if he has the mindset to put it all together.
The Point Of It All?
Thanks to freelance writer John Shoesmith for pointing out an interesting, thought-provoking article at Fast Company on why it’s time for a new idea of career success. Rather apocalyptically titled “What Should I Do With My Life?”, the longish article is adapted by Po Bronson from his recently released book of the same title.
I hate handing out URLs like this, but there seems to be no other way: www.fastcompany.com/magazine/66/mylife.html. I think it’s worth the hassle. Let me know.
Andrew Brooks
Editor
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