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Winning the game: Lori Quaggiotto is on a roll at Casino Windsor
Lisa Wichmann
Most purchasers have diverse backgrounds, and didn’t deliberately set out on a career in procurement. Because of their varied histories, many of them are interesting people to talk with.
Lori Quaggiotto is no exception. Like many of her peers, she stumbled into procurement from a different career altogether. And it’s that wealth of experience, along with a strong appetite for learning, that makes her successful in her current role as purchasing manager at Casino Windsor.
“I was an entrepreneur,” Quaggiotto recalls. “I had an Internet café, and it was the first of its kind in Windsor.” As her own boss, she had to do everything herself—hiring, accounting, complying with regulations, and of course, purchasing.
By this time, her resume was impressive: a small business owner with substantial post-secondary education in business administration and IT systems analysis. Not surprisingly, Casino Windsor was happy to welcome her on board as a food and beverage cost specialist in the finance department. She was promoted to supervisor, and then something interesting happened.
Quaggiotto and her colleagues were pulled into a financing project on invoice matching. “Before that, we didn’t really appreciate what purchasing did,” she says. The project helped her realize purchasing takes the full-circle view of the supply chain: from the vendor through to reconciliation in the finance department. “I was very intrigued.”
Naturally, when the position of purchasing manager came up, Quaggiotto was game. She’s held the title for about five years now, and has eight people reporting to her. Day-to-day buying is handled by purchasing specialists, who oversee specific areas such as slot machines, table games, signage, restaurant supplies, janitorial and maintenance.
Because the casino offers the full entertainment experience, Quaggiotto’s team deals with an incredible variety of products and services. There are restaurants, lounges and hotel rooms to keep running, along with the high-paced, heavy traffic gaming floor. It’s no wonder she says the job is never boring.
“You’re always learning,” Quaggiotto says. “We just finished a contract on high-speed Internet so you learn about that, or interactive TV, or everything you need to know about elevators… Not one day goes by where you haven’t learned something.”
Though regular buying is handled by the purchasing specialists, Quaggiotto conducts requests for proposals and quotations related to larger or high-risk projects, and formal, complex competitions.
Much of her time is spent reviewing the casino’s procurement policies and practices, negotiating, dealing with the various departments and legal issues, and guiding her team. Clearly, there are busy months ahead.
The casino is in the midst of a huge expansion project, involving the construction of a 22-storey hotel tower. The $400-million project is expected to be finished by the end of the year.
The casino will also rebrand from “Casino Windsor” to “Caesars Windsor,” reflecting a new trademark licencing agreement. The new name will take effect in early 2008, so everything with a logo—from napkins to lobby signs—will have to be newly purchased with the Caesars name.
Though the lavish décor, statues and ambience in the lounges impart a sense of fun and relaxation, the fact remains Casino Windsor is a heavily regulated enterprise, under the Ontario Gaming Act.
Windsor Casino Ltd., a consortium involving Hilton Hotels and Harrah’s Entertainment manages the casino. Because it’s so regulated, it takes a lot of due diligence by managers to ensure their reporting systems and policies stay within set parameters.
For the purchasing department, it means more creativity is required, because the regulations preclude the use of standard efficiencies such as purchasing cards. Quaggiotto says p-cards aren’t used at the casino, because the framework of the policies wouldn’t support such a program.
Nor can the casino embark on supplier rationalization programs. While other companies are reducing their supplier base and forging closer, long-term relationships with fewer vendors, that option isn’t open to Quaggiotto’s team.
“So we do have a large supplier base,” she says. “They need to be registered with the Alcohol Gaming Commission. So they’re registered as being a distributor for [only] a certain line…So that’s one of the challenges we face.”
In other words, it’s difficult to find a “one-stop” supplier for all the product on the gaming floor. One supplier might be registered for slot machines, and another for cards and chips. Quaggiotto’s department deals with local suppliers, along with vendors in Las Vegas, and even China.
The casino doesn’t carry a lot of inventory. There’s a local warehouse for non-perishable items, and a receiving dock at the casino for food and beverage items.
Plenty of product is deemed as mission-critical to the operation of the casino, so from time to time, the purchasing team has to hustle. Quaggiotto recalls one occasion when the casino was awaiting a shipment of components for the gaming floor’s point system—the cards patrons use to rack up points.
“It would have shut down the casino,” she says. “We actually had to fly someone in with the parts, and get on board with our customs broker to pick those parts up at the airport.”
Formal metrics
Aside from keeping the casino stocked, Quaggiotto and her team have set targets to make procurement more strategic. “One of the goals we have in place for the next year or so is developing the metrics,” she explains. “It’s now somewhat ad hoc. So we’ll be trying to get the biases out of the way.”
Right now, the purchasing department tries to define metrics in the contract language. “For example, if there’s a need for support or service, we ensure we define time restraints within the contract language,” she adds. The language also sets out consequences if the time frames aren’t met.
“In this regard, we’re able to measure performance against the metrics set up in the contract language, but overall, vendor performance is difficult to measure in services versus products, and the definition of good service levels differs from one person to the next.”
Aside from developing more uniform metrics, the department participates in a strategic sourcing group with the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. “We join forces whenever we can and go out for quote as a group,” she explains. The strategy allows the casino to leverage volume discounts.
To minimize the administration in purchasing, the various departments are sometimes given “blanket contracts,” that allow them to buy certain amounts without having to get separate purchase order numbers each time.
“That eliminates a lot of paperwork and our involvement because at the time we set up the contracts our work is done and we move on to something else. So we hand over the administration of the contract to the department itself, and they’re able to order directly.”
The casino is also leveraging technology to make buying more electronic. Quaggiotto is involved in the development of a new quotation module—with support from the IT department—that’s expected to reduce paper bids.
“We’re moving forward with an Internet-based system, where our suppliers that are invited to quote will log in and be able to see the competition. It’s a secure site, of course. Once the competition closes, we’ll see the information on our side, which will help with the number of e-mails that go out, and the number of competitions that go out. So it’s just streamlining and becoming more efficient.”
Suppliers won’t be able to see what their competitors are bidding; only what they themselves are bidding. So it isn’t a reverse auction per se, but Quaggiotto says that might be a goal once the Internet system is in place.
Good corporate citizen
Casino Windsor, from its inception, set out to be a “good neighbour” and responsible business in its community. Procurement plays a part in those sustainability goals, particularly though the casino’s waste reduction committee.
It’s striving to improve the casino’s recycling programs, to divert more waste from the landfill. “Purchasing plays an important role in this initiative through setting up contracts that not only deal with purchases, but also disposal, ensuring the suppliers we contract with diligently handle the disposal in an environmentally-sound manner,” she explains.
Clearly, the purchasing department is called in to assist with projects beyond the tactical day-to-day sourcing. Quaggiotto says procurement is well supported within the organization, and it’s easy to get upper management’s ear for suggestions and ideas.
The casino also supports professional development. Quaggiotto took advantage of that culture to embark on the Certified Professional Purchaser (C.P.P.) designation. She wrote the final exam in June of 2006, and scored the second-highest grade out of 180 people across Canada.
Quaggiotto had already achieved a significant portion of the C.P.P. requirements through her previous management studies. She tackled the final exam by joining a Windsor-area study group; and partnering with a colleague, Lori Rawlings (a purchasing specialist at the casino) who earned the C.P.P designation at the same time.
Quaggiotto is an avid student, and predicts she won’t be able to stay out of school for long, though she isn’t sure yet what courses she might take. Her overall philosophy is continuous growth on both a personal and professional level. It not only makes her a better purchaser, but a more effective manager for her eight-member team.
She identifies relationship-building skills as one of the most important for procurement managers, along with decision-making and organization skills.
In purchasing, it’s also crucial to have integrity and a strong grasp of ethics, she says. “I think that if you start off with a wrong foot in the procurement business, it travels very fast…Your name is very important in this business.”
It’s a philosophy she imparts to her team at the casino. But the purchasing specialists reporting to her are high-caliber, and don’t require excessive guidance or correction.
“We have a great team,” she reflects. “When they’re coming to me they already have the answer. It’s ‘this is what I’m doing; what do you think?’ And that works really well.”
She uses an open-door policy to encourage communication, and tries to develop different leadership strategies for specific situations and people.
The role of purchasing manager has become much more enriched than it was when she first joined the field.
“It’s more supported now in organizations,” she says. “I think companies are starting to realize that in order to have a competitive advantage and to help your bottom line, it takes purchasing’s experience in the whole supply chain, and not just taking a look at one simple transaction.
“So I think [with] the concept of ‘everybody could be a buyer’; they kind of mix up their consumer buying versus procurement. They’re two different things. So I think that perception has changed over time.”
The question of whether anyone can be a buyer would no doubt spark debate in purchasing circles. Perhaps the answer is just about anyone could handle the transactional duties, with the requisite training.
But it takes more vision, commitment and leadership skills to succeed in the complex strategic sourcing projects underway at the casino and other advanced organizations. In that regard, Quaggiotto has found her niche. b2b
Contact Lisa Wichmann at lisa.wichmann@pb2b.rogers.com
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