Do you read the online purchasing and supply website "supplymanagement.com"?
Why not have a look at today's article by Dave Henshall? It give some interesting views on how to sell procurement's value to the business and why it is important for CPOs to decide what procurement's brand image is.
Here at Commerciality, we believe that procurement's brand image is the "cost-effective, minimal-commercial-risk management of sourcing, tendering, contracting and purchasing of bought-in resources and then the handover of fit-for-purpose service, goods or works provision to the personnel responsible for ongoing contract and supply management".
Sometimes the personnel who handle the ongoing contract and supply management are the same as those who procure, but the roles are distinct and should not be confused.
The seventh paragraph of the article seems to touch on an other problem, which is that many people seem to confuse procurement and purchasing. It seems that he too may have some uncertainty about the difference? Clarity about the difference seems to us to be vital when trying to create a procurement brand image.
If procurement is done properly then the business will have a clear understanding of its own business needs for bought-in resources, because procurement will have steered it through an exercise to determine its exact requirements for subsequent tendering, contracting and purchasing. As a result of this exercise, its management teams and other staff will have the same clear understanding and, vitally, its suppliers likewise. This way everyone 'sings from the same song sheet'. Of course if it is done properly the business will also benefit from minimal incremental commercial and contractual risk.
Maybe the brand image can be compressed down to "procurement manages the optimal acquisition of a business's bought-in resources"?
