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Building Soft Skills in Procurement Part 3

Wednesday 9th August 2017

Exceptional people and relationship management skills

Communication and negotiation are an interchangeable skill set and a foundation for people and relationship management skills. As human beings we communicate and negotiate on a daily basis and how effective individuals are in this area determines their ability to motivate people to achieve the organisations and their personal goals. This is never more applicable than to supplier relationships; as every occurrence of communication prior to and post nomination equates to the final supplier relationship you are left with. This needs to be a strong relationship to ensure it is performance driven post nomination and the longevity in securing the supplier; as a strategic and reliable one.

Execution of ideas and strategy

There are always so many idea's floating around in any business at any one time. An innovative idea worth incubating is what the organisation is really looking for. The individual who can identify the idea, incubate, and execute will gain the trust of colleagues and management. Execution of ideas requires a realistic look at one problem area using solid skills such as lean, Six Sigma, Kaizen Or 5S, allowing practical analysis within the business. Execution and strategy are two sides of the same coin and dividing these into two separate entities is a mistake but one that is often made. Identifying a real need whilst creating a robust everyday working practice which allows the strategy to turn into an executed reality is the measure of the procurement individual and an essential one when looking at the next procurement leader of the future.

"After all, without execution strategy is nothing more than idea's on paper."
(Guenther 2014)

Change management

Change management is not only identifying the change required but explaining why the change is required. This soft skill is arguably one of the most difficult ones. The age old nobody likes change rings true in any organisation. Inspiring the minds of colleagues, stakeholders and suppliers to embrace change and see its benefit isn't a skill to be sniffed at. Implementing the change requires time and effort, upskilling can be costly but not changing in the wake of an ever-changing world is failing. The ability to implement change management within an institution in such a way that harbours results is what sets the procurement individual aside from his contemporaries.

We live in a world where procurement is a viable and lucrative career option. When asked how an individual came into procurement we will no longer be hearing
"I fell into procurement accidently when..."
With supply chain and management courses an ever more popular and realistic university option soon we will be swamped with innovative, young procurement interns, armed with soft and solid skills ready to take on the world. We believe healthy competition is a positive and keeps us firmly on our toes. Whilst we lived through the pioneering age of procurement and it is true experience is the greatest of teachers, let's embrace the newbies with a comparable mixed skill set. Together we can join forces as one procurement army, eager and ready for the new era of procurement and supply chain management.

"In Supply chain, we typically talk about the hard skills - the size and power of a firm- and we tend to overlook the soft side, which is trust, reciprocity and interpersonal relationships."
Veronica Villena quoted in Nichols (July 2017): Building trust in the supply chain. (http://www.tungsten-network.com/blog/archive/building-trust-in-the-supply-chain/)