The Parental Voice

You know…grown ups are not above throwing toddler-like tantrums.

In fact, the adult tantrum is usually FAR worse, can’t be solved with a cookie or a nap and has more deleterious effects.

I have a rock star employee. She’s top notch, bar none, best of the best. But…she’s also a bit set in her ways. Her way or the highway.

Which 99.999% of the time works out juuust fine for everyone.

But there is one whiny butt Client who just can’t be ok. Mr. Over-Controlling doesn’t *like* this strong willed woman telling him just how it’s gonna be.

She’s been incredibly patient with The Client. She’s tried several different approaches. Given him LOTS of extra special care.

Still not enough. Friday I got an indignant voicemail message demanding I put a different employee on his project.

Um. No.

I have a feeling The Client is a skosh stressed out. We all are, these are strange days indeed at The Company.

So what will I, the intrepid manger, do with this situation? Well…I suspect The Client just wants to be *heard*. So we have a call in an hour. I’ll let him rant. I’ll let him rave. I’ll let him jump up an down until he turns blue in the face.

Then I’ll quietly explain in my best parental voice that my employee is following the letter of the law. I’ll drop a SOX conversation in there. And I’ll assure The Client we’ll take goooood care of him from here on out.

Then I’ll give him a cookie, a warm glass of milk, and spread out the mat so he can take a nap.

*sigh* Another day at the office.

Tackle the finance guy!

Been away for a bit…vacation. What a concept!

You’d think that my newly relaxed state of mind would help me deal better with the absurdity of The Company. If you did, you’d be wrong.

I’m back a couple days and already I’m prepared to execute an NFL style take down on one of my coworkers.

To be fair, I outweigh him by A LOT so the takedown shouldn’t be difficult. But it will be satisfying.

Been working on a huge deal. It’s a second source to Big Behomoth Company that’s had the lock on The Company’s business for about ten years.

This wasn’t a problem when it was a couple million concern. Now it’s a tens of millions concern, and it’s a problem.

So we’ve found a young, hungry, scrappy supplier willing to come in and do battle with the thousand pound gorilla.

That’s good! Right?!

Yes, it is. But here we are, Procurement, The Client, Finance and management doing a road show presenting to all who will listen about why they should stop clinging to who they know and come over and try the New Guy.

Leverage! What a kick!

Until today. When our head finance guy decided to up and give Big Behomoth a new, larger commitment to business. Thus crushing all the fragile finances of this deal.

WHAT!!?!?!

Thankfully he didn’t communicate to the supplier yet, so the horse is not entirely out of the barn. It’s just in the pasture eating hay and easily corral-able.

Thing is, I shouldn’t have to.

If you are part of a working team, and especially if you have decision making authority, you don’t make big decisions like this on your own.

Being an old fart, I’d probably better loosen up the hammy’s before I go for the take down…

Bidder’s Conference

When done right, it’s a key tool in your arsenal.

When mishandled, it takes a lot of respect and leverage out of the deal.

Normally, you’d send the RFP out, let the suppliers digest it for a week or so, then come to the table with questions.

You let them also see who is in the race with them.

And get clarifications on potential omissions or items that are unclear.

Very useful.

Except when The Client gets impatient.

And sends out the RFP an hour before the bidder’s conference.

With redlines still in it and references to the incumbent bidder.

Without securing NDAs first.

What you have there is a horse that is no longer in the barn.

And quite a mess to clean up.

Ah, once again, the Value of Procurement.

Saw this one coming…

Got the announcement today. One of the best and brightest in our procurement organization is moving on. He’s going to another job at The Company, at least, so we get to retain his talent.

He didn’t report to me, but it’s a big loss to the department. He was recruited out of college, a top scholar, which doesn’t always bode well for their professional future, but this guy was special.

Raised in Spain, he’s a man of refinement and a pretty cool accent too.

He came to the table with a desire to learn and a quick wit. He impressed me right away when he came to my cube with a project from a client. It was clearly something that belonged to my team and our already over worked commodity group. Normally, in those situations, my coworker will shove the project at me and run.

Not this young kid. He said, “I’d like to learn software. Do you mind if I take this on. I’ll consult with you along the way if I get stuck?”

I almost wept. “Of course!” I said. And he did a beautiful job of it.

For a moment I felt abject fear. This is the future. And it’s running circles around this old dog.

But in the next staff meeting I warned his manager that at my earliest opportunity I was going to steal him away.

His manager laughed and said, “Get in line, there’s a lot of people ahead of you.”

Someone else won. He’s going to the customer facing side of the house where I know he’ll knock ‘em out.

When you find a person with a knack for procurement, the desire to learn and a good work ethic, it’s a rare find, indeed.

He will be missed.

Perhaps our paths will cross again at The Company and I can poach him back…

Everything is negotiable, right?

The Audacity of Sales Weasel

Should that be the title of my memoirs regarding my long and storied Procurement career? The cover will feature a photo of me, looking thoughtful, out at the horizon, pondering my retirement.

We’ve got a very anxious supplier on our hands. A good company by all accounts, but a real bunch of snakes in their sales department.

My rock star contracts person has negotiated the hell out of the master agreement. She’s down to the last three or so issues and now at an impasse, she made the wise move to “escalate” the discussions. Great. She brings in her boss (me) and the boss of her sales weasel.

Fine. We dance the dance.

Manager of Sales Weasel is really laying it on thick. I bat down one point. Then the next.

They express shock that we have a problem with something they want.

I express shock then trump them with utter disbelief that they would ask for this “give” when Client Director has been telling them from day one in every meeting (about three months worth) that this one point is a no-go.

See, this animal knows as the Sales Weasel has a “feature” known as selective memory. They recall what they want to hear and forget anything that doesn’t jive with enhancing the size of their commission.

Chests were puffed. Threats were made to walk away (by me).

Threats were made in return.

I know they are desperate for this business. They told me so (leverage, people!). They told me in the first meeting they “would do anything to do business with The Company”. I haven’t dropped that one back on them yet, but I will.

Meanwhile, I ended the meeting. Told them we needed to talk to The Client. They said, “we’re available all afternoon”.

Oh, yeah…they won’t get a call today…

I’m hoping the deafening roar of a phone that doesn’t ring will speak volumes.

Sheepish

I have this weird defect in my Procurement psyche.

You’d think I’d be over it by now.

Oh well.

Here’s the story:

The Client wants to buy some nifty little networking doo-dads from a fairly small local company.

They want to buy A LOT of doo-dads, and the totals got the dollars well up over the clip level by which our SOX policies say we have to have a contract.

So I contacted the supplier. They are a very small operation.

I put on my best “neighbor next door voice” and told him that 1) we wanted to buy the stuff that he’d quoted, 2) the price was fine and 3) we just have one small problem. We need a contract.

He hesitated and gulped.

“Tell you what,” I said. “I’ll make it easy. I have a really good template. It’s short and really pretty lightweight, but it gets the job done,”

I continued:

“In fact, most of suppliers just sign it without making any changes.”

Then here’s where I reel him in:

“By getting this done, it makes it a lot easier to do business with you going forward.”

Now, what is this guy motivated by?

Money.

I know this (use what you know for sure in negotiations!)

So here’s what I’ve laid out from the Sales Guy’s perspective:
Great Big Company wants to give me money.
They have sent me a contract that they think is fair.
Small companies don’t have in-house council, so it costs money (like $400 an hour) to have Legal review.

Conclusion?

He signed it and sent it back within the hour.

Ok, to be fair, it really is a decent contract. If I was a supplier, especially a small one, I’d probably sign it. Maybe a few tweaks here and there.

I guess I feel sheepish because for a moment, I was the Big Bad Wolf.

Can I be both the Big Bad Wolf and sheepish at the same time?

Identity crisis!

What I am is a negotiator in charge of protecting The Company. Everyone is happy. Client gets their doo-dads, Supplier gets their money and Procurement keeps everyone’s heiney out of a sling.

A good day, all in!

Zip it!

Loose lips sink ships!

The Company has a new lawyer and this guy has decided that the procurement team doesn’t know what they are doing.

Apparently we’re all a bunch of buffoons.

So we had a “lunch and learn” today on the ol’ favorite topic of Non-Disclosure Agreements.

Ah the ubiquitous NDA.

Get one. Always. Get one even if you think you won’t need it. Get one anyway. Better to be conservative and always get one.

Granted, most NDA’s are pretty toothless. But they serve the purpose. We’re all gonna tell each other some juicy stuff and you promise not to tell, okay?

Okay.

Can’t say I learned anything new. Can’t say the new kids learned anything new.

But new lawyer can feel like he did his part to make us smarter.

What’s next month? “RFP’s and You” or something engaging like that.

It takes a lawyer to make a procurement person look fun…

When being right is wrong

Much ado about nothing here in cubicle land.

We’ve got a hot pertata, and I don’t know how this is all going to work out.

See, we have this client, we’ll call him Captain Do It Myself.

He’s got a, er, habit of being quite entrepreneurial when it comes to the Procurement function. He wants what he wants and he wants it right now. He doesn’t like being told he has to wait while we review, negotiate or, you know, do all those things to protect The Company that we’re employed to do.

We’ve been, in our best accommodating way, working to bring him “into the fold” of Sarbanes Oxley love.

So, late last week, Capt’n Do it Myself went a little nutty.

He asked one of my employees for a soft copy of the most current version of redlines on a contract she’s been working VERY diligently.

Normally, this is not a problem. However, given the history…

She refused.

He lost his mind.

And since he’s got a job title that outranks me by a lot, he lost his mind not to me but to the people that I report to (and decide my paycheck).

The thing is, what my employee did was right. He didn’t need to have a soft copy. He’s only going to usurp the hard work already being done.

Early part of last week we uncovered a contract he “just signed…what, it’s no big deal!” that has us in all sorts of hot water. Things have gone bad and we only have that piece of crap to defend ourselves with.

We’re trying real hard not to end up there again.

Problem is, being right doesn’t always make you right.

And it seems once you get to a level where you have real walls and a door, what is “right” depends on how loud you can yell.

Much like a toddler.

This saga isn’t over yet. I’m unsure how to best support my employee. If what she did was correct, then why does she feel so crummy?