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The Procurement profession needs to hire a PR agent. I decided this after reading more and more industry articles.

For every “these economic times call for the steady hand of procurement” article I find, I am also seeing a lot of “those pencil pushers over there make us follow archaic processes and demand low cost at all costs!”

The latest in this line of thinking comes with the title:

Do Procurement And Supply Chain Folks Exist In The Same Universe?

The answer? Uh. Yes.

We’re like…cousins. We are part of the same family, share quite a bit of DNA, but in the end, are rather different breeds of cat.

Direct vs Indirect

Revenue generating vs Overhead

We both buy stuff, but we buy it differently. We both focus on buying the right thing at the right time for the right cost. What’s so hard about that?

And yet, the article’s author, Steve Banker, levels the usual charges against me and my peers:

“Driving your supply base to the brink of bankruptcy, or sometimes actually into bankruptcy, is poor risk management.”

Well…yes! I agree! I’d venture most of my fellow procurement folks would too.

“Their ultimate purpose is to demoralize supplier sales teams and reduce the supplier’s high-tech products to commodity status…”

Ok, I can’t lie…I’ve seen some procurement folks do this. Not as much lately, there is a renaissance going on in the world of procurement, but I still can’t fight this argument with too much ardor.

“A well-run supply chain, which includes your core suppliers, should have a certain degree of ‘win-win’ and team orientation associated with it.”

For many procurement guys, this philosophy is derided as simplistic and fundamentally un-businesslike.”

This is where the article got under my skin. While I’m certain that Mr. Banker’s opinion is fueled from experience, and thus rather valid, I think it takes a dim view of the business acumen and “total value” focus of most of the procurement people I know and work with.

I fundamentally believe that a supplier relationship (one beyond a few transactions a year) should be a “win-win” or…maybe a bit of a “little bit unhappy-little bit unhappy” (the best kind of contract, according to a lawyer friend, is the one where both sides leave the table a little bit unhappy).

But I also don’t think we should let a supplier, ANY supplier, off the hook.

A focus on “mustn’t upset the apple cart” at all costs is just as short sighted and rigid as “low price at all cost.”

I’m looking for some middle ground here.

And then the wrap up, oh Mr. Banker, the wrap up:

“…this difference in how supply chain and procurement people think is just too difficult to bridge.”

Really? I mean…really? Do you really mean that? Because it isn’t, actually.

Contact me offline, we’ll chat about the CPO of a Fortune 100 IT manufacturing company who has managed to work it out. You can too. I promise.

Kumbaya, brotha!

Final rant: You’re going to hear a lot more of it on these pages, but….. “Negotiation” is not a dirty word. It doesn’t mean what you do at the used car lot. It can be a “total value” not just price. Ok? We’ll talk…..