Editor’s Note: The following post originally appeared in Roz Usheroff’s The Remarkable Leader blog under the title Dubai Travel Journal (Part 2): Adaptable Brilliance . . . Denise’s Story.

As far as I am concerned, one of the best examples of being open to trying something new is reflected in the following excerpt from my new book The Future of You! Creating Your Enduring Brand.

While the story of Denise talks about being your own best PR person, the underlining message is that a willingness to embrace change and try something new – in Denise’s case this meant accepting a position for which she had little prior experience – will almost always open the door to opportunities that you might have otherwise missed.

Like Mikey . . . are you willing to try something new?

Denise is the Chief Procurement Officer with a major corporation.  Founded by one of the world’s leading entrepreneurs, whose enterprises have included professional sports teams and international retail chains, the company with whom she works is a recognized brand the world over.

Over the past 16 years Denise has had many different bosses.  Despite these changes at the top, Denise has been successful because she has been open to leveraging her Unique Ability to assume the leadership role within different areas of her company including finance, HR, and now purchasing.

To me she exemplifies the importance of volunteering for important projects, building an effective rapport with her bosses, and being willing to mentor and coach those with whom she works.

Having had the opportunity to share a cab with her to the airport from a speaking engagement in which she was in attendance, I was moved by her calm and certain demeanor that seemed to accentuate the very adaptability that has led to her enduring success.

Now you might ask yourself what Denise’s story has to do with how you can become your own best PR person. Similar to those executives about whom I talked in my Personal Reflection earlier in this chapter, Denise recognized that while changes at the top can and obviously do happen, her success in promoting her brand value was based on a solid understanding of the organization’s inner workings. When confronted with a change in management and company goals, Denise looked for ways in which she could become a champion of that change, even if doing so meant that she had to move outside of her apparent comfort zone.

In short, Denise realized that the new skills that were needed to play a different role in her company’s success could be acquired through listening and building a rapport with both existing as well as new team members. It is through this rapport and relationship-building process that Denise did her best PR work. And by adopting this attitude of service as opposed to being defined by a particular position, Denise established her reputation as a go-to person who could be counted on to take on the tough jobs and deliver the results.

There are of course many examples similar to Denise’s to which I could refer. I can remember the story of a very successful sales executive taking a management position in his company’s service department. When asked why he had volunteered to pursue this seemingly “new” career path his response said it all; “this new challenge will give me the opportunity to demonstrate to my company that I can play multiple roles in the organization’s success. I believe that this will increase my value to the team, while making me a better overall employee.”

What opportunities do you have, to move outside of the familiar to embrace something new and in the process advance both your career as well as your personal brand’s perceived value?

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Besides having has its Chief Editor one of the top public procurement experts in the UK (and perhaps even beyond) in the person of Colin Cram, we are going to be announcing 10 guest columnists whom I can only describe as being notable experts from the world of procurement.

Of course this raises the question; what exactly constitutes a “notable” expert?

To me, someone of note is not necessarily a celebrity per se, but is someone who is respected and recognized in their field of endeavor as being “in the know” and at the “top of their game.”

They are individuals whose opinions and insights can stand the test of time, meaning that they have a solid understanding of the key elements of a particular area and are as a result often times ahead of the mainstream thinking curve.

A notable expert is also someone who is able to maintain their relevance in a vastly changing world by being open to new ideas and having a keen sense as to how said ideas integrate with present day realities.  Think of it has being able to add a new puzzle piece to an ever evolving picture.

All this is well and good but, how do you really know that what you are reading is actually worthy of being considered relevant and meaningful?

In the case of Colin Cram, this was demonstrated by the fact that as a result of the recent Taxpayers Alliance paper quoting his 2010 Towards Tesco paper,  both the Daily Mail and Times made reference to his work in articles this past weekend.   Being quoted in the media and in industry publications is a good indication that you might have something worthwhile to say.

Similar to when my article titled “The power and promise of Web-based procurement tools,” which discussed the evolution of supply chain applications on the Internet, was published in the June 2012 CSCMP issue of Supply Chain Quarterly, Cram’s increasing presence in the media is notable.

Add into the mix media coverage including radio interviews on mainstream networks such as the CBC, and consultations with journalists from major newspapers in which our opinions on both sides of the pond have been referenced, is why I believe we have something different to add.  Especially in those instances when we receive news tips before anyone else in the industry, as demonstrated by our post OECM Punts Ariba, Taking a $20 Million Dollar Hit In The Process?

In the end, what makes what you read in the virtual pages of these blogs notable is that the size and diversity of our audience opens us up to new ideas and developments.  This in turn challenges us to always look at things through a much broader lens of understanding, which is reflected in what we write.

This latter point isn’t just the way we do things at Procurement Insights, it represents our commitment to you our readers to always provide meaningful and yes, notable insights into our exciting industry.

So stay tuned and follow us “because your whole world can change within 24 hours” . . . and Procurement Insights will likely be the first to know and write about it.

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For those who may be unfamiliar with the term, non-executives are drawn from numerous industry sectors (see graphic below) to provide expertise for an annual fee of roughly $23K US.

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I am not talking about a new marketing angle or an esthetically pleasing visual experience – although the blog format does have a certain appeal.  What we were really looking at is how we could provide a new and different take on the procurement world across the pond.  Something more than simply adding our opinions to what is already a mercurial mix of contentious debates and diametrically opposed directional visions.

Within this context the answer seemed clear . . . create a venue through which some of the EU’s leading voices of influence could share their views and insights on stories that are making the headlines.  In this regard, neither Colin nor I were looking for individuals with whom our opinions would necessarily align.  In fact we are of the belief that when you create a forum that welcomes differing even contradictory perspectives, you are in reality providing a vehicle through which a more meaningful and productive understanding of a particular issue can be gained.  This is ultimately the starting point for finding true solutions.  It is also an approach that represents the inherent value of the venue itself – or in this case blog.

In addition to pursuing these journalistic values or ideals, we also realized that we would have to look beyond the usual industry pundits to provide these new insights.  In other words we did not want to seek out those covering the industry but, those who are being covered.  The real news-makers and agents of change.  Individuals who are actually driving policy as opposed to merely writing about policy.

This is the reason why we are delighted to welcome Scotland’s Commercial Director and Chief Procurement Office Alastair Merrill as a regular contributor to the Procurement Insights EU Edition blog.  With Alastair, we have taken this all important first step towards providing our readers with an unprecedented insiders view into the minds of the innovators that are driving procurement reform and evolution.

Over the next couple of weeks we will be announcing the addition of other top caliber professionals as contributing columnists who collectively, will  make the Procurement Insights EU Edition blog the definitive and most reliable procurement news source in the UK and the European Union as a whole.

In the meantime, I would like to invite you to check out Alastair’s inaugural post Public Procurement in Scotland: a short history.

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Editor’s Note:  Charles is founder, president and chief procurement officer of Next Level Purchasing, which offers the SPSM (Senior Professional in Supply Management) family of certifications.

Be sure to check out Charles’ Purchasing Certification Blog.

My organization provides online training, onsite seminars, webinars, articles, and the like to procurement professionals from companies in virtually every industry.  In our training materials, we provide examples of how certain procurement techniques can be applied.

Now, it would be impractical to have hundreds of different versions of each example – one for each industry.  So, for any particular example, we will pick one industry and illustrate how a procurement technique is applied.

With regard to mentally processing examples in an education scenario, there are three types of people:

1.       The people who can visualize how to adapt a technique from one industry to their own industry

2.       The people who ask “How can I apply that to my industry?”

3.       The people who insist “That won’t work in my industry!”

I have a high degree of admiration for the people in Category 1.  These are people who have the intellectual horsepower to understand a concept and its benefits and make any tweaks necessary to make that concept work under different sets of circumstances than the ones described to them.

As someone who has worked in multiple industries and was able to generate unprecedented value by applying techniques from one industry to a new one, I don’t have much sympathy for the people in Categories 2 or 3.  Obviously, people in Category 3 are too stubborn and closed-minded, plain and simple, to experience much success in business.  You can always find ways to adapt ideas to new applications.

If you think about it, you really don’t have to look far to find examples of practices that originated in one industry that were successfully adapted to another industry.  The drive-through window originated in the fast food industry.  Today, it is used by a variety of industries, ranging from the pharmacy industry to the banking industry.  Now, I’m sure that, when a drive-through window was originally proposed in these other industries, there were plenty of people who retorted “That won’t work in our industry.”  But the creative thinkers made it happen.  They ignored any perceived boundaries.

The vending machine concept is another example of a technique applied to other industries.  While vending machines originated in the snack food industry, they were later successfully applied to industries such as consumer electronics, industrial supplies, and even fresh cut flowers!

I’m not quite as harsh in my judgments about the people in Category 2.   At least they acknowledge that the application of a technique from another industry is possible.  I just wish they would try harder at applying critical thinking and/or creativity to arrive at their own solutions, rather than insisting on having solutions spoon-fed to them.

The procurement professionals who will be wildly successful in their careers are those that have the valuable skill of identifying ways to adapt techniques in new ways.  While there is no formal “training” that I know of for developing this skill, you can develop it on your own through practice and even playing “make believe.”

The next time you see an innovation – new or old – that’s different and working well in one industry, take a few moments to daydream about how that innovation could be applied to another industry.  Not necessarily the industry you work in, but any industry.

I’ll illustrate this on-the-fly…

Right now, I am working on my laptop at my desk.  I look at what’s on my desk and I see a water bottle.  That water bottle has an attachment to the lid that can be frozen in order to keep the contents of the bottle cold.  Now, I have had this bottle on my desk practically all day, so my water is room temperature – yuck!  I also see a cable attaching my iPhone to the USB port of my laptop.  This cable enables power to transfer from my laptop to my iPhone so that it can charge.  Could a bottle be invented such that a USB cable connects it to a laptop so that the power from the laptop can continuously refrigerate the contents of the bottle?  Perhaps!  Who cares if no other bottle manufacturer has ever created a USB-cooled water bottle?  Just because it’s never been done doesn’t mean that it couldn’t be done!

I also see on my desk a half-full packet of Sugar In The Raw.  I use 4-1/2 packets of sugar per cup of coffee.  Rather than throw away a packet that is half-full, I will save it for the next day, when I can open only four – rather than five – new packets and get exactly 4-1/2 packets worth of sugar in my coffee.  Now, a problem happens when I may not have rolled up the half-full packet enough and then bump it.  Then, the sugar spills.  Boo!  That scenario made me think about a bag of chocolate covered pretzels I bought at a hotel on a trip I was on last week.  I couldn’t eat all of the pretzels in one night but, fortunately, the bag was resealable so I could eat the rest of the pretzels the next day and they’d be protected and fresh when I was ready for them.  Could Sugar In The Raw be packaged in resealable pouches?  Perhaps!  Who cares if no one ever packaged sugar in resealable pouches!

Now, I’m not saying that these are the greatest inventions ever in the history of the world.  And I’m not saying that these innovations don’t already exist – they may, I just haven’t researched them.  But what I am trying to do is to illustrate how easy it can be to come up with ideas for adapting techniques to new applications.  I came up with these ideas literally as I am typing this post, right off the top of my head.  Imagine what you could come up with if you spent some time seriously pondering how to apply techniques in new applications, if you actually tried to come up with a truly industry-changing idea.  The sky’s the limit, right?  You bet it is!

I’m an idea man Chuck . . .

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Every week as part of my procurement update on Blog Talk Radio I include a guest soundbite. Sometimes I have an excerpt from a recent webinar, but most of the time I select something current and relevant from YouTube and pull the audio. On good weeks, I find a clip with an obvious tie-in to an event taking place that week. On bad weeks, well… you’ve been on YouTube right? Sometimes it takes me a couple of hours to wade through boring and irrelevant content looking for the right two-minute clip.

But all of the work is worth it, especially on those weeks when I find something that clicks. On May 27th I managed to click big time, with a clip from Michael Porter, Harvard Business School professor and creator of Porter’s Five Forces model for industry analysis. In this clip, he talked about ‘creating shared value’, which is his philosophy on corporate sustainability. You may have already read Jon’s take (‘Why I believe that Michael Porter’s position on corporate social responsibility smacks of colonialism’, 27 May).

While I’ve been around long enough not to be new to supply management, when a different perspective comes to light I have to stop and figure out where I stand. This is one of those cases. Here is the ‘Reader’s Digest’ version of Porter’s philosophy: when sustainability is based on a company voluntarily paying more than they have to for a product or service, the benefit to that supplier is limited and buoys that supplier at the expense of the buying company’s profitability. On the other hand, if you help them ‘build a better mousetrap’, they can charge everyone more (not just companies with surplus margin) and they offer the buying company a better product at a price based on the value they bring to the market.

Porter goes into much greater detail, but that gives you the general idea. If you’d like to watch a longer version of his philosophy on creating shared value, I’d recommend this YouTube interview he did with the World Economic Forum.

I attended a negotiations class once where the professor all but begged us never to ‘meet someone in the middle’. Why? Because meeting in the middle is arbitrary. Pricing should be tied to costs and operating margins. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with the technique if you are trying to sell your car, but in our role as procurement professionals we must act purposefully and with visibility into the goods and services we are buying.

Not all sustainability initiatives are the same, but buying from suppliers that can’t price their product competitively or associate the additional cost with tangible value strikes me as a short-term strategy for everyone. There has to be advantage on both sides. A good example of value all around is Starbucks. They work with farmers to buy fair-trade coffee at higher prices than they would pay for ‘conventional’ coffee. But that coffee is higher quality, and brings in as many ‘green-leaning’ coffee drinkers as it scares away with $5 a cup prices. The farmers benefit and so does Starbucks. I think this is a good example of the shared value model outlined by Porter.

If I’ve learned anything in my career, it is that nothing is simple. So we do need to consider the flip side of the ‘collaborative’ buyer-supplier relationship, where input from the buying company is a thinly veiled effort to purge a supplier of product and profits. I believe this is where the Wal-Mart and Vlasic pickles story Jon mentions comes in. Wal-Mart used their huge market presence to force Vlasic to sell huge volumes of pickles to them below cost. This was not paired with strategies to lower operational or packaging costs based on Wal-Mart’s experience. It was a heavy-handed tactic that got them the product they wanted at the price they wanted, and it ultimately landed Vlasic in bankruptcy.

I’m not suggesting that Starbucks is the angel and Wal-Mart the devil.  I’m sure both play the opposite role all the time.  The goal has to be to promote sustainability – and forcing a supplier to eat their costs is not sustainable.  As with so many other discussions in procurement these days it comes back to value on both sides.  The buyer and supplier both have to get value from the arrangement.  If the driving factor is price, you’re likely looking at bullying rather than collaboration, an example of colonialism if I’ve ever seen one.

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Click to hear Porter sound bite . . .

Specifically, I had indicated that while Porter’s theory at the conceptual level has merit, its “value” in terms of applicability in a real-world supply practice is now proving to be inconclusive.  Especially since supply practice models such as SCOR – in which the framework was based on Porter’s theory – are undergoing close scrutiny in terms of sustainable effectiveness.

In this week’s Buyers Meeting Point Update, Kelly Barner shared a sound bite in which Porter addresses what he called shared value, which is another approach to corporate social responsibility.

Even though it has been 5 years since I last wrote about Porter, I still find that his views are off the mark as his position on the issue of social responsibility smacks of colonialism.

While I would direct you to listen to the 15 minute segment itself and draw your own conclusions, what immediately came to mind upon hearing Porter’s perspective was Walmart and Tesco.  Particularly when he talked about how corporations can focus on profitability while making their suppliers better.

I doubt if Porter considered Walmart’s dealings with Vlassic Pickles and Tesco’s treatment of snow pea farmers in his “we will make you better” benevolence musings.

The fact is that governance models are at the heart of a socially responsible supply chain.  Humphrey and Schmitz talked about governance at length in terms of their value chain research, which focused on the nature of relationships between various actors involved in the supply chain, including their implications on development.

For Porter to make statements outside of the above governance context reflects the kind of one-sided relational omnipotence that actually undermines as opposed to builds a strong and sustainable supply chain.

What are your thoughts?

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For example, we surpassed the 1,000 post mark with the blog that was launched with little fanfare in May 2007.  That is a lot of “virtual ink” so to speak.

In terms of the radio show, we recently aired our 650th episode and have seen our audience size hit levels that we would not have dared to even imagine when we took to the airwaves on March 26th, 2009.  For example, our last two featured programs on the Blog Talk Radio network were each downloaded more than 28,000 times in the 24 hour period immediately following the live broadcast.

Suffice to say there are a lot of eyes and ears following us, which is both a privilege and a responsibility.

All this being said I was surprised to discover that our second largest audience outside of the United States is the United Kingdom followed by India, Canada and Sweden.  The fact that I live in Canada makes me thankful that my native country cracked the top five list otherwise, there might have been a few embarrassing questions to answer.

However given that we have built up such a strong following in the UK as well as other parts of the world, reason would seem to dictate that we establish a local presence across the pond.  Reaching this conclusion, I am happy to announce that on Friday, May 31st, we will officially launch the new Procurement Insights European Union Edition.

Given all the news that is coming across our real-time European news-wire feed, it appears that we will not have to wait long in terms of being able to deliver some of the most interesting and controversial stories I have seen in many years.

Of course what makes our coverage so unique and insightful is the fact that we are plugged in as the saying goes through our Chief EU Edition Editor Colin Cram.

Colin, who is universally known for his seminal paper Towards Tesco – Improving Public Sector Procurement, is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply.  He has held senior procurement positions in the public sector for over 30 years, including central government, higher education, scientific research and local government. He was also responsible throughout for initiating and implementing innovative strategies for procurement, shared services, outsourcings and organisational re-engineering.  In short, when it comes to procurement – especially within the public sector – Cram is the quintessential expert.

Colin Cram: Procurement Insights Chief EU Edition Editor

So what can you expect from the new Procurement Insights EU Edition?

The same leading edge, hard hitting coverage of the procurement world the readers of the Procurement Insights Blog have come to expect and enjoy over the past 6 years but . . . with an EU focus.

This means that we will call em as we see em, and do so in a scrutinizing but fair manner, backed by our usual uncompromising commitment to the highest degree of subject matter expertise and thorough research practices.

What this also means, is that you can count on us to tell it like it is, with the full confidence that what you are reading is on the money.

In closing, and to take a line from one of my all time favorite movies . . . I think that this is the start of a beautiful friendship!  On behalf of both Colin and I, we look forward to serving you for many years to come.

Jon Hansen, Procurement Insights

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The announcement of David Shield’s departure from his position as Managing Director of the UK’s Government Procurement Service will be a shock for many people. Boosting its turnover from about £4bn a year to £11bn a year in 3 years was no mean feat. Even the normally critical National Audit Office wrote what was, on the whole, a very positive report some 9 months ago – and validated the savings that were claimed – almost unheard of. So, what may have precipitated his departure?

David Shields leaving . . .

Much of the business growth was in the wider public sector – not central government. Shields built strong relationships with key players and business has been growing rapidly. It was generally accepted that the procurement agreements provided good value for money – some of them exceptionally good. He was driving through ‘lean’ procurement – reducing procurement timescales and the number of small to medium sized enterprises on its agreements grew rapidly. At the same time he reduced staffing by about 25%. Also, the GPS has started to take on more general procurement activity from some central government organisations. A link with the Research Councils Shared Service Centre to provide a major contracts service looked promising for both parties.

The growth of business in the wider public sector was not matched by that in central government. The NAO report said that there had been complaints from heads of procurement about too little consultation – the agreements were not quite suitable. To me, that sounded like the usual complaints from those who were reluctant to collaborate. Getting agreements that suit takes both parties to collaborate.

Judging from evidence given to Parliament’s Public Administration Select Committee by Bill Crothers, Government Chief Procurement Officer, and Francis Maude, the government minister responsible for the civil service efficiency drive, the expectation is that all common procurement categories will be procurement jointly – through the ‘Crown Procurement Service’ that I proposed to the PASC in January this year and which seems to have generated much interest. The definition of ‘common’ could be very wide. There has been strong opposition to this concept from certain ‘senior mandarins’ and this has even been expressed publicly through ‘unattributable’, anonymous briefings to a journalist for a national newspaper. It may be that Shields was the ritual sacrifice that formed part of the deal to get this accepted.

So, what happens next? Sally Collier will be taking over in the meantime. She is Bill Crothers’ deputy and has an excellent reputation for management. Just as well, as she will be very stretched keeping the show on the road and making sure that the GPS is focused on delivering for central government. She can also be relied on to mend any fences. What about the longer term?  It is not clear if she will be a ‘permanent’ replacement for Shields but, if not, my bet is on Nicola Dunne, head of the joint procurement group (that I founded in 2001) at RCSSC. She has developed a very good reputation and, given the link between her organisation and the GPS, she would seem an obvious choice.

Sally Collier steps in . . .

What about Shield’s future? I have known him for 8 years. He is results driven and I have a high regard for him. His services will be hugely in demand by private sector organisations. He has demonstrated his capability in the private sector, as well as the public sector. He can look forward to more than tripling his civil service salary within a short time.

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“What you are talking about is the utilization of a predictive model similar in many ways to the system featured in the hit TV show Person of Interest.  Quite simply it is a centralized capture and correlation repository which then utilizes advanced algorithms to put an organization ahead of the demand curve.”

The above is a comment I made regarding a recent USA Today article by Jonathan Golovin titled “Big Data’s lessons for old school in new media.”

Golovin talked about the real-time tracking of “spikes in sales . . . at stores in upstate New York,” as a means of turning big data into a proactive tool that would enable companies to “send hyper-targeted, online or mobile coupons” for specific products to customers in a particular region.  However I could not help but smile when he made the personal observation that “Thanks to recent advances in Big Data and expanded retailer data-sharing programs,” he did not think that “these scenarios (or capabilities) are that far off.”

The fact is that predictive models such as these are nothing new, having even been recognized in the entertainment world through the hit television series Person of Interest.

In the show’s storyline the main protagonist – Harold Finch – built an advanced computer system for the government as a result of 9/11.  The system uses the information gleaned from omnipresent surveillance to predict future terrorist attacks.  However, Finch discovered that the computer was predicting ordinary crimes as well.  The government is not interested in these results, but Finch is determined to stop the predicted crimes.

Similar to the capability about which Golovin had written, and taking a page from the Person of Interest show referenced above, there are numerous predictive models being introduced in all phases of our everyday lives.  For example, Rick Shaw from Awareity.com has himself created a version of the system that Harold Finch created in an effort to stop bullying as well as school violence.

Known has TIPS, Shaw’s central repository system leverages a predictive analysis model to identify potential issues before they happen.  Based upon a scientific grid, Shaw claims that TIPS could have likely predicted (and prevented) tragedies such as the Virginia Tech shooting.

The key point is that these models or systems are based upon a capture, correlate and analyze process that is dependent on high speed technological interaction spanning many diverse points of data capture.  In this context the future is indeed now, as we do have this sharing or cross-pollination capability.  The obstacles to realization therefore are not technological, but are the result of the willingness (or unwillingness) on the part of independent stakeholders to truly come to together to share the required intelligence.

Once the relational elements of a collaborative model involving all stakeholders have been established, the not too distant future to which Golovin refers and a TV series suggests becomes reality today.

So here is the question . . . how strong are your organization’s collaborative links with its partners today?  How could the predictive model be used to improve supply chain performance?

In Part 2, I will examine more closely the application of this technological prowess in the world of procurement.  Meanwhile, be sure to check out Person of Interest on Tuesday’s at 10:00 PM EST on CBS.

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