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3 career Has your career lived up to your expectations? 2. Engaging stakeholders
questions If not, it’s not too late to make a change. You just
to ask your need to be asking the right questions. For far too long our profession has operated in what I will call the
boss…now! “zero-sum game” vacuum. This is the belief that in order to win,
If you could turn back time? someone else has to lose.
Jon Hansen When you sit across the table from your prospective boss, you
If you could go back and start all over again, would you choose need to determine if win-win is a vague sentiment without any
Global Procurement Broadcaster, procurement as your career, knowing what you know now? real substance, or if they really understand the new dynamics
15,000 listeners worldwide per month associated with building relationships based on collaboration and
50 per cent of people that have been asked this question indicate transparency.
“When you sit across the table from that they would have made different career choices. Were all of
your prospective boss, you need to these people asking their prospective bosses the right questions 3. Change and the future
determine if they really understand during the hiring process?
the new dynamics associated with Asking your prospective boss to provide you with their take on how
building relationships based on These are the three questions I would ask a prospective boss. the industry and profession will change may seem like a catch-all,
collaboration and transparency.” Remember, it’s never too late in your procurement career to ask pie-in-the-sky question that is more likely to produce a perfunctory
them. The responses could surprise you and, perhaps, give you a response, as opposed to eliciting meaningful insight.
Love this article? renewed enthusiasm for your chosen profession. However, if the answer you receive stands out from the same old
Share with your contacts via Procurious! generalisations one usually hears, you will know it. This is because
1. What is your view of technology, especially in relation to its role it will reflect an attitude of new possibilities – an attitude no longer
in the procurement process? held captive to the traditional views of what our profession and
industry is about.
2. What is your approach or process for engaging key This last question walks the talk of the first two. The answer you
stakeholders, both within and external to the enterprise? receive will legitimise the response for the first two questions.
Without change – or an understanding of what needs to change –
3. What, if any, changes will we see in procurement in the next improved stakeholder engagement and the proper assignment of
2 to 5 years, from both an individual professional standpoint, technology is not possible.
as well as collectively?
P10
The answers you receive to these questions will reveal the true
attitudes and values of your boss and the organisation as a whole.
1. The technology question
If your prospective boss is heavily invested in making technology
the primary focus of their efforts, then you’re in trouble. You are
likely to find yourself relegated to a supporting role, as opposed
to having a leading role, in the organisation’s procurement
strategy.
While technology can play an important role in automating the
procurement process, thus freeing up valuable time, it will not get
the entire job done. Technology requires people with an ability
and desire to openly collaborate with key stakeholders.
