Blog / Cindy Rittel
Blog/
The One Where Friends Taught Procurement How To Negotiate
The six main characters in Friends may have given us a lot of laughs over the years, but they can also teach procurement professionals a few things about the fine art of negotiation. In this article, we look back on seven episodes in which Rachel, Ross, Phoebe, Joey, Chandler and Monica showed procurement what to … Continue reading The One Where Friends Taught Procurement How To Negotiate
4 Ways Procurement Can Work With Start-Ups and SMEs
Size isn’t everything when choosing suppliers. There’s a poignant scene in The Lord of the Rings in which the Elven Queen Galadriel turns to Frodo Baggins, a frightened young hobbit, and gently reminds him that ‘even the smallest person can change the course of the future’. Against all odds, and to the dismay of many powerful … Continue reading 4 Ways Procurement Can Work With Start-Ups and SMEs
How to Explain Procurement Using a Christmas Turkey
Still struggling to explain procurement to your friends and relatives? This festive season, why not put it in easily understandable terms – using your Christmas turkey? “So, er … Cindy – what is it you actually do?” It’s the holiday season, which means that at some point you’re likely to find yourself making small talk … Continue reading How to Explain Procurement Using a Christmas Turkey
Closing the Procurement Talent Gap, One GPO at a Time
How do you recruit and retain top talent in procurement? You need to go beyond what’s possible for any one person and leverage the power of communities and technology. If you ask a classroom of children what they want to be when they grow up, you may get answers like “astronaut,” “football player,” “doctor,” or … Continue reading Closing the Procurement Talent Gap, One GPO at a Time
Could Group Purchasing Organisations be Procurement’s Endgame?
Procurement’s fight for strategic recognition could be seen as a fight for its very survival. Could it be time to assemble around a collective idea before the endgame starts? Have you heard the one about procurement being outsourced as a function? Where organisations finally tired of not getting the value they need and hand over … Continue reading Could Group Purchasing Organisations be Procurement’s Endgame?
What Literature and Film Teaches us about Savings
The theme of money is a very common one in the world of books and film. So what can our favourite fictional characters teach us about increasing our savings? It’s not too much of a stretch to suggest that procurement can learn a lot about saving from literary and film characters. Money is a common … Continue reading What Literature and Film Teaches us about Savings
How Procurement Professionals Can Look Like Rockstars
Will procurement ever achieve ‘rockstar’ status within an organisation? It’s an idea that hasn’t gained much traction in the past. But help may be at hand from a new source. Despite the profession’s best efforts, the terms ‘procurement’ and ‘rockstar’ are uneasy bedfellows in a sentence. When you picture a rockstar – Keith Richards, Dave … Continue reading How Procurement Professionals Can Look Like Rockstars
Captain Planet, Power Rangers, Voltron … and Procurement
A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, but the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. It’s time for procurement to consider a procurement strategy angle it has never thought of before. “Earth. Fire. Wind. Water. Heart. Go Planet!” “By your powers combined, I am Captain Planet!” If you were … Continue reading Captain Planet, Power Rangers, Voltron … and Procurement
Out Of Savings Ideas? Here’s How To Unlock A New Level Of Buying Power
If you feel like you’ve exhausted every avenue for finding cost savings, a Group Purchasing Organization could be the answer to your challenge. There’s a gripping scene in the last chapters of Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days where the ever-dapper hero, Phileas Fogg, finds himself on a steamboat from New York to … Continue reading Out Of Savings Ideas? Here’s How To Unlock A New Level Of Buying Power