Leaping into the Future – Better Have the Right Skills
Plan for the future. Look before leaping in head first, and understand what you need to know to handle constant change. It’s time for procurement to upskill.
The traditional 12 days of Christmas might not start until the 26th of December. But this festive season, we’ll be bringing you the 12 days of procurement Christmas in the run up to the big day. Catch up with the story so far on the Procurious Blog.
“On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…ten Lords-a-leaping.”
With birds, rings, and maids all behind us, we head into the final few days of our carol. You never know what’s coming in the future, so you need to be prepared for any eventuality.
Think about how the recipient of all these gifts would be coping. What skills (if any actually exist) would they need to manage the myriad presents they have received?
It’s a similar situation with procurement, and the future of the profession. The fundamental nature of procurement is changing, and professionals need to be ready to cope. For this, we need to be developing the right skill set for what procurement will look like, not what it is now.
And once we have the skills, we need to know how we, as individuals, can make a difference for our organisations.
Leaping into Action
The traditional skill set in procurement isn’t going to cut it any more. That much is clear. Throughout the year, our experts and contributors have been highlighting the change in skills expected of procurement professionals.
The basic skills of contract management, negotiation, and others, can all be taught. It’s an attitude versus aptitude decision when it comes to hiring new team members.
But hiring managers are looking for a new set of skills. Keith Bird, Managing Director of the Faculty Management Consultants, sees these five skills as critical for the profession:
- Learning Agility – procurement needs agile learners to keep up with the pace of change, or face obsolescence.
- Cultural Awareness – the ability to work with diverse groups of stakeholders, usually in cross-border situations.
- Information Management – knowing which data is good to use, and how to use it in a way that means something.
- Social Media Savviness – where would we be without social media? Procurement professionals need to be comfortable communicating in any medium.
- Creative Thinking – approaching everyday business challenges with an open mind and creative mind set.
On top of this, we need to stop viewing ‘soft skills’ as a luxury. These are generally skills that cannot be learned, but are just as critical for success. And once you’ve mastered these skills, you might even be able to take on the mantle of your team’s MVP:
Change the Skills, Change the Game
If that’s all got you leaping to your feet to sign up for training courses, then great! If you have ambitions to be one of the CPOs of the future, you’ll need to develop a variety of capabilities.
And once you have the skills, you’ll need to know how to apply them for success. Even if you aren’t heading to the CPO arena, you can still make a difference for your organisation. You might not be a ‘game changer’ (and that’s ok), but you can still make a major difference for your procurement team.
Not familiar with the concept? Think Branson, Gates, Zuckerberg – in fact, anyone who has turned a small idea into a major disruptor. We were lucky enough to get the expert view during Career Boot Camp:
Your individual strengths can bring change to your organisation. The beauty of it is that one skill set isn’t enough. To create lasting change, you’ll need individuals all bringing their skills to the party.
And while the party probably won’t include leaping Lords and dancing ladies, it’ll be a celebration of procurement’s evolution instead.
We’re nearly at the end of our 12 Days of Procurement Christmas. But first, we need to have a look at how the logistics of the carol come together. Like the Pied Piper himself, you need to make sure everyone is dancing to your tune.
