Why Note Takers Make Great Procurement Leaders

Are you a diligent note taker? No? Well, the more senior you become in procurement, the more important taking good notes is going to become.

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For many people note taking can often seem like an unnecessary activity. A waste of pen and ink for information you are rarely, if ever, likely to re-read or rely on in the future. Many of us have pages and pages of notebooks, pads and folders filled with scribbled words and half sentences that made sense at the time but are now completely unintelligible.

And yet, what do Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Thomas Edison, Florence Nightingale and Leonardo da Vinci all have in common? They are/were all leaders, all achieved success in their chosen fields and, helping to make our point, they consider note taking to be one of the most important habits a person can have.

Branson has been quoted as saying that, “an idea not written down is an idea lost”, while it’s estimated that Edison wrote over 5 million pages of notes in his lifetime. And whether it’s on pen and paper (perhaps surprisingly Gates’ preferred medium), or digitally, getting in the habit could be a key to your own success.

So, whether you have been an avid note taker in the past or not, it’s a skill you should really be working on if you are aiming to scale the heights of the procurement profession. Here are our thoughts on why note taking is a good habit, and why it’s so important the more senior you get.

1.   Be an organised leader

Taking notes in meetings not only helps increase your attention span (and we all know that meetings can drag sometimes), but it also helps with your information preparation and recall. It’s well known that taking notes or the repeated writing of information helps cement facts and data in your memory.

Procurement’s role in an organisation is becoming more complex at the same time as it’s becoming more relied upon. Taking notes in meetings means you have something to review after the meeting and information to hand when the CFO comes knocking, looking for savings information or setting new strategic objectives for your team. 

Good notes will also mean important discussion points are all covered and the working agenda is kept on track. This means key resources, like people’s time, are used more effectively and productively, meaning they can spend more of their working day on actual procurement business, rather than sitting in meetings.

The more senior you are, the more important this skill will be in order to stay organised and play your part as a member of the senior leadership team.

2.       Know your role

Procurement leaders will have a number of ‘hats’ they wear on a day-to-day basis – leader, manager, supply chain manager, buyer, strategic analyst, direct report to a CFO or CEO. The more hats CPOs wear, the more organised they must be to keep track of key points. Activities and actions are attributed to the correct ‘hat’ and leaders are always able to know what needs to be followed up on, and who needs to be spoken with or reported to. 

Good notes make you more organised and reduce the risk of something important being missed. Procurement wants to build its reputation as a trustworthy and reliable strategic business partner – good notes mean that reputations are burnished by getting things right the first time.

3.   Know your team

The higher up the ladder you ascend, you will naturally have more people reporting to you, either directly or indirectly. Good notes are critical in stakeholder management and building stronger relationships with employees, peers and managers. They, in turn, make you a better leader and manager too.

Strategic relationship management will be improved as notes will make you an active, rather than passive, listener. It will show both your team and the senior managers that you are taking an interest in what they are saying that you are up to date with all their key tasks and milestones. Then if anything needs reported back or escalated, you will have the information you need to support your team accordingly.

Notes will give you something to refer to ahead of your next meeting with your stakeholders and ensure you have completed all the actions assigned to you. Notes will also help to reinforce decisions you have made and key actions you have taken. This may be crucial when it comes to high risk activities or any HR-related issues in your team.

4.   Sell your success

Procurement has made great strides in moving from a traditional, transactional role to one that is more strategic. Even still, there will remain a requirement for the profession to prove their worth to key stakeholders and C-level directors by sharing successes. In these meetings procurement leaders may only have a short time to deliver reports, so it’s important to be sharing the right information that shows procurement in the best light.

Notes will help you summarise the information, capturing what the C-level want to hear, emphasising key points and keeping them clear in your mind. Notes will help to keep your delivery short and succinct – after all, no-one wants to listen to an essay when success stories can be delivered in a few short sentences.

After that it’s just about developing your own executive presence and becoming a great storyteller so you can make sure people listen to what you have to say.

5. Avoid legal disputes

The final point on our list, and perhaps the most important, relates to the critical nature of good notes when conducting tenders. It may be overlooked, but good notes may reduce the likelihood of legal disputes or challenges to tender awards and accusations of improper behaviour during the process.

Notes are important throughout the process, but particularly in two key stages. Firstly; to record your interactions with suppliers at all stages of the tender, in particular when answering clarification questions and for any verbal communications so you have an accurate record of who said what and when. 

Secondly; when tenders are being evaluated. Procurement and any other stakeholders involved in the decision-making process should have detailed notes of internal discussions, reasons for scores and enough information to back up any award decisions. Suppliers may challenge contract awards based on the justification for scores and notes can help to provide evidence of this.

A case in point, providing a warning of poor notes, was the award of health services by Lancashire County Council to a private provider over the county NHS Trust. The Trust challenged the award on failure to apply the correct scoring criteria and a failure to explain its justification for evaluation scores. The UK Courts found in favour of the trust, with the judgement highlighting the lack of evidence (notes) for scoring the bids as they were. 

The Council were forced to re-run that part of the tender with the outcome that they awarded the contract to the successful supplier again. However, coming to the same decision cost the Council a significant amount of time, money and resource, not to mention the reputational impact, for the want of good notes from its procurement team. 

Key points to remember

Procurement professionals need to know just how important it is to take – and keep – good notes. They will help to develop and advance your practice as a leader and manager, improve your recall, and make sure you always have the right information at the right time.

Just a couple of important caveats here for you to remember though:

• Note down the important information only, rather than taking down everything that’s being said. Notes are no use to you if they are too long for you to want to go back and read them again.
• Find the style and flow that works best for you. Whether it’s bullet points or headings, give yourself the best chance of finding that important information when you need it.
• Read and note again. Rewriting notes will give you a chance to update or alter them, keeping the key points and cementing them in your mind.