You’ve no doubt heard the term “change for change’s sake.”

Beware of how others might to try to apply it to your Procurement operation.

This challenge stems from a classic good news/bad news situation.

Good news: Procurement’s profile is quickly rising and many companies now consider Procurement to be one of the most important jobs in the company.

Bad news: That means everyone wants to throw in their two cents, and you’re getting buried under a pile of pennies.

This situations stems from the perception that Procurement isn’t capable of meeting the demands on its own, that there’s an underachievement problem.

What happens next? All those penny pitchers rush in, insisting change is the way to success. Change this! Change that! You’ve probably heard your share of it. The end result in many of these cases, unfortunately, puts Procurement in an even worse position than before — and you take the blame.

The problem with that is the people promoting change aren’t familiar with how Procurement works now and how it should work, to achieve the expected results.

Your path to success is paved with patience and persistence. This means being a team player, and pushing hard to get a seat at the table when these changes are being bandied about. Come prepared with statistics, especially ones that show improvement in key procurement functions (accurate orders/shipments; time-saving techniques; consolidations, etc.)

By demonstrating what actually works, it’ll be easier to keep execs from straying down the wrong path. It’ll also show them (if not immediately, certainly in the long run) that you’re the best in-house expert to run this show.

And that’s just where you want to be — it guarantees that change will be worthwhile and significant.

Tags: accurate orders, procurement, shipments