Episode show notes
“The single biggest barrier to entry for getting young people into procurement is a lack of knowledge of what it even is.”
Young professionals entering today’s procurement world will be leading our industry into an age led by sustainability & social value, so what’s the experience like for future CPOs, and how does it need to improve?
To answer this key question, Martin is joined this week by three of the brightest new procurement professionals, Tesco’s Lead Procurement Manager, Josh Banks, England Rugby’s Procurement & Supply Chain Lead, Sophie Morton, and Procurement Officer at Wellcome Trust, Olivia Donovan.
This episode of Talent Talks covers:
- Current routes into procurement, and barriers to entry
- The variety that makes the profession so rewarding
- Skills needed to thrive in a successful procurement team
- PR and image issues with the industry
- Sustainability’s growing prominence as a factor that’ll appeal to talented new procurement professionals
This episode of Talent Talks is sponsored by 4C Associates – a leading European procurement and supply chain consultancy, who work collaboratively with forward-thinking clients to deliver real business value across a wide range of transformation and cost optimisation service offerings. Visit https://www.4cassociates.com/ for more information.
Episode highlights
“At Primark I was part of the supply chain process, but a minute part purely based around products. I wanted to know more around the larger process.” – 3:00 – Sophie Morton
“I was applying for a graduate scheme at Tesco, a different one to the one I’m on actually. I just saw this word on the side of the page: ‘procurement’. I didn’t know what that word meant, so I clicked on it, read the job description, and I thought I’d give that a go.” – 7:28 – Josh Banks
“You have to be able to get on with all your stakeholders, but also sometimes be the bad guy a little bit in terms of negotiating contracts. So you have to really be comfortable with talking to people that are in a variety of different positions, and also using a lot of different skill sets.” – 11:05 – Olivia Donovan
“I think the single biggest barrier to entry for getting into procurement and getting young people into procurement specifically, is a lack of knowledge of what it is.” – 18:30 – Josh Banks
“The only time that I’ve noticed people have a bit of an awareness around procurement and supply chain, who aren’t in the industry, is probably during COVID, with supply of masks and the ship in the Suez Canal. That was the only time it came into general conversation with people realising that a lot of things kind of fall down without it.” – 20:40 – Olivia Donovan
“Procurement is amazing. I’ve been fortunate to be in it from a recruitment perspective for 14 years, I’m very passionate about the industry. I think it’s the most varied job you can get in our economy. Yet you look at some of the text and PR behind it; I think it’s dull, and I think it’s outdated.” – 30:15 – Martin Smith
“It’s far more inspiring and exciting to sit and listen to someone talk about their career history and the challenges they’ve overcome, the fun stories and the bad stories, than to read a piece of paper with a graduate scheme written on it. I know which one I would rather sit and listen to, and probably be prompted to apply to something from.” – 37:55 – Sophie Morton
“People want to get involved and they want to make a difference. There’s a huge generation out there where that’s what they’re striving to do, but it’s not always obvious what jobs that you can do that in, and ours is definitely one of those.” – 43:35 – Sophie Morton
“There will come a point where organisations have to decide for short, medium and long term, whether cost savings or the sustainability agenda needs to take priority. Where those two things complement each other, happy days. But they don’t always complement each other – getting to net zero is going to cost money in the short and medium term.” – 48:55 – Josh Banks
Links & References
- Josh Banks, Lead Procurement Manager at Tesco
https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-banks-7b8bb487/
- Sophie Morton, Procurement & Supply Chain Lead at England Rugby
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophie-morton-b8b32a92/
- Olivia Donovan, Procurement Officer at Wellcome Trust
https://www.linkedin.com/in/olivia-donovan-6313061a3/
- Martin Smith, Founder & Director of Talent Drive
https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinsmith2009/
