Episode show notes
“If something doesn’t look exciting enough for something they’re going to do for the next 40-50 years in their career, why are they going to bother even trying to get into that profession?”
When the senior procurement professionals end their careers, we need a rich talent pool to whom they can entrust all that experience and expertise.
Who better to ask about the current barriers impeding the introduction of fresh, smart and passionate professionals than those fresh from the process?
On Talent Talks this week we continue our discussions with future procurement leaders around essential skills, barriers to entry, the future of the carbon vs cost equation, data’s prevalence in the profession, and more with 4C Associates’ Celia Downie and Frasers Group’s Arron Woodland.
This episode of Talent Talks covers:
- Ideal skills for success in today’s procurement industry
- Embracing an attitude of transparency and collaboration with suppliers
- How to attract new talent at an earlier stage in their career
- Procurement’s role in leading ESG initiatives going forward
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
“I can remember googling procurement before the interview, and thought, ‘That sounds interesting, I’ll give it a go’. I think most people end up just accidentally stumbling across procurement.” – 2:45 – Celia Downie
“Being able to influence people’s decisions, being able to negotiate with people, it all comes down to the fundamentals of having those social skills and interpersonal skills.” – 9:00 – Arron Woodland
“The agenda is not just cost now. You’re talking about a sustainability agenda, you’re talking about ESG, adding value, and in order to be able to do that we need to build more collaborative relationships with our suppliers. ” – 11:00 – Celia Downie
“There’s a lot of supply chain and finance graduate roles/placement roles, but anything that is procurement specific is very difficult to find. If someone doesn’t have the motivation or the desire to go out and find something that is procurement related because they don’t have the awareness or knowledge of what the profession is, then it’s difficult to then attract people who want to join procurement.” – 14:35 – Arron Woodland
“Especially for people of my age, if something doesn’t look interesting or exciting for something they’re going to do for the next 40-50 years in their career, why are they going to bother even trying to get into that industry, into that profession?” – 19:25 – Arron Woodland
“Procurement and supply chain professionals are gonna be front and centre in delivering businesses objectives around sustainability and net zero and reducing their carbon footprint. Businesses are going to need to know what’s going on with tiers 2, 3, 4 and beyond within their supplier base.” – 27:00 – Celia Downie
“If CIPS and senior procurement leaders don’t improve quickly, I think we’ll start to lose out on the talented younger generation. They’ll miss out on those that’re coming through college, university and school now. There’ll be a gap in knowledge and talent there – the senior professionals at the moment need someone to pass that knowledge on to.” – 35:30 – Arron Woodland
“Real time data, particularly across the supply chain, and visibility will be crucial. More and more we’ll be asked to make data-led decisions, so I think being able to analyse large datasets and interpret them into actionable insights is gonna be crucial for the job role going forward.” – 38:20 – Celia Downie
Links & References
- Celia Downie, Senior Consultant at 4C Associates
https://www.linkedin.com/in/celia-downie-99088a125/
- Arron Woodland, Junior Commercial Operations Manager at Frasers Group
https://www.linkedin.com/in/arron-woodland/
- Martin Smith, Founder & Director of Talent Drive
https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinsmith2009/
