Procurement Generalists are Better than Specialists 🤔
And How Regulation will dominate what Procurement Does
Hey Procurement Legends,
My mind is in the realms of regulations, legislation, and tech at the moment. I’m the most optimistic about the future of procurement. It’s incredible.
One of the reasons I’m optimistic is because of Procurement Tech companies like Procurify. When I was in the midst of my high-volume work of taking requests through to POs, hundreds per week, I lacked a decent tech solution to do that. I wish I had Procurify in place to help me with that process back then.
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5 Strategies for Cost Reduction and Value Creation in 2024
Learn how best-in-class procurement leaders are leveraging the right technology to streamline operations, reduce costs, and improve the effectiveness of their purchasing.
What I'm Reading
I’ve been convinced for a long time that the ultimate power in one’s career is being a Generalist.
I came across a Bill Gates article - you know, the ones where he critiques books. He noted that he read a book title “Range” by David Epstein.
“In a world that increasingly incentivizes, even demands, hyperspecialization,” he writes, “we … need more Rogers: people who start broad and embrace diverse experiences and perspectives while they progress.”
Then I found this particular phrasing of the highest interest, especially as an individual who has been working with mental models seriously since my college/undergrad days.
“I believe that one of the key reasons Microsoft took off is because we thought more broadly than other startups of that era. We hired not just brilliant coders but people who had real breadth within their field and across domains. I discovered that these team members were the most curious and had the deepest mental models.”
I will be bringing back the mental model series this year. It was the most fun series I wrote last year but it takes up a huge amount of time. When this series releases, it will be for our paid community members (I serve you first ❤️).
So it’s safe to say that I’ve bought Range, and will be looking to read it and bring more thought out content about Generalists Versus Specialists to you soon.
Get the book here (#amazonaffiliate)
PS. Have I told you about my rule when it comes to buying books?
What I'm Thinking (about Procurement)
Regulation.
Yeah, I know, it sounds boring, but my prediction is that much of what procurement does moving forward will be dictated by regulations and legislation.
Areas that we are responsible for:
Supplier Data Protection
Cyber Risks
ESG (this covers many areas)
Circular Economy
ICT Safety and Vulnerabilities in the Supply Chain
All of these face an increase in regulations worldwide, much of which emanates from the EU but is so broad it’s easy to capture you in its net. We need to improve at picking up these regulatory requirements and flowing them through our supply chains.
One Procurement Tech Focused Insight
We need to see more AI product demos in real time. I’ve seen swathes of Procurement Tech companies talking about AI but not many are actually showing it (I’ve got some amazing videos on this coming out real soon). And when they do show it - it’s a animation or not shown in real time.
If AI is going to support Procurement Teams we need to be able to play with it, without instruction, and it needs to help instantly. The ROI has to be obvious.
TBH, you could say that for any Procurement Tech, not just the AI components of it.
One Piece of Content I've Found Useful
Another wonderful piece by
from
My Procurement Reading List
Check this out here - make sure you get one of these books.
ICYMI
I did a Deep Dive into Building a Procurement Personal Brand for the Paid Community here:
![Build a Procurement Personal Brand [Guide + On-Demand Webinar]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!GVip!,w_140,h_140,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-video.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fvideo_upload%2Fpost%2F141494136%2Fc4a28887-1759-4d3d-adbb-d84b2b8ee3fb%2Ftranscoded-00001.png)
How you can Support World of Procurement Elsewhere
Take our Contract Management Course for Beginners
Digital Products (mostly free)
Thanks
Daniel
Any feedback on this is welcomed.
PS. Want to sponsor? Email me here: content@worldofprocurement.co.uk
PSS. Make sure you sign up for this! I’ll be there too.
5 Strategies for Cost Reduction and Value Creation in 2024
Learn how best-in-class procurement leaders are leveraging the right technology to streamline operations, reduce costs, and improve the effectiveness of their purchasing.