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Direct Materials (Career) Fortunes are Made During Recession

December 15th, 2008 · by Pat Furey · 7 Comments · LCCS and trade, Services Procurement, oil/energy, skills rectruitment and development, sourcing, supply management, supply market dynamics

Even in a very dour employment market, there are always bright spots. As the saying goes…fortunes are made during recessions. So, tremendous volatility in commodity prices and a recession provide a HUGE opportunity for direct materials procurement professionals to make their career “fortunes”. The buyer’s market conditions provide obvious strategic and savings opportunities for procurement organizations. But I hadn’t really considered the career opportunities for people in the trenches until I heard a very savvy professional connected the dots at Spend Management Day in Atlanta.

In our conversation after my presentation, this individual told that after a long career in direct materials procurement, he recently made the switch to handling indirect spend. While my slides emphasizing the pronounced drop in raw materials prices didn’t change his immediate career plans, he lamented that now would actually be a GREAT time to be back in the world of direct materials. After years of being beaten up over commodity prices, the tide has turned and there are savings to be had. And I think everyone can agree…it’s a good time be able to save your company money.

This is the time when careers can be made. This market provides tremendous opportunity for sourcing and procurement professionals who can safely steer their companies through the volatility in the commodities markets.

Can you save your organization money? Can you minimize the risk of supply chain interruptions? Can you help your key suppliers weather the storm (and thus solidify your relationship)? If the answer is yes to those questions - and in this market it really should be - the opportunity to prove yourself as a savvy, critical member of the organization is tremendous. Smart employees who are instrumental to their company’s success during difficult times will reap the rewards. If you want to climb the ladder and bolster your resume, now is the time to act.

Pat Furey is a Senior Category Manager in Ariba’s Global Sourcing Organization. Pat leads the team of US based category managers covering direct materials and indirect goods and services.

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7 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Tim Minahan // Dec 15, 2008 at 6:26 pm

    Pat:

    Excellent point. Now is one of the best times for procurement to showcase its talent and get involved with the company’s strategic agenda.

    That said, macroeconomic factors that suggest that it may be better to make this impact in certain industries over others. Specifically, the latest edition of BusinessWeek argues that the so-called “intangible industries” (e.g., healthcare, education) offer greater opportunity for job growth now and in the future.

    “In the past downturns, the industries that continued to add jobs during the recession often became leaders in the next expansion,” writes BusinessWeek.

    If this holds true this go around, job seekers should set their sights on healthcare and education. BusinessWeek’s evidence: industries producing or distributing goods (e.g., construction, manufacturing, retail, transportation) have lost 1.8 million jobs since the recession began last December. Meanwhile, these “intangible industries” added 500,000 jobs to their rolls.

    In addition, as a group, education and healthcare firms lag more industrialized sectors in spend management maturity. So there should be ample opportunity for skilled procurement professionals to make a big impact at these firms.

  • 2 Purchasing Certification Blog // Dec 15, 2008 at 7:18 pm

    I agree, Pat. Now is a great time.

    One thing that has to be approached cautiously is the claiming of cost savings as a “look how great I’m doing.”

    Over the past couple of years, I’ve seen purchasing professionals (often successfully) defend their performance by showing that, even though their organization’s prices went up, the market went up also. So some of the price increases weren’t “charged” against the cost savings reported.

    The same philosophy will apply in deflationary markets. If you don’t get all the blame for price increases in an inflationary market, you better not try to take all the credit for price reductions in a deflationary market.

    Execs are smarter, in part because of how purchasing professionals educated them during the commodity price run-up. Don’t expect them to forget that.

    However, beating the market will always reflect well on the purchasing professional, so that should be a goal in times like these.

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