For the past few years there’s been a constant buzz regarding the increased status of purchasing professionals. Yet with all the talk about CPOs taking on new challenges in corporate management and purchasing becoming a hotbed for talent recruitment little actually trickles out when it comes to the actual practicalities of raising the status of purchasing.
Take this case story from the recent issue of Efficient Purchasing magazine regarding purchasing at GEA Group. Some background info: GEA Group is a global technology group with more than 250 companies in 50 countries focused on specialty mechanical engineering. Due to the geographically diversified organization the company established a corporate supply management team in 2005 with direct orders to introduce company-wide purchasing processes and tools.
For years, GEA Group has held an internal process and production innovation contest, where all companies/divisions in the group were eligible to participate. In the innovation-driven GEA culture, winning the award is highly valued; in 2006 supply management won the process innovation contest.
“Ten years back, no one would have expected purchasing to participate, much less to win the yearly process innovation contest”, says Charles Bloch, corporate coordinator of supply management in the Efficient Purchasing article.
GEA Group also runs an internal development program called GEA Academy which now also features programs for staff in purchasing and supply management. With the increased visibility of purchasing due to participation in programs such as the GEA Academy the raise of profile of the purchasing profession has increased within the GEA Group.
