Corporate objectives that are basically departmental characterised by short time scales of approximately 12 months are derived from the organisation’s mission.
Purchasing and Supply Nyasha Chizu
The mission, a realistic aim over a reasonable time scale, normally reviewed every 3-5 years is derived from a vision.
The vision therefore, defines the aims and aspiration of the business.
In order to achieve objectives, relevant strategies need to be developed and perfected to ensure departmental objectives are attained.
Profit driven organisations’ corporate goals may be, but not limited to increasing profitability, developing the business, staying independent or safeguarding the organisation’s future.
Public sector goals may include achieving improvement and value-for-money in public service, promoting democracy and or political objectives of central government, promotion of certain values or causes such as racial equality, gender equality or indigenisation as is in the case of Zimbabwe, or promoting people through health, social care, civil protection and emergency services among others.
The key roles, characteristics and objectives of the procurement function with respect to implementation and development of corporate strategy, for industry, commerce, public service or third sector must be SMART in that they are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound.
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This shall be achieved by ensuring that procurement strategies, as far as possible, are in harmony with the time lines and objectives of the corporate plan.
In simply, procurement plan must be in line with corporate plan in order to manage mismatching time scales of availability, implementation and financing.
Where such incidences are unavoidable, it is critical to draw the attention of relevant departments in the organisation for a wholesome solution to manage such eventualities.
To formulate appropriate procurement strategies, procurement professional must understand their environment both internal and external.
The impact of the external environment assessed by an analysis of PESTEL harmonised with the business capacity from a SWOT analysis is a must in relation to procurement function.
Sound purchasing techniques can be adopted if the purchasing manager can considers the wind from the external environment and match it with internal capability to crafting strategy to deal with the matters at hand.
This provides procurement with a strong opportunity to influence corporate behaviour.
Procurement staff must have the capacity to analyse corporate plans in such a way that they are able to generate objectives and opportunities for the purchasing department.
This is only achievable is procurement staff posses sound commercial skills which can be of benefit to the organisation as a whole. Modern business trends have seen sourcing being achieved through joint ventures, outsourcing and public private sector partnership that need economic evaluation from a procurement perspective.
In general, procurement staff must be supportive of change where it can be seen to benefit the organisation in the private sector or the nation in the public sector.
Change is the only constant and many procurement policies and procedures in use today are outdated, prompting procurement professionals to lead the procurement transformation process.
Above all, effective communication is critical for the success of any strategy.
To achieve linking procurement strategy to corporate strategy, procurement personnel with the right qualifications, experience, who belong to a school of thought that promote professional procurement are necessary to drive the critical function.
Nyasha Chizu is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply writing in his personal capacity.
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