Is procurement a profession?

Everyone performs buying duties on a daily basis.

Purchasing and Supply with Nyasha Chizu

Some of the routine buying duties maybe delegated to children, housemaids and gardeners such as acquisition on a daily basis of breakfast provisions.

In some organisations, acquisition of routine items such as stationery is undertaken by secretaries. In this context, is procurement a profession where everyone can perform buying duties? Procurement is more than buying.

The layman’s meaning of buying is acquiring rights or possession using money for payment. Buying in this context is merely exchanging money for goods. Recently words such as purchasing, sourcing and procurement have been used to differentiate the scope of various acquisitions.

Technically, purchasing refers to acquisition of property that has significant value.

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This is then calls for intensive investment appraisal to ensure that the buying decision is the correct. Such activities therefore require employment of appropriate skills to undertake the activities.

According to Webster’s Dictionary a profession is a calling requiring specialised knowledge and often long and intensive preparation including instructions in skills and methods as well as scientific principles, historical, or scholarly principles underlying such skills and methods, maintaining by force of organisation or concerted opinion high standards of achievement and conduct, and committing its members to continued study and to a kind of work which has for its prime purpose the rendering of public service.

Buying is emphatically a profession in relation to the definition above.

Professional buyers contribute at least as much to the success of their organisations as other professionals in the areas such as marketing, financing and accounting, engineering, and operations.

They provide specialised knowledge in scientific principles of commercial, technical, legal and supplier relationship management to their organisations. In no other profession are the opportunities to contribute greater. The contribution leverage financial, operational and marketing strategies of an organisation.

A seasoned buyer would have undergone intensive preparation both in the classroom and through on-job experience. The skills and methods required combine scientific principles with the art of developing and maintaining relationships.

Buying skills have a historic foundation. It is the oldest profession as engineering according to Genesis on the account of Noah and the Ark.

As with other modern business functions, many scholarly principles on which purchasing and supply are built and derived from economics principle such as demand and supply that is used to determine fair and reasonable prices.

The effects of globalisation and the dynamic nature of our business require continuous improvement of procurement professionals.

The Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply is dedicated in ensuring that buyers are trained and upgraded. The profession is undeniably offering public service.

The impact of professional procurement decisions on business fundamentals such as productivity, cost containment, enhancement of quality are instrumental to organisational competitiveness that enhance national competitiveness as well.

What drives many to regard buying as ordinary in today’s world? Historically, when the profession was developing, the function was typically the sick bay for all institutions.

Failures in other areas of business and notorious employees were relegated to the buying and stores department. Their role was to perform clerical duties.

The situation was sustainable that time because business profitability that time was driven by production departments through superior products.

Later, marketing efforts changed the source of business profitability. Of late, procurement through innovation in management of material costs now drive profitability and sustainability of businesses.

This therefore calls for reorganisation of procurement activities into strategic units to drive business competitiveness. In addition to re-organisation, training is necessary to build procurement capacity.

Nyasha Chizu is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply writing in his personal capacity. Feedback: nyashachizu@harleyreed.com