Ghost of Christmas Haunting Procurement
Once upon a time when Ebenezer Scrooge was asleep he was haunted by Ghost of past, present and yet to come, so that he can learn some lessons from past, understand his present and enjoy the spirit of Christmas. On the next morning when Scrooge woke up things changed for him. The once miser, shrewd, cold-hearted creditor transformed into a new man with love for the spirit of Christmas and for the people who not just cared and worked relentlessly for him but also never thought bad about him.
But this story is not about Scrooge. It’s about our dear ‘Procurement’. Let’s see what happens when these three Ghost of Christmas decide to haunt ‘procurement’!
Ghost of Past
A small elderly figure, took procurement in its dark past, precipitating the memories of times when there were no traces of procurement as a department. When everything was manually controlled and was subjected to errors and delays. Instead of acting as center for savings, ‘procurement’ acted as more tactical and not had seat at the tables . The ghost from past made procurement realize that things were worst so there was no benefit in mourning about losing old ways and cribbing about the fact that old ways were more beneficial than the present ways.
Ghost of Present
A humble well-built figure with a life span of one day, called himself the ghost of present visited ‘procurement’ showing the current scenes of procurement. Procurement now has taken a shape. It is a department which is just not limited to procurement of men and material but now also sees opportunities in boosting market coordination, introducing new suppliers, enabling better compliance, increase in capacity and speed, minimize risk and increase in trust by removing human error. But ghost of present also shows that if things remain unchanged in procurement, future will be stale. People will find loopholes in system and commit fraud. Data security will be at risk and procurement will yet again come under constant pressure of performance. As he says this, a ragged boy and girl crawl out from the Ghost’s robes. The Ghost calls them Ignorance and Want and warns procurement to beware of Ignorance. Ignorance can kill.
Ghost of Yet to Come
The silent dark clad, shows Procurement several scenes of people discussing shutting department; no one seems pained by it, and most are happy about it. Procurement still wonders, who the man is. It learned that organization had made huge loss on savings and in no time understood what made people breathe a sigh of relief. He expresses the hope that these scenes of the future can be changed, and vows to incorporate the lessons of the past, present, and future to accept the new technology. Promised to equip people with better procurement tools and solutions for future that will hold savings and bring prosperity.
This Christmas, I hope that as ‘procurement’ learns its lesson by Ghost of past, present and yet to come, we as responsible procurement professionals take solutions that not only save our present but can deliver the promise for better procurement future.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!
