A reader wrote to me, saying that he had worked for Four large manufacturing companies in UK, and the purchasing bosses of each company were not originally from the purchasing department. Why ? Is there no real promotion path for purchasing managers in UK?

This is a good question. I have contacted with many local companies in recent years and have noticed this. I think the reasons are as follows:

First, the profession of procurement is still relatively young in some countries. Under the traditional planned economy, materials were mainly allocated by the state, and internal coordination was more than external coordination. As the company’s window to the outside world, procurement had a low status and was actually a typical ” purchase”, that is, operations around orders. it cannot attract the best people; because it is “purchase management”, there is no challenge, so it is impossible to train first-class employees. This explains why there are few senior management talents in the procurement field. Especially for those large central enterprises, legality and compliance have always been the highlight of procurement. it is difficult for procurement to make breakthrough, and in the process of maintaining the status quo, it is difficult to cultivate first-class senior management talents.

In fact, the United States has the same problem. When I was studying in a business school in the United States around 1996, a professor said that the procurement department used to be the last resort for (useless) people. The implication is that if you can’t do technology, sales, or production, then go to procurement; if you can’t even do procurement, then you have to quit . This is related to the vertical integration that was popular in American companies before and the low status of procurement. But since the 1990s, with the disintegration of vertical integration and the prevalence of outsourcing, the importance of procurement has increased significantly. In order to adapt to the new role, procurement has to strive for sudden changes, and at the same time many outstanding talents have been cultivated. thus, procurement management in North America has actually developed in the last two or three decades.

Secondly, senior positions such as purchasing director and vice president, especially the position of vice president, are leadership positions. Leadership is more important than professional ability. In terms of professional ability, different functions have different requirements; in terms of leadership, the requirements of each function are similar. This is why a leader with a technical or financial background can manage the purchasing department, but if he is asked to implement specific tasks, he may not be competent. Obama has never served as a soldier for a day, but he can be the commander-in-chief of the three armed forces of the United States. In this regard, there is no difference between Chinese and American companies. In addition, these senior managers can actually get started quickly after three or several months of learning. I have given introductory training to some such senior managers. They understand everything at once and can get started completely in one or two days. After working for several years, they can become experts in the field of purchasing. For us, we should not have prejudices or judge by background.

Third, in terms of career development, don’t stick to one path. With the rapid development of society, lifelong careers almost no longer exist. At the beginning of your career, when you are young, it is beneficial to have more careers and more exposure to related functions. After you have a certain breadth, you can choose a career, work hard, and become a top expert in that field. In North America, some giant companies have job rotation for the same purpose. These companies generally have multiple business units, are geographically dispersed, and have high technology or complexity of products. Multi-functional cross-departmental collaboration is an important way of working. Through job rotation, managers can better understand how related functional departments operate, laying the foundation for them to assume higher management responsibilities. However, the disadvantage of job rotation in such companies is that they only try a little bit, cannot become experts in a certain field, and it is difficult to make substantial breakthroughs, so it is also criticized.