Best Practice Procurement in emerging countries- Iselle Dimas 28/10/2011

Procurement in emerging countries, while being boosted in India and other countries of the Middle East still remains one of the weakest link of the Supply Chain in western Africa’s countries.Most procurement heads should by now be meeting with their teams in order to prepare next year’s peak goals as per company’s objectives, reviewing this year’s achievements, setting procurement strategic targets, methodology, outcome and performance plan; all this with a strong flavor of Continuous improvement.

We must be heading for drive for value. Expect to see, instead of heavy internal procedures, lighter but standardized versions to ensure procurement projects are not started without a sound business case, a core part of which should be value delivery. In trying to build a closer relationship with our internal users as well as our suppliers, it is time to focus seriously on better contract management, with timely controlled pre-award phases as well as effective post-award content.

A renewed focus on visibility, Rtp’s standard precise adherence, dashboard reporting and audit would also increase the transparency that Procurement is lacking.In many companies, the vendors portfolios need a sound management turnover and review; we should be sanititizing: reconsidering Supplier relationship management (supplier positioning, customer profile and supplier preferencing matrix) as well as getting a firmer grip on rigorous and detailed performance appraisals follow-up.

Finally, on the team’s side and in order to motivate the troops, raise the service’s image while spreading Leadership awareness, we should increase our competence skills and introduce continuous professional development, continuous improvement and trainings. Let’s get us from buyers to procurement analysts: better technical knowledge, communication with internal customers, negotiating skills, and compliance review applications, using reverse feedback and benchmarking reporting as objectives ways of improving ourselves. Regular reviews and reporting senior, stakeholder support and communication will insure us a golden medal. We might not get by the end of 2012 from the execution to the outstanding point, but it is all about having a Vision: Raising every day our procurement competence to that of the industry’s Best practices standards.