Visionary procurement executive, author, Doctor of Business Administration, fellow of CIPS, Master of Applied Business Research, Master of Technology, is all true of our latest contributor Dr Arafat El Mourad. It is also true that with more than 20 years’ experience in driving supply chain and procurement transformations he’s good value for a procurement opinion or two.
Luckily for us he was on good form when we spoke.
Arafat, what do you love about Procurement?
There are many reasons to love procurement and I will talk about the value that procurement professionals and leaders can bring to their organisation:
Interaction with internal, connected, and external stakeholders, exposure to every single business area within the organisation and suppliers’ ideas, technology and innovation.
Every day you learn something new in procurement or you interact with new people new projects and new technology which create excitement and passion about procurement.
Certification in Procurement such as MCIPS and FCIPS will help and individual move easily between national and international company’s since you have the right practical education and experience.
Procurement can add great value to an organisation impacting their P&L. Also, they can help in ensuring that the project is delivered ahead of time within the budget and with the right quality which makes procurement a strategic department that can drive core business and add great value to organisations.
How did you get into Procurement? Was your perception of procurement different to the reality?
Choosing procurement as a career wasn’t easy for me. I used to be a Head of Technology for 13 years, I moved to procurement as I wanted to incorporate my background along with understanding business needs, and managing end to end requirements, strategy, to become a department that created great value for my organisation. Also, as procurement professionals and leaders, we play a big role within the organisation being able to influence all the purchases and the decisions within the company.
Since I was new to procurement the first message I received from my colleagues was that procurement is about control and cost reduction. I didn’t like this from my business perspective and I started changing this concept working collaboratively with my internal and external stakeholders to deliver the best value. We as procurement professional shouldn’t work in isolation or in silos, we should speak the language, communicate, and collaborate with our stakeholders to ensure the best value is delivered to our organisations.
How has procurement and the expectations placed upon it changed over time?
Procurement used to be a tactical/operational unit just an admin role, however during the pandemic procurement professionals and leaders proved the value that they can offer. Today procurement leaders are progressing in different roles and positions within the organisations. As procurement professionals we need to speak the language of stakeholders, show and deliver the value.
How do you feel procurement is perceived in general? Why is this?
Procurement is perceived in general as admin role but again all depends on the organisation and the procurement leaders within the organisation, it is all about the value that procurement is bringing and communicating to their stakeholders. Procurement is still mainly in the mid management level; we need to show the added value that we can bring to move up the ladder and become a member of c-suite or board of directors.
What should procurement do better?
Procurement should speak the common business language of their business, speaking the language of procurement alone will not help any more, we need to become a partner of choice a trusted partner that can bring solutions and drive value. We need to be better at communicating our achievements in front of the stakeholders.
Procurement wants the proverbial seat at the table. What does it need to do to earn that seat? What can procurement achieve with this seat?
Getting a seat at the table is to gain acknowledgment of success and respect from the executive suite. To earn the seat procurement needs to become more flexible, more stakeholder centric, show and communicate the value that procurement can add and bring to the organisation. Moving procurement from mid-management to executive suite will help achieving better value to internal stakeholders and the business, driving core value and aligning all the procurement services.