Why the Entire Procurement Profession Needs to Get Social
Tania Seary tells delegates at the Asia-Pacific CPO Forum that procurement needs to get social to drive the profession forward.
Procurement professionals need to claim their rightful place on the Internet, and get social, by actively participating in social media and blogs for the benefit of the broader industry, the founder of Procurious told a conference in Melbourne yesterday.
Tania Seary, who founded Procurious to connect, promote and support procurement professionals across the globe, told the 9th Asia-Pacific CPO Forum that online visibility has several benefits, but that it’s everyone’s responsibility.
Large portions of the procurement profession are working in isolation, unaware that there is a whole universe of knowledge available to help them do their jobs better and learn, Seary told the audience.
In fact, there are more than 2.5 million procurement professionals in the world, but probably less than 500,000 that the industry can readily connect with, she says.
Share, Share, Share
Procurious was launched two years ago as the world’s first online business community dedicated to procurement and supply chain professionals.
“The procurement profession must share, share and share online to build our collective muscle, amplify attention to our impact, and tackle our thorniest issues together,” Seary says.
This can start by simply sharing your social media profile, your business photo, and by broadcasting your everyday successes.
“Think about what it would mean if a newly-minted company CEO who wants to understand what we do, takes the time to Google ‘procurement’ and sees overwhelmingly positive language in their search results. That CEO can’t help but be inspired and energised by the hype and positivity around procurement,” Seary says.
She also urged all procurement professionals to ask questions and share what they don’t know, saying that without sharing the things you’re concerned about, no action can be built, and there can be no moving forward. Giving back to enrich the wider community, by understanding that everyone has something valuable to share is important too, she says.
Big Ideas 2016
The highlights of Procurious’ Big Ideas Summit, held last month in London, were also shared to the 50-strong audience of procurement leaders. Keynote speakers included IBM, Coupa, ISM, Facebook and The Economist.
“What happened in the conference in London was only a small part of the story. What makes Big Ideas truly unique is that it is a digital conference that is amplified to procurement professionals around the globe.”
For example, the #BigIdeas2016 hashtag was tweeted 1,500 times, reaching a potential audience of 4.3 million individuals, all around the world, in just over 24 hours.
“Let me tell you that the message in the room was clear. Procurement needs to think the unthinkable and certainly rethink the possible,” she told the audience.
The UK is now auditing Supply Chain Purity in the fight against slavery, while Social Procurement is on the agenda in Australia.
Get Social Enterprises on Board
Social Enterprise UK CEO, Peter Holbrook, announced at the Big Ideas Summit the ‘Buy Social Corporate Challenge‘, which will see a group of high profile businesses aim to spent £1 billion with social enterprises by 2020.
The founding partners include heavy hitters like Johnson & Johnson, PwC and Zurich.
J&J are taking action and supporting people often termed ‘furthest from employment’, with the ‘Social Impact through Procurement‘ initiative aiming to create at least 150 jobs for these people by 2020.
“Here in Australia, Social Procurement has been a concept we have been talking about, trialling, but the big ideas summit confirmed that this is now firmly on all major corporation’s agenda.
“Not only is this the right thing to do, but this is the sort of thing that the C-level, annual reports and what Procurement could be famous for. So where are we with Social Procurement in Australia? I will be interested to hear.”
