Procurement Managers
Plan, organise, direct, control and coordinate the procurement and purchasing of materials, products and services for organisations.
A day at the purchasing desk
You are the procurement manager for a company that supplies food and equipment to hospitals, and several suppliers want something from you today. It is Thursday morning. A contract renewal is due, a delivery has failed overnight and a supplier has offered you tickets to a sporting final. Your day is not going to be routine.
Choose what you would do. Then see what happens. There are often good reasons for each choice.
I wanted to thank you for the work over the year. I have two tickets to the final on Saturday, and I thought you might enjoy them. No strings attached. We are also about to renew our contract, so the timing is a coincidence, of course.
Accept the tickets, since a friendly gesture is harmless between old business partners
The renewal is decided a week later, and your colleagues start asking whether you were influenced. Even if you were not, you cannot prove it, and your judgement is now in doubt.
Decline politely, explain the gift rules and keep the renewal on its merits
Hollis understands and respects the boundary. The renewal is assessed against the other suppliers on its merits. Being clear about gifts protects both you and the supplier.
Accept them but tell your manager afterwards, since you were not sure of the rules
Telling your manager is better than saying nothing, but the right time to raise it is before accepting. Your manager asks you to return them, which is awkward for everyone.
The bread delivery did not arrive this morning, and the patients' breakfast is in two hours. The supplier says their truck broke down. I need bread, and I need to know who to call. Can you help right now?
Order bread from your backup supplier, arrange a courier and tell Dorothy exactly when it will arrive and who is bringing it
The bread arrives in time, but you have not asked the original supplier what went wrong or whether it will recur. You solved today's problem and left tomorrow's open.
Tell Dorothy to buy bread from a local shop and send you the receipt so the cost can be claimed
The shop bread is not from an approved supplier, and the kitchen has no record of its ingredients for patients with allergies. A quick fix has bypassed an important safeguard.
Call the backup supplier for an emergency delivery, confirm the ingredients and ask the first supplier what went wrong
Breakfast is served on time, the safety records are intact and the first supplier knows you are watching. A good backup plan is only half of it, and following up is the other half.
Costs are climbing and I need savings by the end of the month. I would like you to switch all the cleaning supplies to the cheapest tender, starting next week. I do not need a long report. I just need it done.
Switch to the cheapest immediately, because he is the CFO and costs matter
The cheaper cleaners do not meet the hospital's standard, and a ward manager complains. The savings vanish in re-ordering, and you are asked why the checks were skipped.
Tell Raphael it cannot be done in a week, and leave it at that
You protect quality, but Raphael hears only a no. Without a proposal, he looks for savings elsewhere, perhaps in a less considered way.
Show him two options that save money, with the quality checks they need, and the date each could start
Raphael can see the savings and the risks side by side. He picks a staged option, and the checks keep patients and staff safe. Procurement is about value, not just price.
How it went
By evening the patients have had breakfast, the gift offer is declined and the CFO has a plan he can use. Procurement managers hold a lot of trust, because they decide how an organisation spends money on other people's behalf. Would you enjoy being the one who negotiates and says no politely?
This is a simplified, fictional situation to help you explore. It is not professional instruction or a test of your ability.
Case study: The cheapest quote that was too cheap
A fictional case set in the purchasing department of a fictional regional hospital supplies and catering company.
The situation
Procurement manager Ines Carvalho was choosing a supplier for the packaging used by a catering company that fed hospital patients. Three quotes arrived. One was far lower than the others, by a margin that surprised her. The finance team loved it. The kitchen team said the packaging samples felt thin. The cheap supplier also had the shortest delivery time and gave glowing references, though she couldn't reach two of the referees when she tried the numbers.
What they did
Ines asked the cheap supplier for a visit to their factory and a larger sample batch, which they were slow to provide. She asked the kitchen team to test the samples under real conditions: hot food, stacking, transport. She also called a former customer of the supplier she found on her own. She wrote a clear comparison for finance that included the cost of failures, not only the price per unit.
How it turned out
The cheap packaging cracked under heat, and the former customer described repeated late deliveries. Ines chose the middle quote, which cost a little more, with a contract that included quality checks. Finance was not thrilled at first, but the numbers made the case. The kitchen staff told her the new packaging was the first they had not complained about.
What would you do?
- Why did Ines look for a reference the supplier did not give her?
- How would you explain to someone in finance that the lowest price is not always the best?
- What would it be like to say no to a supplier who is also being friendly to you?