Researching for today’s blog post led to several different topics and themes. Instead of narrowing the focus to a single topic we wanted to look at an assortment of different thoughts and topics that may appeal to purchasing managers at different stages of their career. So let’s jump right in!
Purchasing Supports Local Economy
Collectively, purchasing managers from small businesses can make a huge impact on a local economy. The same is true in many cases of large businesses by themselves. Outsourcing overseas may be the best option, but at what cost do those savings comes? This doesn’t mean outsourcing is bad, please don’t misunderstand. Just wanted to challenge you to maybe look at things differently. Locally owned restaurants often tout locally grown produce on their menu or seaside town boast about having the freshest seafood brought in off the boat that very day. Whatever industry you are in, is there a way to source some things locally? Local pride? You not only support the area where your business resides, but you can benefit by building greater customer loyalty as well.
Purchasing News
Where do you go to keep abreast of changes in your industry? Do you have a favorite magazine subscription? Favorite blog besides ours? Favorite online news source? Here are a couple for you to explore. It’s good to see what is happening in our industry to make new discoveries, be better prepared, and be more knowledgeable in discussions with company executives and suppliers/vendors.
News about National Association of Purchasing Management, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.
http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/national_association_of_purchasing_management/index.html
News about Purchasing Managers published on Bloomberg online.
http://topics.bloomberg.com/purchasing-managers/
Purchasing and Supply Management Conferences
Continuing Education may not be a requirement for your job, but continued education and personal development is always a good idea for any career. If purchasing is your chosen career consider attending some conferences to develop and expand your knowledge. Your business may be willing to pay for you to attend, or you could take the initiative and go yourself, even taking personal vacation days. In the long run, by becoming more valuable to your company, you will be rewarded financially, if not immediately at some point in your career.
Here are some conferences listed on the Institute for Supply Management site:
http://www.ism.ws/conferences/content.cfm?ItemNumber=7175&navItemNumber=22271
Jobs Around the World
We’ve discussed in some recent posts about the willingness to relocate for job advancement. We won’t go into that again here, but check out this site with listings for jobs all around the world. Maybe your dream job is here.
https://jobs.supplymanagement.com/
