My Purchasing Center’s Susan Avery writes about findings from the Center’s online survey that “paints a picture–or a profile of the procurement professional today.” This is interesting reading! Here are some of the highlights that are directly quoted:
- The procurement professional today is more likely to be male–67% of respondents are men–and they have a wealth of knowledge. Seventy percent are older than 45 years of age and 80% have worked more than 10 years in procurement.
- Most procurement professionals have experience in other areas of the company: Seventy percent began their careers working in other disciplines. Of this figure, 38% have production experience, 27% worked in inventory control, 26% in engineering, 26% in finance/accounting and 22% in sales.
- Sixteen percent of procurement professionals work in miscellaneous manufacturing; 15% in process industries; 11% in transportation/automotive; 11% in healthcare; 8% in education; 7% in pharmaceuticals; 6% in primary metals/metal fabricating; 6% in equipment and machinery; 5% in financial services and 5% in wholesale/durable goods/service centers.
- Working in such a variety of industries means procurement professionals today are responsible for sourcing all kinds of goods and services. They manage such big general spend categories as office products (61%), MRO (52%), IT (49%), consulting (42%), chemicals (41%), packaging (40%), electronic components (40%), logistics (39%), metals (38%), energy (27%), marketing (24%), travel (22%), labor (19%), HR benefits (16%) and legal (10%), among others.
