Under the Hood: Navigating Leadership Visibility in Procurement and Unifying Organizational Functions

A few years after I had established myself in the profession, I was reporting into a CEO who wasn’t as involved in my role as I wanted him to be. The company was doing quite well, and he had a solid grasp on operations, which is a great quality for CEOs, as a few of them as so far into strategy that they sometimes lose touch with how things really work. Anyway, I didn’t feel I was close enough to him as the other executives were, and thus I sensed I was losing the benefits of that relationship. I’m a believer in “greatness by association” you see, and I stand by the saying, “if you want to be wise, you need to walk with wise men and women.”

Well, this Boss of mine was quite happy with my performance and didn’t feel he needed to do anything more to get the best out of me. every time I walked into his office and wanted to talk about work and hopefully, other stuff, he would tell me to keep doing what I was doing, that he was really impressed with my team’s performance, and that he didn’t need to get into the details of Procurement. While this might have seemed like a vote of confidence, and an excuse to avoid him, I wanted more. In my experience, leaders need to talk to each other often; could this be why your executive team are sometimes in all-day meetings for extended periods? Not all those discussions are comfortable, in fact some of them are quite difficult to have, especially in times when the business isn’t doing so well. People who work together must communicate a lot – good and bad. This is how they get to know and understand each other.

Have you not observed that it is when you are not doing well at work that your Boss wants to be close to you? That is when he/she starts asking for frequent reports and updates. These people don’t like surprises so they want to know early if something isn’t going as planned, so they can report it, and take corrective measures.

So one day I encounter my CEO on the corridor of his office floor and I try to get his attention for an informal session. His answer was the same, all was going fine and he wasn’t worried about anything from my area. At that point, I knew I had to do something desperate, so I asked him this:

“Do you want me to create a problem, so it becomes necessary for you to see me?”

It took a few moments for the import of my words to sink in. His countenance dropped as he contemplated the implications of a failing or non-performing Procurement department, and then he broke into laughter as he understood it was a plea, couched as a joke, to secure his attention. After he regained his composure, he scheduled a few sessions during which I benefited from his vast experience.

This brings me to an analogy I use quite often. Some have criticized it as not being perfect, but that is not its purpose. I merely use it to drive a point home. It’s easier for people to understand something when it’s described in terms they identify with.

A Procurement/Supply Chain department is like the engine of a car. You never need to pop the hood until something goes wrong, or when it requires maintenance. It is not the most important part of the vehicle, though I can argue that it is, but it is the part of the vehicle you almost never have to interact with unless you absolutely need to.

When you have a team that delivers in line with set objectives, keeps costs under control, and its team well motivated and engaged, there is a tendency to almost ignore them. “Why change a winning formula?” the engine however is a critical part of a vehicle and plays a massive role in helping the vehicle serve its purpose. My advice to my colleagues who find themselves in the situation I was in, is to engage directly and find creative ways to spend time with your company leadership. Take them through your work and listen to their experience and advise. You will learn many things and grow in your career. We want our Supply Chain teams purring like the high-performance engines that they are.

Since we are talking about cars, I might as well describe other functional parts of an organization and use that to buttress my point.

I liken Sales/Customer Service to the tires. During an induction exercise for newly joined staff of a company, every Head of Department had to come conduct a session on his/her area of the business and take questions from the new employees. This program lasted for about a week and when it was time for the Sales Director to speak, he walked in and said, “this is where the tire meets the road.” I give him the credit for this representation because he is right. The team tasked with direct interaction with external customers and the trade are like the tires of a vehicle that need to be in constant contact with the road surface to create movement.

The external look, shape and frame of the vehicle would be the Public Relations/Legal department. They carry the responsibility for how the organization is perceived, and they work to make it appeal to the environment in which it operates.

The brainbox or ECU would be Marketing and IT; these functions create the ideas and process the information that is fed to the other functions. Most initiatives begin from Marketing, and when there is a change in customer needs, they are tasked to modify the company’s product offering.

Internal Controls would be the brakes: It sounds like a paradox, but the stronger your brakes are, the faster you can go. If you’ve ever driven a vehicle without brakes, you will quickly recognize this. Internal controls are they to give companies the freedom to pursue their objectives, knowing that there are no leakages or “surprises” lying in wait to trip them up.

Human Resources would be the lubricants that oil the machine and prevent friction from building among the parts that rub against each other. HR does a whole lot more, but in terms of core function in this analogy, this is how I define their role.

The Executive team is the steering or chassis. They determine the direction of the vehicle and absorb the shock of crashes when they do occur. For modern cars, the steering has a good number of the command buttons for many of the vehicle’s functions including the now ubiquitous voice control.

These descriptions are not perfect, but just an attempt to create a picture of how different functions work together to achieve the goals of the organization. For Procurement/Supply Chain, the message is to speak up and not remain in hiding until something goes wrong. Ask to be heard and engage often. This way, you will function optimally, and serve your true purpose.