The fine readers of this fine site are well aware that the CEO of the world’s best known (and most beloved?) company, Tim Cook CEO of Apple used to a be CPO.
Our readers, who are all loyal (and quite good-looking, I should add), are also aware that Steve Jobs Understood Procurement’s Importance to Apple’s Success.
These charming professionals also know that Tim Cook isn’t the only former CPO to rise in role, stature and responsibility. There’s Scott Singer….. and Mark Roenigk
The wise (but not hardened) readers of this site may also remember that we predicted this trend at the dawn of this site.
The industry-leading (and never tardy) readers of this site also know that CPO Rising has spent the past five years chronicling the rise (and evolution) of the Chief Procurement Officer and sharing the top strategies today that we hope will advance the CPO and the procurement function well into the future.
Today, however, we look back and highlight a our first GREAT MOMENTS IN PROCUREMENT HISTORY
1. The Trojan War (1194 B.C.–1184 B.C.) – The Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans (Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus king of Sparta. After nine long and bloody years, Troy fell when the team down in central receiving accepted a large wooden horse without any internal documentation, much less a Purchase Order. The horse was filled with Greek soldiers who burned Troy and won the war. According to Homer’s Illiad, there was no Advance Shipping Notice (ASN) and the Bill of Lading simply said “The Greeks dedicate this thank-offering to Athena for their return home.” In modern times, a “Trojan Horse” now refers to the supplier strategy of surprising a buyer by bringing a huge sales team to a negotiation.
2. The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire (27 B.C. – 476 A.D.) – The Roman Empire (Latin: Imperium Romanum) was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterized by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings around the Mediterranean in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Because of the Empire’s vast extent and long endurance, the institutions and culture of Rome had a profound and lasting influence on the development of language, religion, architecture, philosophy, law, and forms of government in the territory it governed, particularly Europe, and by means of European expansionism throughout the modern world. Rome also had an extraordinary influence in the development of the first CPOs, more commonly known as Gladiators today. As punishment for public works projects (i.e. Aqueducts, Stadiums, etc.) that had huge overruns caused by poor supplier performance, these CPO/negotiators were transformed into combatants. According to wikipedia, different gladiators specialized in different weapons, while the CPOs as a group decided to forego weapons, choosing instead to rely on their wits to survive. Sadly, none did.
3. Magna Carta (1215) – The charter is widely known throughout the English speaking world as an important part of the protracted historical process that led to the rule of constitutional law in England and beyond. The 1215 charter required King John to proclaim certain liberties and accept that his will was not arbitrary—for example by explicitly accepting that no “freeman” (in the sense of non-serf) could be punished except through the law of the land, a right that still exists. Clause 58 decreed “public procurement a right of the state and tax-payor [sic]” and suggested the appointment of a country-wide “Chief Purchasing Baron [sic]”, something that was done a scant 796 years later.
4. First Commercial Business is Incorporated (1347) – The alleged oldest commercial corporation in the world, the Stora Kopparberg mining community in Falun, Sweden, obtained a charter from King Magnus Eriksson in 1347. When translated from its native Swedish into English we find that “Stora Kopparberg” means “Purchasing Must Become Supply Management,” an idea plagiarized centuries later by noted consultant and lesser-known plagiarist, Peter Kraljic.
5. Gutenberg Printing Press (1439) – Gutenberg’s invention of mechanical movable type printing started the Printing Revolution and is widely regarded as the most important event of the modern period. It played a key role in the development of the Renaissance, Reformation, the Age of Enlightenment, and the Scientific Revolution and laid the material basis for the modern knowledge-based economy and the spread of learning to the masses. Gutenberg’s press would have been impossible were it not for the work and innovation of Han Chinese printer Bi Sheng or this procurement pilgrim. Ironically, the largest benefactors of this invention today are accounts payable departments who are awash in paper invoices. Hiyo!
6. Einstein’s Better Theory of Relativity (1907 – 1915) – Einstein postulated that C = PO^2 or in layman’s terms – When a (C)hief is assigned to a (P)rocurement (O)ffice, the returns are exponential!
7. Stephen Hawking Starts Procurement Blog (2010) (click to view) – “Very strange but very true.”
“Very strange but very true” is also what I expect most will say about today’s April 1 article – well, maybe not the “very true” part.
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