While our last article, Making Music, was based on a real-world scenario (huge disconnect between two groups in large company) that I recently experienced while working with one client, the article was more conceptual in nature. Many enterprises (both large and small) could do a better job communicating goals and objectives, but also communicating priorities, key activities, and major plans. Communication and trust are critical to gaining alignment or improving collaboration.
Procurement departments in enterprise (especially large ones that lack a good level of organizational communication and cohesiveness) have the unique opportunity to draw different constituents into conversations and serve as communication and collaboration hubs.
Procurement interacts with so many different internal constituencies that it could serve as an executive mouthpiece and amplifier of corporate strategy and direction. Chief Procurement Officers, in particular have the corporate standing, access, and general presence to share and explain corporate strategy to different groups and individuals that are more focused on other issues. But procurement also pulls together different groups that may not otherwise ever interact – certainly the focus of the project team should be on the specific project goals; but the next time a new project that includes different stakeholders kicks off, consider giving five or ten minutes to one stakeholder group to explain their organization’s structure, mission, main activities, and MBO-objectives. At the next meeting, it’s the next stakeholder’s turn.
To make music, the left hand and the right hand have to be on the same page; procurement can help keep the beat.