Today's Wall Street Journal features a piece on the late Russell Ackoff, a management philosopher who seemed communicate wisdom with wit that reminds me of Mark Twain.
What strikes me about Ackoff's wit regarding doing "wrong things righter" vs "right things wronger" is the application to today's purchasing and the question "have organizations introspectively understood are we doing the right or wrong thing and are we doing it well or poorly?". In reflecting on our consulting efforts with buyers and buying organizations, organizations experienced in both severe price rises and declines and depending on the situation some felt elation with performance but many time followed by long periods of discouragement. At this time I'm not convinced that ingredient managers have learned much. Maybe part of the issue is simply the lack of time necessary to introspectively answer the questions "what did we do that was right?", "what did we do that was wrong?, "did we execute poorly or well?", "at the company level, did we achieve what we intended to achieve?". Potentially the biggest gap in answering these questions comes down to accurately defined company goals and correctly translating the same expectations, incentives and reporting requirements to purchasing.
Today we stand in between historic jolts and shifts in the continental plates of the commodity world that are moving based on changed paradigms including government policy, energy, economy, currency changes all in addition to the normal weather and growing issues. The next big moves may be just around the corner. Are procurement organizations prepared to do the right things righter or will they continue to do the wrong thing wronger or worse yet the wrong things righter? Will they do the same thing and hope for different results? The time for introspection and alignment of purchasing goals with the organizations goals is always now, before the next shoe drops.
Read at WSJ.com
A Management Philosopher With Heady Ideas About Beer
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125789690177942463.html
Jeff Koenig is the Director of Commodity Ingredient Sourcing and Management for Connell's Purchasing Management Consulting Practice.
