Professional Development Archives - Page 6 of 21

Rising to the procurement challenge: a story of talent and technology

Leave a Comment / Professional Development, Technology, Tools / StaffWriter

Procurement has a key role to play in driving business efficiency in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. To maximise its impact, research points to the fact that investing in the skills of people, especially leadership skills, will be just as important as keeping up with advances in technology. Kumeshnee West, Director: Executive Education at the UCT […]

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6 steps to optimise your procurement workforce

Leave a Comment / Professional Development, Service Outsourcing, Smart Sourcing, Supplier Management, Supply Chain Management SCM, Tools / StaffWriter

To become more agile, organisations are re-evaluating their workforce strategies. Although strategists often talk about ‘total workforce management’, what their business functions – procurement included – need most is something much simpler: total workforce optimisation (TWO). For most business functions, human capital is the most important asset and its largest single operating expense. It is

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Ronald Mlalazi (FCIPS) appointed MD of Commerce Edge

Leave a Comment / Procurement Leaders, Professional Development, Talent Watch / StaffWriter

Commerce Edge South Africa has announced the appointment of Ronald Mlalazi (FCIPS) as their new Managing Director. He succeeds Bernie van Niekerk, who, after 18 years leading the business, will now focus on Commerce Edge’s international business expansion. Mlalazi joins Commerce Edge‘s team of country heads from Australia, Africa outside of SA, and soon-to-be-established USA.

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Skills and characteristics of a successful global procurement manager

Leave a Comment / Global Sourcing, Professional Development, Supplier Management, Supply Chain Management SCM / StaffWriter

Call it ‘purchasing’, ‘procurement’, ‘supply management’ or ‘sourcing’, the role of procurement within organisations is changing significantly. Purchasing departments are, at last, moving from reactive to proactive, responding to management’s demand that they add value to an enterprise rather than retain their traditional role as cost centre. Consequently, the procurement manager of today needs to

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Securing supply chain talent: think outside of the box

Leave a Comment / Professional Development / StaffWriter

It happens to all of us at some point… you get all of the way through your recruitment process – the approval to hire, sourcing, interviews, assessments and the offer – only to lose a hard-to-find candidate at the last hurdle. Such a last-minute loss could be owed to a number of factors: a better

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Can procurement create jobs? #youthmonth

Leave a Comment / Commentary, Procurement Training, Professional Development / StaffWriter

As we leave #youthmonth behind and move into July, it is a good time to consider the difference that procurement can make in the lives of South Africa’s youth. In this month’s SmartProcurement, Heilet Bertrand, Marketing Manager, Institute for Futures Research, University of Stellenbosch, takes a look at what procurement can do. Youth Day (16

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The CPO agenda: the procurement team and CPO of the future – will you be ready?

Leave a Comment / Procurement Strategy, Professional Development / StaffWriter

Given the rapidly changing business environment facing all industries, the role of the procurement function and specifically the Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) will need to adapt and change. Will you be ready for the future? A panel at the Smart Procurement World Western Cape Conference grappled with this very question. Having leaned on procurement to

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Importance of logistics in supply chains: a micro perspective

Leave a Comment / Category Management, Logistics, Professional Development / StaffWriter

Today companies face increasing levels of competitive pressure and challenges to maintain and improve profitability. There is also increasing pressure from customers and shareholders, necessitating that managers seek ways of reducing costs, while at the same time improving performance. In a series of SmartProcurement articles, Tafara Svosve (Msc Supply Chain Management; CMILT) will focus on

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Building effective procurement teams: the struggle is real

Leave a Comment / Procurement Training, Professional Development / Editor

The conversation around talent shortages in the procurement space has been going on for five to ten years now. Greg Tennyson, CPO at VSP Global, has come to realise that the real problem is not the lack of ready-to-go procurement talent, it is the hiring managers’ inability to see a future procurement professional in a

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Procurement perspectives: No magical solution when it comes to ethics policy

Leave a Comment / Professional Development, Public Sector Procurement / Editor

Canadian ethics bylaws and policies, are relatively pedestrian compared to our American counterparts. In the United States, municipal ethics ordinances often extend to campaign finance (contributions limits and public financing of campaigns), laws regulating lobbyists, open government or “sunshine” ordinances, as well as highly detailed rules relating to gifts to public officials. Stephen Bauld, a

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Professional Development