Purchasing is really a good job. It is said that the purchase of big factories will be changed every few years.

After nine years of purchasing, every time I mentioned in my circle of friends that I was doing purchasing, without exception, someone would give a thumbs up and admire and praise: "Purchasing is a good job! Awesome! "

Yes, this is what I want to do before I join the purchasing pit from a engineering male. Think about it. You take money out to buy things, and when people see you, they have to provide it to you like an old man. Wherever you go on a business trip, you will have delicious food and drinks, and if necessary, you will have tacit filial piety. How chic and comfortable this day is!

But now, if someone gives such praise again, I will only respond silently with "hehe" and even have no interest in explaining. Why not explain? Because interlacing is like a mountain. After so many years of middle management, I looked down at the grass-roots people sweating like old Niu Gengdi, looked up at the high-level people who tried their best to live like Qiu Chan, and heard that the grass-roots people felt comfortable and comfortable in the high-level work, and the high-level people felt that the grass-roots work was hard but not tired, which made me understand the truth that "your ass determines thinking"-your ass didn't sit in that position and didn't do the work in that position. Therefore, I generally maintain a rational respect for my colleagues in various positions-just because of the hardships that I may never think of.

Back to the topic of purchasing. In foreign countries, the status of "procurement" has been gradually recognized by people in the wave of development for more than 20 years-whether it is its key role in enterprises or the degree of professional knowledge reserve required by procurement practitioners-procurement is no longer labeled as "buying things with public funds, sitting south and facing north, being alive". Unfortunately, in our country, most people's understanding of procurement is far from this level. It can be said that in addition to professional procurement personnel, most people's understanding will actually stay at the primitive and backward level.

Of course, it is ok to make purchasing work the envy of everyone. Personally, you only need to meet the following conditions:

(1) The company you work for is big enough, with good reputation and huge business volume-so all supplier resources will gather around you and will do business with you by hook or by crook;

You are an irresponsible person-so you don't have to care about what rubbish you bought with your boss's money;

Your colleagues are all idiots or in cahoots with you-so no matter what you buy, no one will find fault with you.

Please remember that the above three conditions are indispensable. If there is no ①, then you will instantly change from an uncle to a grandson; If there is no (2), then I want to say that it will not be easy for you to do any work responsibly; If there is no (3), then you will live a life that is worse than death all day.

Ok, having said that, what is the current purchasing? What kind of role is the so-called procurement in this era? If you want to understand the characteristics of the purchasing profession, you must understand the uniqueness of the purchasing function:

First of all, procurement is the only functional department in the enterprise organizational structure that takes external personnel and organizations as the main working objects except sales/marketing;

Secondly, procurement is the only functional department in the enterprise organizational structure whose main work behavior needs to spend the boss's money.

Let's see what this means.

Let's talk about the first point. This is a topic involving the concept of generalized ability. The ability in a broad sense comes from two aspects, namely, self-ability and organizational strength. The meaning of one's own ability is well understood and not under discussion; And what is organizational power? For the general enterprise employees, the organization is simply your enterprise. Through its organizational structure, it gives you the administrative power of this position-this is also the source where the general manager can govern and restrain the department manager, the department manager can govern and restrain the department employees, the administrative department can govern all the employees of the company in the administrative field, and the financial department can govern all the power of the company in the financial field. This organizational strength is introverted, and beyond the scope of the company, its effectiveness will disappear. It can be predicted that it must be ridiculous for the general manager of our company to exercise administrative jurisdiction over the buyers of supplier companies or customer companies.

So, what should purchasing practitioners do to suppliers (similarly, sales/marketing practitioners to customers)? Can only rely on personal ability? Not exactly. Of course, personal ability will be upgraded to a higher level than other positions here, but we still have extroverted organizational support. This extroverted organizational power is the first of the above three conditions, that is, the scale, business volume, goodwill and reputation of the enterprise you work for.

Generally speaking, scale, business volume and goodwill can be measured as one dimension (or one axis) of extroverted organizational strength, while reputation can be measured as another dimension (another axis). This sentence means that either your company can provide high business opportunities-which means that suppliers can get more profits from you; Either your company is in a very good position in the industry, even if people supply you in reverse, they can benefit from huge intangible value-for example, Apple asked our company to provide 20 coffee grinders for its employees to use in the headquarters office building, even if this transaction is only a one-time transaction and the price remains low (even at a loss), I am afraid our company will be happy to cooperate with him. Because "Apple chose our company's coffee grinder" and "every elite of Apple will be familiar with our products", this huge intangible benefit has already exceeded the benefit of that little commodity sales. And if the department store near my home makes the same request, maybe my company will think he is crazy or send him directly to our dealer. Therefore, for a procurement practitioner, extroverted organizations are undoubtedly equivalent to the importance of equipment to the army and the importance of nuclear weapons reserves to the country. An IBM buyer who goes out is definitely more valuable than a buyer who goes out for a small and micro enterprise like me. A business owner will not work hard for you in order to get a profit of 5000 yuan from you every year-especially when they don't value your development potential.

In short, procurement can't manage its own work objects through internal organizations like other departments; If it happens that your external organization is poor, congratulations-the tragic figure of the year was born.

Then let's talk about the second point-what is the concept of a department whose main work behavior requires the boss to pay? As we all know, from the layman's point of view, most other departments of the enterprise, such as production, sales and engineering technology, are making money for the enterprise, while the purchasing department seems to be spending money for the enterprise. We raise this perspective to a higher level, which can be further sublimated and interpreted as "most other departments of the enterprise, such as production, sales and engineering technology, obtain positive benefits for the enterprise through labor or intellectual efforts", while "the purchasing department exchanges the capital of the enterprise for more cost-effective products, which is a negative throttling function". In the traditional concept of China people, I can tolerate that you will not make money; But you took my money and squandered it. Dad will fight! Go to hell! You! Yes!

Therefore, it is common in enterprises that it is difficult to define whether it is reasonable or unreasonable to spend a few more minutes on manufacturing a product-so in some enterprises with relatively backward management level, such problems will be ignored, and no one is willing to spend too much energy to consider how to turn these extra minutes into fewer minutes; But if 0.5 yuan spends more money on purchasing a part, it will be judged by three courts-cost, finance, and the boss will not let you go-even for companies with low management level, the boss will keep a close eye on purchasing expenditure. On the other hand, if the buyer buys a similar product from 0.5 yuan with less money, but the quality has some defects, it will also be examined by the three courts-quality, production and boss will not let you go-you must honestly explain whether you sacrificed the product quality for low cost or even illegitimate interests?

In fact, we all know that adding a few minutes of working hours and increasing the purchase price of a certain part will bring the same result to enterprises-rising costs. People are willing to pay attention to the latter, because the latter is easier to measure with money, and the latter represents a trading behavior. The transaction represents the exchange of interests, and all participants in the transaction are distributing interests. It is difficult for people not to think about whether there is an uneven distribution of interests.

In this situation, the position of "procurement" has been simplified, vilified and ashed too much-because China has been thinking this way for five thousand years, and people who take money to do things are the most greedy. In this context, let's look at how procurement should be done.

Daigou is Party A's agent when buying and selling between Party A and Party B, and it needs to get as much profit as possible from Party B to achieve Party A's low-cost goal. At the same time, it is necessary to control this measure well, so as not to let Party B have enough to eat, thus reducing its quality and service level; At the same time, the procurement is also under the internal supervision pressure from Party A-Party A always hopes that the lower the price, the better the quality, and the procurement can never make a profit from it (more precisely, it can't be "thought" to make a profit from it). It can be seen that purchasing is an art of weighing, choosing and protecting oneself, and a good purchasing needs to achieve the cost/quality target of Party A at the same time. Achieve Party B's profit target; Achieve the fair performance goal of Party A. ..

I often meet colleagues and ask me: Why do you always think about suppliers? I said yes, I just want to consider suppliers-to be precise, I want to consider suppliers without harming the interests of the company. A biased person only regards me as a supplier, while a wise person should understand that I am actually seeking a win-win situation. Now is an era when supply and demand are basically balanced. Gone are the days when supply exceeds demand and suppliers crawl all over the floor. This is an era of two-way choice between supply and demand and the pursuit of matching. An entrepreneur who starts his own business and makes a deal with you-whether as Party A or Party B-must pursue interests. A purchase excessively squeezes the interests of suppliers for the benefit of the company, so the final result is split. In the end, the supplier just lost sales, and he got a broken supply chain and the associated risks of its repair. Therefore, the procurement cost 1 yuan and 2 yuan are often not the best, but 1.5 yuan is.

A friend once told me that purchasing is to be a grandfather outside and a dog at home; What about sales? At home, you are a grandfather, and when you go out, you are a dog. Unless you work in a company with a high level of cognition, it is certain that purchasing is a dog at home-even if you are not like a dog at the operational level, you are more like a dog who spends money to do things in the eyes of others; Moreover, the above description also shows that it is not necessarily the truth that I shop outside. What I want to say is that the procurement of small and micro enterprises like us has nothing to do with "good work". It is good to work with dignity.

Finally, I would like to sum up what is a "good career" procurement, especially the procurement of small and micro enterprises. This is also a sentence I use to warn myself every week that I will turn against my soldiers every few months:

When purchasing (especially small and micro enterprises), we must adjust our mentality to the same as that of waiters. You must satisfy your internal customers (that is, the enterprise demand department) before they will recognize your work achievements; Also make external customers (that is, suppliers) satisfied, so that they will support you to achieve more work results; Finally, let yourself be satisfied-don't just lose your dignity and bottom line, so that you can recognize yourself and motivate yourself to achieve more work results.

Daigou is not my grandfather, but my eyes are full of dad.

As for whether the procurement work is good or not, it's not up to you.

I only think that purchasing is not suitable for people with low IQ, nor for people with low EQ. It is not suitable for cunning people to do it, nor for honest people to do it.