In the email version of today’s PurchTips edition entitled Tactical vs Strategic Purchasing, I included the wrong link to the SPSM Certification Success Stories page on our Web site. So I sent out a second email with the correct link and also thought it would be helpful to include a definition of tactical purchasing as the article focused mainly on describing the distinguishing characteristics of strategic purchasing.
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Here’s the definition of tactical purchasing that I included:
Tactical purchasing is simply executing routine administrative tasks (requesting quotes, placing orders, expediting, etc.) on a reactive basis, outside of the context of an enterprise-wide focus, and without pursuing continuous improvement or contribution to specific senior management goals.
Comments
I responded to Mr. Dominick’s email with the tactical purchasing definition with the following. He suggested I post it here.
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Having made my living since the 1960s as a professional purchasing agent, I’d like to add my two cents on the subject of tactical purchasing.
You define tactical purchasing as the clerical tasks involved in handling orders. While the profession has evolved into this, back in the day purchasing also worked tactically with managers by sharing information from the vendors. Remember when we had a lot of manuals, catalogs and reference books in our offices? Remember when the Thomas Register had to be updated to include all those new sources? Well, not only has all that stuff migrated to the web but the managers have direct access to it, too.
You’re describing tactical purchasing as a job for privates and a few corporals. Back before procurement cards, there used to be sergeants and even a few captains involved in the tactical end. You can take the buyer away from engineering, but you can’t take the engineer out of a buyer.
Tactical purchasing is the arena where the sergeants save the majors’ butts fairly often. At the level where I’ve worked for decades, we’re like Scotty on the Enterprise. Sometimes we have to know how to tweak the captain’s orders to get the job done. Without this fluid interface, all of our moves to lessen the clerical function (what you’re describing as tactical purchasing) will just outsource the purchasing to the contracted vendor where someone else will figure out what color option someone else needs.
Strategic purchasing has, from my prospective, often been plagued by people who are convinced that, because they have drawn a line on a map, they have created a road. The poor folks up in State Purchasing in Santa Fe have been recently pilloried for buying a scanner for State Records from the highest bidder (by about $20,000) because they didn’t have time at the end of the fiscal year to evaluate equivalencies. Meanwhile they have done a lot of strategic purchasing, partnering with others to outsource work. The results have been, charitably speaking, mixed.
Every effective organization has an effective resource person getting things for people. I imagine that you have one, too. That staff assistant who you tell to get something you need is a person who might benefit from technical training in how to obtain the best deal with your money, but the cost of the training might exceed the cost benefit to you. You probably trust the person to handle the small stuff well without recourse to formulae. How often do you get competitive bids when your clothes washer at home breaks?
I’ve been in purchasing management for several outfits. I’ll probably stay in tactical purchasing until I retire. The pay is almost as good as the strategic managers, the ability to be a force for change is almost as good, and it’s a lot more fun!
Charles McCoy
Senior Buyer
City of Albuquerque