Procurement on the small screen
26 October 2007 | Paul Snell
Our sister magazine FM World recently tried to boost the credibility of its profession with the mention of Facilities Management of TV shows Casualty and The Sopranos.
Can the procurement profession do better than this? I remember defence procurement being the crux of recent BBC thriller State of Play.
But the best example must be from US legal drama Shark, starring James Woods. In one episode (Titled Fashion Police, if you feel the need to check it out) the crafty lawyer attempted to indict e-mails from one firm’s procurement manager to implicate him in a sweatshop fire. Alas, the company “lawyered up”, and the procurement manager was never seen.
Has a procurement professional ever appeared on screen in a TV show?
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Didn’t Rachel in Friends become a buyer for Ralph Lauren, based only on the fact that she likes clothes? I don’t suppose that counts as promoting the professional nature of the profession.
I recently saw an episode of The West Wing, where a storyline centred around corrupt practices in Government contracting, and although we didn’t see them, the Government’s procurement people did get a mention.
Buyers have tended to pop up in a lot of TV shows. I’m sure that The Apprentice (US and UK) features a few every now and again – again, not promoting the professional side of things of course!