Purchaser gets bite of the Apple
Steve Jobs must be one of the most famous and admired businessmen in the world.
And having stepped as chief executive of Apple on a temporary leave of absence due to medical problems, his choice of successor has been closely scrutinised.
But I only discovered yesterday that Tim Cook, previously the electronics firm’s chief operating officer, has a procurement background.
It is perhaps not surprising considering his role at Apple involves responsibility for the group’s supply chain, one of the most heavily scrutinised and respected globally (it ranked first in 2008 in AMR Research’s Top 25).
Before joining Apple Cook was vice president of corporate materials at Compaq responsible for buying and managing the IT company’s inventory.
The appointment of a purchaser to such a senior and high profile job in worldwide business could be a huge boost to the profession, demonstrating it is possible to reach the top via procurement.
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Isn’t purchasing supposed to be backroom and boysclub operations?They don’t get into other areas of teh business.(sarcasm)
I wish I had known this when I had walked into the interview for my current position. The look on the one of the panel member’s face when I said that I saw procurement as cross functional and should be able to contribute to the organisation beyond just landed cost savings and therefore move into for operational management for those qualified/experienced – he almost fell off his chair at the thought someone for purhcasing would think outside the warehouse.