Passion and preparation key to success
Procurement is in the “eye of the storm,” CIPS president Peter Rushton said at last night’s annual dinner in London.
Addressing an audience of more than 400 people at the event in Grosvenor Square, Rushton said: “I’ve been in business for a quarter of a century and never did I dream that we’d be the focus of such media attention as we are now.
“It’s said that BBC Radio 4’s Today programme sets this country’s agenda. That puts us in the eye of the storm. Week after week I hear the words ‘procurement’ and ‘supply’ uttered by John Humphrys and co, and topics such as cost reduction, localism and supply chain efficiencies discussed.”
He highlighted a number of CIPS’ successes including booming membership numbers of more than 65,000, an increase in fellows and a bulging order book for 2011. However, he said: “Our achievements will count for nothing if our profession fails to take advantage of unique opportunity it now has.” Rushton said the future success of CIPS relies on its ability to constantly adapt and perform to the highest standards.
“The global economic crisis has given us a massive opportunity to make a lasting difference. Successful people, organisations and professions prepare for the future – they seize today while embracing tomorrow.”
He said this may involve procurement professionals shaking themselves up a little and doing some things differently – “even surprising a few people”.
After dinner speaker, Olympic medal winner Kriss Akabusi, urged the “CIPS massive” (as he called them) to approach their careers with “passion, pride and a can-do attitude”.
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
![[Bloglines]](http://blog.supplymanagement.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/bloglines.png)
![[del.icio.us]](http://blog.supplymanagement.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
![[Digg]](http://blog.supplymanagement.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/digg.png)
![[Facebook]](http://blog.supplymanagement.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/facebook.png)
![[Google]](http://blog.supplymanagement.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/google.png)
![[LinkedIn]](http://blog.supplymanagement.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/linkedin.png)
![[Twitter]](http://blog.supplymanagement.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/twitter.png)
“Passion, pride and can-do attitude” is inapplicable to regulated economy, say, with government intervention.
Procurement finally got an exposure and appreciation that it craved for so many years. Great achievement! But I have to agree with Felix, I tried to apply ‘passion, pride and can-do attitude’ for last ten years and I failed. I have not lost theses attributes but I know after my experiment that they are constantly stifled and restrained. The thing is I understand now that this is the only way to impose ethics and high commercial conduct on fallible humans.