President's Article Initiating Supply Management Excellence By Beatrice S. Wiest, C.P.M., President NAPM-Orange County, Inc.

March was Supply Management Month. The theme adopted by National was “Helping Build Better Business and Government”. As part of the National observance of this month’s theme, various board members and committee chairpersons attended the Los Angeles dinner meeting held on March 7th, 2002 to meet Paul Novak, Chief Executive Officer of the Institute for Supply Management (formerly NAPM). Mr. Novak spoke once during an executive session held from 5:30 to 6:30 and was the keynote speaker discussing “Recent Changes at ISM and the Future Direction of the Organization.”

Some excerpts from his presentation:

The NAPM is 87 years old and we have seen many changes, the major changes is that we need to move from transactions to strategy. We are currently viewed as a pyramid with a hierarchic from top to bottom: Top— Senior Management; Middle—Management and Bottom—People who do the work. The current “Purchasing function” is populated by People who do the work, unfortunately, most cost savings are searched for by reducing the “people who do the work”. Our profession is viewed as a transactional base by upper management.

To move from tactical to strategic we could borrow from National’s 2001-2006 Strategic Plan

1. Strive Toward World Class professionalism
2. Expand our Association’s value to those in the Supply Management Process
3. Promote member participation, encourage diversity, provide affiliate support
4. Increase membership (Budget allocated is 1.4 million plus 4 full staff members at the National level.)
5. Ensure ISM has the proper structure and governance for the future.

We need to review what we do by using the following criteria, “If it does not create value to you, why do we do it?”

Create a strategy for implementation with a focus on “Value creation as a measurement of accomplishment”

Name Change:
The Purchasing Managers Index that is reported on a monthly basis on the news, will now be known as the PMI Index (redundant as Purchasing Managers Index Index?)

International News:
ISM has incorporated in Canada. Hong Kong is an ISM affiliate.
There are more C.P.M.’s in Korea than in the entire world. Our most world exposure is at the C.P.M. certification level.

Death knoll for some of the affiliates was also mentioned by Paul Novak, 30 to 50% of affiliates will fail in the next three (3) years because of lack of leadership. Orange County has always enjoyed a strong volunteer commitment, but I must admit, some of us are getting tired of being recycled. Won’t you please volunteer to help with our affiliate?

Two new studies initiated by CAPS
CAPS, the Center for Advanced Purchasing Studies, is conducting two new studies that will help you and CAPS. If the studies sound interesting to you view the e-link shown below.

1. Do you want a better understanding of your services spend? If you answer ‘yes’ to this question you should consider participating in the new CAPS Research Study titled “Benchmarking your Services Spend”. This is no cost to participate. Contact us at webmaster@capsresearch.org for more information.

2. You too can benchmark your company’s purchasing performance against world-class organizations. The studies were are now working on are Appliances (major), Banking, Beverages, Chemical, Diversified Foods, Electronics, and Petroleum. For more information about benchmarking opportunities, contact us at webmaster@capsresearch.org.

Local News: At the April dinner meeting we will be conducting elections for the three openings on the board to replace directors whose terms will expire at the end of June.

We are very lucky that six very capable individuals have volunteered to run for the open positions on the board. If you are unable to attend the April dinner meeting and vote in person, please click HERE to view candidate information and a further link to View/Print an absentee ballot.

All absentee ballots must be signed and forwarded to the NAPM-OC office no later than 5:00 p.m. Pacific Daylight Savings Time, on Wednesday, April 17, 2002. Your vote really counts! Please contribute to the selection of the Board of Directors members.