Why did I choose to be a buyer?

24/03/2021
1272 | 0
Isaev Nazim
Essay

This profession is very young. The last century in every enterprise there were specialist that implemented procurement activities and were called technical specialists or engineers. They performed various tasks related to calculating supply requirements, finding the necessary material solutions, establishing contacts with suppliers and much more. And as a result, they began to be called Buyers.

Significant evolution has taken place over the past decades. As the history of the buying profession shows, before the role of specialists was reduced to a supporting or service function, sometimes they were called back-office. Unfortunately, the buyer's work was often not taken seriously, and this trend can still be traced. But the world does not stand still, and recently, buyers are increasingly required to work at a high strategic level. Today, there is a tendency to introduce procurement directors into the top management of the company, and without them important strategic decisions are not made. So far, this is not a mass phenomenon, but the trend is already encouraging, and I would like to hope that it will continue. This factor is one of the most important in the changing role of procurement in business. Therefore, I want to develop the profession of a buyer and therefore develop myself in it, as well as be one.

It should also be noted how important professionalism and understanding of the essence of the purchased goods, works, services are. For example, materials and services need to be procured in different ways, in different ways to evaluate suppliers' proposals, to prepare technical specifications in different ways. This is especially evident when purchasing services. After unsuccessful attempts to purchase services according to the same principle as materials, conversations begin that the buyers do not understand anything, do not know, and destroy all ideas and ideas. As a result of such activities, business and internal customers complain: buyers only interfere, slow down, want to buy the cheapest and everything in the same spirit. The same is heard from suppliers and the market: as soon as buyers intervene, due to ignorance and lack of professionalism, they cannot evaluate ideas, creativity, the adequacy of services, it is just normal to compare services. That is why in such discussions one should insist on separating apples and oranges. It is impossible to classify all buyers as those who interfere with doing business. There are just unprofessional buyers who do not dive into the details and essence of the issues. This is another reason why I want to be in this area and in the future show by example that buyers are not a necessary part of logistics or business.