|
 |
eBUSINESS PURCHASING MANAGER
Camille is 36 and has her MBA. For three years she’s
been in purchasing for a global corporation with
over 14,000 employees. |
| |
|
Camille had been working professionally for several years
when in her early 30’s she got the feeling that
she wanted more dynamism and responsibility in her career.
That’s when she decided to get her master’s,
and over the course of her studies she really fell in
love with all of the aspects of e-business on the Internet.
She found out that so many of the tedious, time-consuming
processes that were boring her in her late 20’s
at work, were no longer even necessary. Things could be
automated and made so much more efficient by taking new
approaches to old problems.
 |
Life in
the Faster Lane
Camille's MBA and fresh approach landed her a great
job in sporting goods manufacturing as soon as she
got her new degree. For three years she's been in
materials purchasing for a global corporation with
over 14,000 employees. Now she's an associate director
and has 8 people on her team in Memphis. They are
a mix of e-business process analysts, materials
specialists, researchers, buyers, and an assistant.
Several of her analysts also have MBAs.
Camille's team buys things all over the world and
has them shipped to manufacturing locations in Europe,
Mexico, China, Indonesia, and Thailand. Some of
the factories are owned by her company. Some are
3rd party vendor operations. It's all very complex,
but that's what keeps it challenging and fun.
|
|
AM Round
Table
It's Wednesday morning and time for Camille's weekly
team meeting. They typically spend the whole morning
on this one. It's a lot of time away from their
desks, but even in the e-business world there's
no legit substitute for good communication, cooperation
and team spirit.
Camille runs the meeting. She gives a few updates
from the execs on the quarter and explains that
the rumors of an acquisition while not completely
false are now moot – e-business as usual. She also
explains that she's learned from the software vendor
that the new upgrade for their procurement system
will be at least 2 months later than they were expecting
so it won't impact their day to day operations at
all until the fall buying season.
Each of her employees then gives a brief highlight
of what they're currently working on and need help
with. Highlights include:
Julia
– Partners in the SportsNet Buying Consortium want
to aggressively push for another 10% percent increase
in discount on their default e-BID RFQs. She needs
Camille to make the change in the profile settings.
Only she has the password with enough authority.
Camille should call Kevin in Omaha or Sarah in Pittsburg
if she has questions.
Ash
– Thinks they can save 700K to 1.3 million per month
if they renegotiate several supplier relationships
in Europe. Different vendors support a variety of
English and Dutch auctions in a new e-marketplace.
It's bound to be cheaper.
Hyong-Ju
– Product Management insists that that the new rock
climbing gear HAS TO BE made of Neumixx. They don't
care how much it costs or where it comes from. Camille
needs to negotiate with the manufacturer to get
an EDIFACT order process in place ASAP. The Ops
VP will not allow any more manual ordering after
the end of this month for any reason and Neumixx
will not be available on any online marketplace
for at least 9 months.
|
|
PM Post
Mortem
Camille spends her early afternoon following up
on her action items from the morning. Some of them
will have to wait until tomorrow, though, because
she has a project post mortem management meeting
with all of the senior directors in her division
starting at 3:00. There's good news and bad news.
The new online RFQ approach seems to be saving 17%
per week in bottom line costs and they were really
only shooting for 15%. But, they hoped purchasing
would be moving 25 to 30% faster and the preliminary
reports are only showing about 21%. It's probably
just kinks that they can work out. Camille just
wants to stay on top of it and keep it humming along.
Oh, and she just remembered! She's got to be in
the office tomorrow morning by 8:00 A.M. for the
Web Services video conference with London and Frankfurt.
She'll have to print out Joerg's long e-mail from
Monday and read it before bed. There's always more
work to do.
|
| |
Learn more about a degree in Business Management |
|
|
|
HOME
ONLINE DEGREES
