Morgan retires
By Staff -- Purchasing, 7/16/1998 2:00:00 AM
On July 1, 1998, Purchasing Magazine's long-time Editorial Director, James P. Morgan, began his retirement.
Morgan launched his career in journalism and publishing after leaving the U.S. Army in 1952. At the age of 22, Morgan (along with his brother) purchased a small Long Island-based newspaper and built a printing plant. Through a number of acquisitions, start-ups, and expansions, the brothers developed the business into a seven-paper news organization.
In 1958, Morgan joined McGraw-Hill as a staff editor on Purchasing Week magazine (which later became Purchasing World). He rose through the ranks at that publication to the position of editor-in-chief. In 1979, Morgan was hired by Purchasing Magazine (of Cahners) as chief editor.
"Jim Morgan was standing at the front of the line when God handed out character, journalistic integrity, writing and reporting skills, and just plain brute insight," says Purchasing publisher Jack O'Connor. "More important," O'Connor says, "over the years, Jim has helped other writers and reporters hone those same qualities. He has been a teacher, mentor, and example to us all. He is one of a kind and I should know; I've worked with the old curmudgeon for 33 years." Says Ernest Anderson, long-time purchasing consultant and co-author (with Morgan) of the Purchasing Systems Handbook: "On the subject of purchasing, Jim Morgan is the best read editor I know. My clients constantly quote his words."
In his retirement, Morgan will remain a contributor to Purchasing. To mark his departure from the daily operations of the magazine, Purchasing asked him to reflect upon his 40 years spent observing the purchasing function and to predict what will change in the coming decade.
"In the past," says Morgan, "purchasing often was regarded as a master shopping activity." Today, he observes, "it is deeply involved in proactive decision making." By 2010, he says, "Purchasing-led supply strategies are likely to be the single-most important driving force in global corporate competitiveness."
A major gain has come in the depth with which procurement people understand manufacturing processes, Morgan says. "Today's managers of strategic supply and sourcing are developing detailed understandings of costs, technology, bottlenecks, and issues of quality. As they develop more of this type of information, they will gain momentum in changing procurement as we know it today."
At many companies, Morgan says, purchasing operations are focusing more on end products and are becoming more closely attuned to cost control and maximization of supplier resources. "The days of the piece-part buyer are numbered. In their places are rising buyers who are constantly nuzzling suppliers for ideas, for better ways to produce components, for ideas about alternatives to components now in use."
As a result of this shift in thinking, Morgan ex-pects that purchasing will con-tinue to assume "greater responsibility for the prudent expenditure of all funds for goods and services, greater attention to suitability of goods purchased, and greater involvement in developing supplier alliances."
Morgan also expects the purchasing function to become increasingly involved at high levels of corporate planning. "As purchasing becomes more strategic in its outlook, it also is driving some profound changes in how supply and suppliers are regarded."
Some examples of where this will lead, according to Morgan:
* Greater involvement in nontraditional purchases.
* Greater integration with both suppliers and internal functions.
* More sophisticated insourcing-outsourcing analysis.
* More sophisticated tools for measuring total cost.
* Better understanding of suppliers' value-added propositions.
"Those who will run the supply strategy of the future will be able to clearly relate supplier power to corporate competitiveness," Morgan says. "They will be those persons who best use the supply-base resource to meet corporate competitive goals."
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