Purchasing

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Contractors or Consultants?
May 30, 2007

I've been hearing more and more of companies hiring contractors into purchasing positions, and not relatively simple expediting or transactional jobs, but ones with reasonable amounts of decision making. I'm not sure if this is a good trend or a worrisome one, but it is something that the profession will need to deal with.

I can certainly understand the shift to what some were calling free agent nation a while back. Here, many employees left the traditional job world and set off on their own and as the futurists said, making more money, having greater flexibility, and loving life. While this has certainly been the case for years with software professionals and other technology gurus, it has not necessarily been the case in the world of supply chain management. Most contractors I know (okay, we'll call them consultants for now) do their best to land a permanent gig. Often contracting is a way into an organization and an opportunity to show their long term value.

Yet, according to Marshall Goldsmith in a recent Business Week article on the contingent workforce, the consultant business model may be here to stay.

So what does that mean to the purchasing professional and the companies that hire them? There will be a need for specialization in a specific industry (medical, biopharmaceuticals, durable goods, et. al), a portable skill set, an expanding network of sources and contacts, continued education, and personal expertise to manage one's own business.

Could you make the switch?

Posted by Richard G. Weissman on May 30, 2007 | Comments (0)