Who Am I? Read my card!

There are two kinds of people – those who do the work and those that take credit for it. Try to be in the first group – there’s less competition there.

–Ken Carnes, 2005

Down here in Texas we have a saying “older than dirt.”That applies to people and things. I guess I could fall in to this people category. I have passed the “mid-life crisis” when you can do stupid things and it is alright. I don’t remember it being that much fun. Now they don’t even check to see if I fall in the senior discount category, they just give it to me automatically. I was insulted in my younger years when I was carded for alcohol and club entrance, now I would at least like to be asked if I should get the senior citizen discount for coffee and donuts.

It is interesting to look back on your career. Back when I started to work it was not a career, it was just a job. Women worked for a second income to the family. It let you buy your kids all the things you didn’t have. Then you worked to put them through college. Gee, I don’t think my daughter knew what a student loan was. Valerie taught school for a few years and retired. I am in the “older than dirt” category and still working.

I am a Purchasing Agent for Hagemeyer North America. According to the ISM Glossary of Key Supply Management Terms the definition is: PURCHASING AGENT: See Buyer; Supply Management. The Institute for Supply Management suggests using Buyer or Supply Management rather than Purchasing Agent.

Some of my friends say they are not into titles. If you don’t have a title, what do you put in the box on all kinds of forms that ask for occupation?Now we no longer want to be purchasing agents, we want to be buyers. You don’t know what a thrill it was to get my first business card with “Buyer” on it. You have to remember in the dark ages only top management had a business card with a fancy holder for the desk and even a pretty little case to carry them in. Now you can go online and for $4.99 get 250 business cards printed. Many unemployed professionals are having cards printed. They use titles on the business card like procurement specialist, sourcing analyst or whatever fits their training and experience. It is great when networking at an ISM meeting. All your info is on the card. Our affiliate has members stand at the meeting if they have job openings. This allows people seeking employment to meet with them after the meeting.

Of course companies have rules and regulations on what they will let you put on your business card. Briggs-Weaver was flexible. I put all my certifications on mine:C.P.M., A.P.P., CPP, CPPM, CISCM, CIPTC (look for another blog post on this later). One of the Presidents at BW told me when I ran out of room on the front of my card I could start putting them on the back. No joke, I am working on another one. One of the managers at Hagemeyer tells me I ought to know how to do everything with all that stuff after my name. I am taking it as a compliment?

Back to titles: as a Purchasing Agent, I specialize in the procurement of Hagemeyer’s Corporate Branded Products, products that have their name and logo. I started out with Briggs-Weaver, which was purchased by Cameron and Barkley, which was purchased by Hagemeyer North America. BW moved to Coppell. With the change of companies we are still in the same location and I am still in the same chair.

When BW moved to Coppell, my boss was a retired Army Colonel that had supposedly lived in a foxhole. He detested enclosed areas, unless it was his big office. That is when we got the great open work environment. In my earlier days at Kroehler Mfg. Company, we had a huge open office, four desks wide and maybe 10 to 12 rows to the back. The Purchasing and Inventory Control area was the very back row in this big open office. It was great, I could watch everyone. When the plant manager left his office in the front and started to the back, calling your name, you wanted to crawl under the desk. I did not think I would ever return to this. Now we don’t have jobs, we have careers, we are no longer workers, we are professionals. We still have two outlooks in the business world, open space and cubicles.

Another term that has changed is the terms vendor. Or is it supplier?

Again, ISM’s Glossary of Key Supply Management Terms defines it as such:

VENDOR: A reactive source that delivers specified goods on time. Although this term is still widely used, it is preferable to use the term “supplier” to refer to a source that proactively suggests savings opportunities and improvement ideas.

In the days past, we had vendors that called on us, now it is suppliers. We used to get some free lunches, occasional football tickets, and didn’t think much about it. Now we have our code of ethics. Do any of you remember the two martini lunch?We can’t do that anymore. Which leads me to the next term I’d like to discuss:

ETHICS: A system of moral principles or rules of conduct recognized (and prescribed in the case of a company or organization) as essential to a particular class of actions.

Most companies now days have an ethics program. Most of your professional organizations have a strong ethics code. It is more or less run on an honor system.