Procurement, supply management conference

Topics:

• Developing and implementing leading edge category strategies
  
• Leading practices in tendering, bid and contract management
  
• Designing and operating multiple supply networks and managing multiple supply chains
  
• Leveraging technology enablers: technology over the next decade and supply executive goals for technology
  
• Developing and managing suppliers, supply base structuring, collaborating internally and externally
  
• Attracting and retaining supply management talent
  
• Managing and enabling the supply management organisation, outsourcing the procurement function, centre led models, measuring organisational performance
  
• Achieving the above and still excelling at achieving preferential procurement (BEE) objectives

The local conference is based on joint research undertaken by the Centre for Advanced Purchasing Studies, the Institute for Supply Management and A T Kearny Inc under the auspices of the W P Carey School of Business at the Arizona State University in the US, ‘Succeeding in a dynamic world - supply management in the decade ahead.'

A number of leading international and local experts will be addressing the conference, among them Nonkululeko Gobodo, the first South African black woman to qualify as a chartered accountant, Walter Johnson, founder of the UK's leading procurement benchmarking service, Elaine van der Walt, head of Group Procurement at Rand Merchant Bank, and Janine Hansby, procurement general manager at MTN.

“This conference is aimed at procurement directors, purchasing managers, commodity managers, supply managers and commodity specialists. Also people who are in charge of procurement from a BEE perspective for their companies,” says Bernie van Niekerk, editor of SmartProcurement and founder of Procurementtips.com.

“These strategies are aimed at saving costs for companies. In some companies, if you do the procurement correctly, you can double the company's net profits. However, in South Africa, we felt it is important that under each of these seven strategies we also address the question how you are going use the strategy to achieve BEE procurement.

In respect of the latter, says Van Niekerk, the conference will be looking at the question whether or not BEE procurement has failed, what strategies can be used to improve BEE procurement in the future, and how companies can invest in black suppliers.