A comprehensive and admirably unconventional guide to corporate procurement.
A manual explains how business leaders can positively transform an organization’s procurement strategy.
According to Hustwick, a well-functioning procurement team can have a major impact on the overall operations of a company: “The leverage and impact a high-performing procurement team can have on an organisation are huge if the team has the right processes, technology and custody of its external spend.” In fact, successful procurement can increase a business’s overall competitiveness as well as its shareholder value. But procurement is often an undervalued part of a company, demoted to the third or fourth tier in a management structure and often considered a service provider rather than a fully integrated part of an organization’s priorities. The author furnishes a remarkably detailed plan for the transformation of a procurement team that begins with gaining the endorsement of the CEO and includes establishing an overarching strategy. Hustwick manages to condense a complex set of recommendations into an accessible plan, one represented by a “transformation wheel” that is subdivided into the six main target areas of procurement, including strategy, resources, executive sponsorship, process, technical skills and technology, and communication and reporting. The author’s analysis of procurement and its potential for transformation is impressively straightforward—his counsel is thorough but is presented in under 100 pages, often helpfully illustrated with various graphics. He covers an astonishing expanse of ground with great clarity—sourcing processes, cost reduction, and personnel, among many other subjects, and some issues are centrally significant today, like supply chain assurance. Hustwick’s expertise is never in doubt—his 25 years of experience at a major global corporation are evident on every page. This book will primarily be of interest to procurement specialists. But given the significance the author convincingly assigns to procurement, it should also be helpful to a general audience of business leaders.
A comprehensive and admirably unconventional guide to corporate procurement.Pub Date: Oct. 27, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-228-86270-3
Page Count: 94
Publisher: Tellwell Talent
Review Posted Online: April 18, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Perhaps not magic but appealing nonetheless.
Want to get ahead in business? Consult a dictionary.
By Wharton School professor Berger’s account, much of the art of persuasion lies in the art of choosing the right word. Want to jump ahead of others waiting in line to use a photocopy machine, even if they’re grizzled New Yorkers? Throw a because into the equation (“Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine, because I’m in a rush?”), and you’re likely to get your way. Want someone to do your copying for you? Then change your verbs to nouns: not “Can you help me?” but “Can you be a helper?” As Berger notes, there’s a subtle psychological shift at play when a person becomes not a mere instrument in helping but instead acquires an identity as a helper. It’s the little things, one supposes, and the author offers some interesting strategies that eager readers will want to try out. Instead of alienating a listener with the omniscient should, as in “You should do this,” try could instead: “Well, you could…” induces all concerned “to recognize that there might be other possibilities.” Berger’s counsel that one should use abstractions contradicts his admonition to use concrete language, and it doesn’t help matters to say that each is appropriate to a particular situation, while grammarians will wince at his suggestion that a nerve-calming exercise to “try talking to yourself in the third person (‘You can do it!’)” in fact invokes the second person. Still, there are plenty of useful insights, particularly for students of advertising and public speaking. It’s intriguing to note that appeals to God are less effective in securing a loan than a simple affirmative such as “I pay all bills…on time”), and it’s helpful to keep in mind that “the right words used at the right time can have immense power.”
Perhaps not magic but appealing nonetheless.Pub Date: March 7, 2023
ISBN: 9780063204935
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Harper Business
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2023
Career and business advice for the hashtag generation. For all its self-absorption, this book doesn’t offer much reflection...
A Dumpster diver–turned-CEO details her rise to success and her business philosophy.
In this memoir/business book, Amoruso, CEO of the Internet clothing store Nasty Gal, offers advice to young women entrepreneurs who seek an alternative path to fame and fortune. Beginning with a lengthy discussion of her suburban childhood and rebellious teen years, the author describes her experiences living hand to mouth, hitchhiking, shoplifting and dropping out of school. Her life turned around when, bored at work one night, she decided to sell a few pieces of vintage clothing on eBay. Fast-forward seven years, and Amoruso was running a $100 million company with 350 employees. While her success is admirable, most of her advice is based on her own limited experiences and includes such hackneyed lines as, “When you accept yourself, it’s surprising how much other people will accept you, too.” At more than 200 pages, the book is overlong, and much of what the author discusses could be summarized in a few tweets. In fact, much of it probably has been: One of the most interesting sections in the book is her description of how she uses social media. Amoruso has a spiritual side, as well, and she describes her belief in “chaos magic” and “sigils,” a kind of wishful-thinking exercise involving abstract words. The book also includes sidebars featuring guest “girlbosses” (bloggers, Internet entrepreneurs) who share equally clichéd suggestions for business success. Some of the guidance Amoruso offers for interviews (don’t dress like you’re going to a nightclub), getting fired (don’t call anyone names) and finding your fashion style (be careful which trends you follow) will be helpful to her readers, including the sage advice, “You’re not special.”
Career and business advice for the hashtag generation. For all its self-absorption, this book doesn’t offer much reflection or insight.Pub Date: May 6, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-399-16927-4
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Portfolio
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2014
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