Let's Talk Procurement
Welcome to "Let's Talk Procurement" - the procurement podcast where Lukes 1 and 10 navigate the wild world of purchasing with a side of humour and a dash of dad jokes. 🛍️ Join Luke 1, the procurement prodigy, and Luke 10, the tender-hearted jokester, as they untangle the knotty world of supply chains and contracts, one laugh at a time. From negotiating deals to chasing down the best bulk discounts, these Lukes have it all covered – and yes, they'll probably throw in a few puns along the way. Take a break from the text books & join us on the journey to procurement enlightenment served with a smile and a sprinkle of procurement magic! 🌟✨
Feel free to get in touch with us on our socials or 2lukes1cip@gmail.com.
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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed on this podcast are like coffee preferences – diverse and subject to change. The hosts may spill the beans on their thoughts, but they don't claim to be everyone's cup of tea. Listener discretion is advised. Remember, it's all in good fun and the only thing brewed here is a blend of entertainment and conversation with a hint of education. Sip responsibly! ☕🎙️
Let's Talk Procurement
S2. E30 The Next Wave: Gen Z in Procurement
What does Generation Z want from a career in procurement? And are industry bodies like CIPS missing the mark completely when trying to attract young talent?
In this thought-provoking episode, we dissect a recent CIPS article attempting to appeal to Gen Z procurement professionals—and why comparing the profession to "planning parties with cake and magic shows" might not be the most effective recruitment strategy. While procurement rarely features in school career fairs or university discussions, we explore why it should.
From driving sustainability initiatives to wielding significant financial influence, procurement offers many elements that align perfectly with what younger professionals seek in meaningful careers. We highlight how early exposure to senior leadership, engagement with cutting-edge technologies, and the ability to make tangible environmental and social impact make procurement an ideal choice for purpose-driven individuals.
But we don't shy away from the challenges either. The need for negotiation skills, stakeholder management, and comfort with confrontation might not appeal to everyone. We examine both the benefits and potential drawbacks of pursuing procurement as a career path for Generation Z.
Whether you're a procurement veteran wondering how to mentor the next generation or a young professional considering your career options, this episode offers valuable insights into the future of the profession. Connect with us at 2lukes1cip@gmail.com or on Instagram at lets_talk_procurement to continue the conversation!
Please get in touch as we love to hear from you listeners! You can use the "text" function above or drop us on email: 2lukes1cip@gmail.com or visit our website www.letstalkprocurement.co.uk
It would also mean the world if you can drop us a cheeky 5* rating on your platform of choice,
Cya Later
Hello and welcome to let's Talk Procurement, the only show you need to master the art of procurement. Let's go Hello and welcome back to another episode of let's Talk Procurement. Thank you for joining us, as always. Guess who's with me in the studio? In fact, you don't need to guess, because he's always here. It's the magical Luke 10. How are you, my friend?
Speaker 2:Always here, still always valued, though, right yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, always valued, always contributing, and I think the results of your training efforts and time served in procurement are starting to pay off now as you climb the corporate ladder.
Speaker 2:I like the way you call it time served. It's as if I've been captured and are working in procurement against my will.
Speaker 1:Look, I think if reffing was a full-time option for you, I think you'd be doing that seven days a week. But it's not, and you've got whistles to buy and bills to pay. So I completely understand why you're serving a sentence in the procurement world.
Speaker 2:That makes my life sound so boring if I'm being a procurement professional, to pay to be a ref. If that wasn't all I achieved in life, would I be happy at the end of the life?
Speaker 1:it's not about being happy at the end of your life. It's being happy on the journey of life.
Speaker 2:Oh wow, there we go.
Speaker 1:That is the insight that the listeners uh, the listeners pay us for so for those of you who don't know what the podcast is about and you're new around here, first of all, welcome. Second of all, we are Luke 10 and Luke 1, both called Luke, so we had to differentiate somehow and our goal here is to make procurement more accessible as a topic, easier to understand and to help people on their on their SIP journey or just with a general interest in understanding and improving themselves in the world of procurement. So I myself have M SIPs to my name. I've been in procurement for a number of years and Luke 10 joined the same company that I was working for at the time and was a little fledgling in procurement, deciding to kind of carry on his SIPs journey and offered to tutor him I say tutor him, that's probably the wrong term. I offered to chat rubbish with him on a podcast record it.
Speaker 2:The tutoring was forced upon me. I didn't have a choice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, probably just rinsing you on episodes, hoping that you don't do as well as you deserve to do, if I'm being honest. But, um, yeah, that's what we're about really. So, uh, yeah, strap in, join us. Join us to see luke 10's journey as he blossoms in the world of procurement and to, uh, get to grips with some, some core technology and terms.
Speaker 2:And if you want to get in touch with us, then we have email, which is 2lukes1sip at gmailcom. That's the number two Luke's plural, the number one cip at gmailcom. We also have a little Instagram, don't we? Which is what is it again? Let's underscore talk, underscore procurement, yes, and we also. In the description of every episode, we have an option to drop us a text. So it's quite high up in the description of the episode, I believe. Just click that link. You can send us a text straight into our DMs.
Speaker 1:Do you know what's great about that? What? Well, if we really like your message, we can publish it on our website. So you'll be forever on our website as a listener who's gotten in touch via the text. Us function. There's some absolute crackers on there already. Uh, yeah, get get involved. So have you got anything for the uh, the notice board today?
Speaker 2:I've got something. It's a email. It's uh, it's nick. A great guy, our best mate called nick, has got in touch on the email to luke's one sip at gmailcom. That's the number two, luke's plural number one, cip. At gmailcom he says hi, luke one and luke1sip at gmailcom that's the number two, luke's plural number one, cip. At gmailcom he says hi, luke one and luke 10. I hope you are well. Thanks, nick, I am well.
Speaker 2:I've listened to that. Sounded so sarcastic there. Yeah, I've listened to all season one and two pods. I really like them.
Speaker 2:Can you tell me how I access Daniel, do practice exams please? I'm struggling to find any good practice exams online and have my L4M3 and L4M5 next week, or have you got any other practice exams I could use, as the ones provided by my course provider are rubbish? So, uh, he does say he had his exams next week and that was early july. Don't know when this episode is going out, but it's not going to be in time for that. Um, since, considering when we recorded this, it's already. Yeah, it's already past that. So that is in reference, I believe, to the episode we did with Nicholas.
Speaker 2:Nick, that was tips for multiple choice exams. Nick is really good at them. He's achieved, I believe, an average of over 90% in his multiple choice exams, that's, over level three and level four. He references a guy called daniel do. Daniel doe don't know how to say his name um, which, all right, I'm going to take the credit for this one was something I told nick about.
Speaker 2:Um, wow, what it is is a guy who who makes practice exams for sips, multiple choice, right and they're, they're pretty good. Um, as I say, I've done them when I was doing my level four back in the day and they're, they're, yeah, they're really good. They're pretty similar to the actual sips ones. Um, in fact, I don't know if I'm going to get him in trouble by saying this, but there was a question that I did on one of his practice papers the day before, and it was a question. It was some sort of calculation question, I think it was about ratios or something, and you had to work out what the ratio was based on a set of numbers, and the exact numbers that were in the practice paper the day before it was the same numbers in the real exam the day after. So I don't know if he's just got an insane memory, um, or he has a little insight into the way sips operate, maybe, and anyway they're pretty good so this guy leaks leaks the papers for a small fee.
Speaker 1:Is that what we're saying?
Speaker 2:I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna say leaks papers, um, as you mentioned there, there is a fee attached to it. Um, I don't know if nick was able to get, uh, get that paid for by his employer. Potentially you could, you could request that, um, if you. Obviously you know if your employer is paying paying for your sips um, I think if you buy all of them it does add up. So we're not getting sponsored by him or anything to say that they're good. So obviously have a look into it yourself and decide whether it's uh something you want to invest in. But yeah, I would. I would say that they are good and they are similar to the sips multiple choice exams especially.
Speaker 1:Interesting. Well, maybe we'll see if we can reach out to him and negotiate a deal to get our listeners a little discount. Also, we're working on a few things with some other procurement specialists to see what we can bring your listeners as well in terms of helping you out with that sort of thing. So, look, my advice to you look, nick, if you've failed, because obviously this will be published probably a few months later. If you've failed, then yeah, I recommend going and just paying for it, mate, and sorting yourself out. If you pass, then, yeah, fair play, and I'm glad we could help you through that tough time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, either way, we're getting either credit from nick for helping him pass or credit from daniel doe daniel do um for promoting his exams. Um, I will say it's on udemy, uh, and let me see if I can find how to spell it. Yeah, so it's a site called Udemy and the guy's name is Daniel Do, that's just D-O. If you wanted to find them, I hope we do get commission from him now.
Speaker 1:Now we've promoted him pretty heavily given him his full name and everything. Yeah, once he delivers, does he change his name to Daniel Dunn, pretty heavily Giving him his full name and everything. Yeah, once he delivers, does he say, does he?
Speaker 2:change his name to Daniel Dunn. I do quite like that one. If he's travelling somewhere, does he say Daniel, going, going, gone.
Speaker 1:Oh dear.
Speaker 2:Okay, that wasn't as good that was terrible wasn't it? Yeah, okay, um, do you have anything for the listeners on the bulletin? No, I mean that was.
Speaker 1:That was mildly entertaining. Um look, I don't know, is this season three now.
Speaker 2:I believe so yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm glad we've made it. It's been a pleasure. Um, what I really like is is the uh plan that we put into it, where we knew how many episodes we'd have for season one, then for season two, and the amount of uh series and segments. We've kind of followed through right the way through. You know, looking back, it's?
Speaker 2:uh, in fact it was. It was a little easter egg that some people picked up on, wasn't it? Janet actually emailed us to say I can't believe you've done this. Is that the number of episodes in season one and then the number of episodes in season two is actually janet's birthday? Crazy, absolutely crazy so if you didn't notice that, then we've just, we've just um exposed the fact, but yeah well, if you want to be like janet and be our number one listener.
Speaker 1:Then get in touch season three is going to be wild, though, because it's janet's. It's time for janet's of birth, so we're doing 1,992 episodes.
Speaker 2:Wait is that when Janet's born?
Speaker 1:Yeah, 1992. She's quite young for a Janet.
Speaker 2:Blimey, I haven't seen a picture of Janet's hair as well. Her hair doesn't look like it's from that year.
Speaker 1:She's receding, like you well I think I'm gonna ignore that bit. But let's just uh, let's just say that a career in procurement's really taking its toll on 1992 janet.
Speaker 2:Well, janet, she's always catching strays, isn't she?
Speaker 1:she is yeah um, which is probably why she sticks around. So, yeah, anyway, look, I'm glad we made it to season three and, uh, it's been a pleasure. So let's, uh, let's, let's dive on into today's topic, which I know you've researched and they're gonna reveal so great bulletin there.
Speaker 2:Now let's swiftly move on to the I can't. I can't sound natural when I say something like that. How do you? You can keep this in aaron, but I just want the listeners to know that yeah you could have sounded more sarcastic you really could have sounded more sarcastic. The thing is I think I'm quite a sarcastic person, but then whenever I try to not sound sarcastic, it just still sounds sarcastic anyway.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:What if I try to sound sarcastic? Maybe it works the other way. Maybe it's a double negative. Wow, great bulletin there. Did that work?
Speaker 1:It sounded better, actually, yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay, good. So I received an email from Sips themselves. They sent an email directly to me. I assume all Sips members got the same email, or maybe they know my age and maybe they know I am in Generation Z, so they sent me an email. What can Generation Z do for procurement?
Speaker 2:So this email goes on to talk about, um, employing the next generation of sips professionals. Uh, and it talks about, of course, because it's about gen z, it talks about tiktok. Um, because it's about Gen Z, it talks about TikTok and it says this generation of ambitious young digital natives who are upskilling themselves to cope with the disruptions to the global economy and world of work. Sorry, this is a generation I don't know if I said that right at the start. So that email then linked to an article that they produced and that made me think why don't we do an episode on inspiring the next generation in procurement? Um, we can both talk about it from our respective generations. Uh, he's shaking his head, he's not happy about that, and we can, um, we can kind of reflect on the article. So I don't know if you, if you, if anyone's able to access this or they, need to log in to to be a sips member. But uh, the article is called inspiring the next generation and it talks about oh well, look.
Speaker 1:Firstly, I think it's a great topic because I think that's one of our ambitions in the podcast is to get more people involved and engaged in the topic. So actually that kind of younger market is, how do we get people involved? And maybe if we need to do TikTok dances, then that's what it is right. Is that something you're up for doing?
Speaker 2:Potentially, potentially dances, and that's what it is right. Is that something you're up for doing? Um, potentially, potentially. Uh, I think, to go viral on tiktok. You need to have a something how do I phrase? Uh, you need to have a grab something that grabs you and pulls you in. You need to have a grab something that grabs you and pulls you in.
Speaker 1:That's what it is. So I think we just have you seen rugby before.
Speaker 2:Whatever?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have. Do you know the Hacker? Yeah, so I think we do the Hacker to random songs like Vanessa Carlton's 1,000 Miles and in the meantime, while we're doing that, like buzzwords from my podcast just pop up in the background yeah, yeah, I like it I feel like that could be quite unique it would be. It would definitely be unique um I don't know, or we headbutt planks of wood in half and as we do it we yell buzzwords. Supply chain- yeah.
Speaker 2:Or the planks of wood have the words written on them.
Speaker 1:Supply logos.
Speaker 2:Yeah, then you head by it, or or it's like um, I don't know, there's a supplier quote with loads of different line items that are all planks of wood and you headbutt them and you negotiate down the price on those different things yes, and then we can say at the end our supply negotiations.
Speaker 1:Giving you a headache, this tiktok was sponsored by parathetamol whoa inception. I didn't expect that coming there we go, um yeah, so look, I think let's uh, let's inspire people whether we need to get on. I mean, this is why you're on the pod right, because you're Gen Z, just about, I think. I think you're the lowest, lowest bracket of Gen Z, aren't you? You're so close to the latest generation.
Speaker 2:I don't think so. I think I'm in the middle 2025 is the new generation.
Speaker 1:The new generation is called Generation Alpha, I think.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 1997 to 2012. I am in that range. I will reveal now. I'm in that range.
Speaker 1:Yes, and given that your voice hasn't dropped yet, it's kind of indicative of which side you're on. But I think, yeah, look. And then obviously, I'm the generation above. I don't know what that's called. I think it's boomers or something, isn't it? But silent generation yeah, I think that we've both chosen procurement yeah, we have.
Speaker 2:We have, um, although not on purpose.
Speaker 2:Uh, the the article says uh, why is it that a generation that cares so much about positive change isn't jumping at the opportunity to do a job which helps to save the planet and makes people's lives better? Um, I feel like sips there is thinking why aren't people, why aren't young people wanting to become procurement professionals? But I don't know maybe with the exception of lauren, who we did an episode with, who did a procurement degree I don't know anyone who has. I don't know anyone who has actively chosen to go into procurement from, from, you know, school or uni. It seems to be the type of career that you discover when you kind of look into what jobs are available, whereas you know, when kids grow up, they say I want to be an astronaut, I want to be a firefighter, I want to be a vet.
Speaker 2:Um, some people say accountancy, some people say lawyer, which are two fairly connected professions to procurement, but I think they have a lot more um, what's the word? They're a lot, a lot more well known, and I don't know if glamorized is the right word, but at least more glamorized than procurement is, would you?
Speaker 1:say credible more credible.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, definitely credible, like like you know if, if you're talking to someone and you say what, what do you do for a living? Someone says accountant, someone says lawyer, you know what that means, whereas when I talk to people I say I work in procurement, I'd say 80 of people don't know what that is. Maybe, maybe that's not fair, but that's what it feels like anyway I kind of agree.
Speaker 1:Actually, I think a lot of people don't even know that it exists as a function or profession, and I do think it. It lacks awareness or people lack awareness of it, and I don't know if that's a function's fault or if that's education and things like that um, so I mean, we do like to I don't know be a little bit negative, uh, sometimes on this pod.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, so the people sips spoke to on the article uh, there's a couple of them that have made comments, so one of them said um a few different things and it said procurement professionals are essentially party planners who do it all. That seems like a weird statement. I'm not sure if I agree with that. It doesn't feel like a party. I'm going to be honest. No, have you ever? Have you ever seen a? Yeah, it's a bit like a funeral, um, I guess.
Speaker 2:I guess what this person is maybe trying to get at is planning element of it. So so, planning ahead, sourcing the right deals and keeping promises, like delivering the cake on time and setting up a magic show without delays this kind of feels like he's just thought about what would a five-year-old be into, and then literally my thoughts and then said that yeah, I'm sorry, but can you see, like a lawyer, like the lawyer, the legal equivalent of sips going law is like having a party, which is exactly what you should do yeah, party and magic and fairies and cake.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, so, maybe, yeah, this article as well. Someone else says it's like food shopping um, you need to think about what you want to eat and drink and where to get it. Maybe we're saying that they're oversimplifying this, um, because that's what it seems to me. Some people say other things which I don't necessarily disagree with. Like procurement drives positive change. Yeah, um, someone else spoke to recommends focusing on procurements links to sustainability and ethical practice. So they say that my generation is more concerned about ethics, which, you know, I think there's a lot of focus on sustainability, right, social and environmental, which, yeah, that could work. If you say joint procurement to help things be more ethical, especially, you know, especially public sector, I think that's a definite, that's a definite tick in the box there.
Speaker 1:I mean yeah, yeah, OK, I'm going to. I'm going to let you carry on for these before I comment.
Speaker 2:Before you diss them. Yeah, someone else says you spend millions of other people's money, which is which is true. One of the things that I was um, I don't know, yeah, maybe surprised about when I first started in procurement as an apprentice is I was working on deals that were quite hefty sums of money um, yeah, more money that than you know. I never really thought about, I suppose, in life. Uh, not, that's not to say I was put under pressure to lead on these tenders, um, however, being involved in it, especially as an apprentice, early, very early in my career, was quite cool so maybe there's a lot of people that um are obsessed with money and that's a big.
Speaker 2:The numbers that they work on are quite uh are quite important to them. So there's that's a driver there, potentially I can get on board with that.
Speaker 1:I can get on board with that, I think for me, um, I, even to this day, I still think that's a lot of money when you look at what companies spend on things, and being able to make a difference to that is definitely yeah, but for me I find interesting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and it's not necessarily about purely reducing cost, is it? One thing that they potentially have missed out on this article is it can be quite varied. You could be working on a tender for hardware in one meeting and then the next meeting you go, and it's something completely different. Know, in one meeting and then the next meeting you go, and it's something completely different. I think, um, that variation on job where you're not just kind of looking at a spreadsheet or you know, rejecting, um, what the lawyers do, reject stuff, say no to things, argue with people you're not just arguing with people. It's kind of similar.
Speaker 2:Link to the point previously is that you get exposure to quite high levels of people within the organization, even when you yourself are as a junior member of staff. Um, and I think that's because you are dealing with the budget holders right, the people who make decisions on the people whose money it is, tend to be quite high up in the organization. Like you could be working on a project for you know, the chief financial officer or the chief operations officer or something, because they're the ones that hold the budget and I've decided I want to spend money on this yeah, and, and that's why it's important that we we're close to them and we get, we get involved, which is like you said it's.
Speaker 2:Another kind of perk of it is that you get to mix with different people in the business, for sure yeah, so did you want to say your points now, or should we say we could come up with something about how it can be improved?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean. So I'm just, first of all, I think they've missed the point completely. If I was and I'm not the next generation, but if I was the next generation and I read this article, I would have turned off at the first point, saying it's like a party, this article. I would have turned off at the first point, saying it's like a party. Um, you know how can you go from cake and candles to driving positive environmental change, to, if I'm being honest, the ways of working have changed a lot, and we'll touch on that in a minute. But I think they've, they've not they've ignored what, what actually people are looking for in a career and a job, because that's changed a lot over time. So so for me, this is just people saying why they probably like procurement, or coming up with a random yeah, and trying to squeeze it into what they think a generation z person would like yeah, and in their head their little niece is still five years old, or something like that.
Speaker 1:They're thinking, oh, that must be a gen z. So, um yeah, I wouldn't.
Speaker 2:I wouldn't score the article, well, but I think yeah, like we said, generation z is 1997 to 2012. So at the upper end of that, what's that going to be? Somebody's 28 and they're thinking and they're saying, you know, you can, you can have party and cake and magic. It's not really it's not great, is it?
Speaker 1:um, it's not what they're looking for yeah, so yeah, I think they've missed it, but I think I think the intent of the article is on point. Yeah definitely Going back to a point you said earlier, where it always seems to be that people fall into procurement as opposed to choosing procurement.
Speaker 2:Do you think SIP should lean into that, or should they try and make it a career that people you know maybe I guess it's not really a primary school thing, but maybe secondary school, mid-teens people think, oh, I want to go into procurement.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 100%.
Speaker 2:You do think they should do some stuff like that or something to make that be a thing.
Speaker 1:They should raise awareness of it. When you're in school, college, whatever, you get people coming in and doing career fairs and talking to you about, you know, know what it's like to work in an accountancy firm, or what it's like to be a vet, and I never recall anyone saying this is what it's like to be a procurement professional. Um, and as as the, what you would call them, the ambassadors, the, the representative of the profession, you would expect sips to be spending some of their kind of investment money into into that, into growing its presence in education, really yeah, you would like them to be the kind of the people that are funding that awareness yeah, exactly, or at least using their network and their connections and stuff to to give guidance on how we can do it as members of zips yeah, yeah, no, I, uh, I would agree with that.
Speaker 2:So what's our, what's our kind of um take on it then. Why do we think procurement is good for generation z? Um, I agree with the sustainability one, I think, as we've already touched on um some other things, uh, they, would you agree with this? That? Um, you have to, you have to be on top of what you don't have to, but it's recommended to be on top of new or emerging things, products, technologies, because you are often going to be the one negotiating and you may or may not have help from the technical team. So it's good to at least have a base understanding of, say, for example, a big thing at the moment is AI you should probably have a good understanding of, even if it's, even if if it's to a basic level, like just to help you understand what the considerations are like. For example, if you know only that you know people put data into ai and it spits out a result okay, where's that data going?
Speaker 1:yeah, helps you come up with with the kind of questions that you need to ask for that to be, to be good in procurement, you have to be relevant in whatever industry you're in, right, so you have to stay on top of whatever your kind of speciality is, um, which is good because it's kind of future proofing you in a way as well yep, agreed, agreed.
Speaker 2:Um, it can be global. If you work for a company with a global supply chain, you could in theory you know well, maybe less so now but kind of go to other countries to negotiate deals or check up on suppliers or something like that. But it is possible.
Speaker 1:Look, let's be realistic, right? So when you're young and you're looking for a career, first you need to know that that career exists. So I think that's the first bit that we touched upon a minute ago. Then you need to know that it's a viable career. So is it something that you can actually do for a number of years? Has it got progression? Can you, can you get promoted, can you develop yourself in it? Or is it like, I don't know, it'll be a bit flippant here, but is it just like being a cashier in a supermarket where that's all you're going to be, because there's no? You know you can't become a senior cashier and then, I don't know, a cashier, manager, mega cashier or something, the final boss cashier um, you know it's fairly limited, so you have to understand that. But then also, is it, is it something that is future-proof, in a way that it will be a job in 10, 15, 20 years time? Because there are certainly careers that you can get into now which you probably don't need.
Speaker 1:Um, one of the ones that was big when I was, when I was a young boy, was, uh, web design. So getting into design and websites was huge. If you could, if you could do that effectively. You could sell to many companies, you could, you could maintain people's websites and you could earn stacks out of it. But now you just track it into an ai bot and you can have a website in 10 minutes.
Speaker 1:Um, so, yeah, I, I think that's the next part of procurement for me is kind of future proof. Um, I think it is, because as long as companies exist and as long as companies need to buy things to create outputs, then there's a role for procurement in that company. Yeah, and then the other thing when you're looking is salary. Like, let's be real, in this day and age, a lot of people want to get money quick and fast and, from what I can tell, the younger people are less inclined for a career and more inclined for, you know, the quick bucks that the things like tiktok and instagram or whatever they can do to make money in the short term. I'm not saying that's everyone, but there's obviously an increase in that because it's it's accessible and anyone can potentially do really well from it.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, yeah, I think people in my generation are are quite money driven, um, and I wonder if that's because of the increased kind of visibility. Like you, you know, you see someone that you, you know, spoke to for a year in school and they're off in dubai making millions. So you think, oh, I need to, you know, I'll be less of a person, be, you know, worse off than this person is, even if you know they're only showing the best parts of their life. They're not showing that you know kind of bad bits, um, and maybe that that drives kind of like a state that people just care quite a lot about the money side of things. Yeah, obviously, cost of living going up as well, I think that's uh on people's minds as well. People who may be struggling financially but don't have any kids or don't have, you know, mortgages. I think how am I gonna get or pay for a house if I don't, if I don't have a job with a high salary?
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah, I can buy that um so.
Speaker 2:So why might procurement be bad for generation z? What are the reasons not to?
Speaker 1:so I look, I actually I think there's a lot of people that have the skills or would be interested in a career in procurement. I think that they're missing out because of lack of information and accessibility, as opposed to lack of understanding, lack of interest in what a procurement career can entail. I think the more people know about it, the more people will want to get into it. So I think that's the real problem. I think if we go to, why wouldn't you join it as a career? I think it's quite a lot. I think some people don't want full-on roles and I think if you're, if you're in this, you are in the center of everything. You know, you're, you're kind of talking to every different stakeholder, you've got to get things done to time critical deadlines. You, you have to, you have to want to be negotiating, talking to people. And I think if you're, if you're an introvert, you might not like it If you just rather do something a bit more laid back, sell flip-flops on a beach.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's kind of what I was going to say. I think you don't necessarily have to be extroverted, but you have to be comfortable with being in like a 2v1 situation or even a 3v1, sometimes, like you might be on a call with a supplier they've got the salesperson, they've got the technical person, they've got the legal person, all batting for their side and you have to say maybe some, some news that they don't want to hear. Like you know, we're not going to get this purchase order to you this week, or you know, we we need you to cut your price in half or something, um, which which, obviously, if you, if you feel uncomfortable with that's fine. It's a skill that gets developed right yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Um, but you have to want to do that sort of stuff right, because it is uncomfortable the first few times and you do get situations where you get the old school negotiators who play hardball and then they're quite unpleasant to be around and all that stuff as well. So, um, yeah, yeah, I think didn't we publish an episode about what we hate about procurement?
Speaker 2:anyway, pretty sure we did I'm gonna say we did and I think I think it was kind of recent, you know. So it's bad, we've already forgotten about it yeah, I think well recent.
Speaker 1:There's two different reasons. Isn't it recently recorded and recently published?
Speaker 2:that is true, that is true, that is true. So I did ask AI why procurement might be challenging for Gen Z and the five things that they. It's I don't know what the right pronoun for AI is Low visibility. It's not a well-known career path, so that's one you mentioned. Complex stakeholder management. Procurement involves negotiating, and skills like that take a long time to develop. Third was pressure and responsibility. Uh, managing large budgets and critical supply chains can be stressful, especially in crisis situations. That's true. Um. To add to that, people often leave out procurement and then, at the last minute, it's people often leave out procurement and then, at the last minute, it's oh, this supply needs to start on monday. Can you get a contract in place and pay them? Um before then, which could be a drawback? Um. Fourth point was and I want to see if you agree with these next two uh, traditional culture. In some sectors, some procurement environments may still be hierarchical or resistant to change, which can clash with Gen Z's preference for flexibility and innovation.
Speaker 1:See, I was going to argue the opposite case for procurement, but that might be because that's the environment we're in, so I can't really comment. To be honest, I've seen a transformation from a hierarchical environment to a way of working, but again I don't know. I think maybe public sector might be a bit hierarchical, but equally, yeah, if everything was flat you'd never get promoted.
Speaker 2:Public. I don't know if hierarchical is the word I'd use for public sector, I mean it is, but I think that that's a potentially a positive in terms of there's a clear career path. Maybe the drawback of public sector is that it's very process-based. You have to go through the same process over and over again, um, and you can't really. Well, you can vary, but not to a massive extent, um, so anyway, the fifth point was limited creative expression. Uh, while strategic procurement may not, sorry, while strategic procurement may not offer the same creative outlets as marketing, design or content creation roles.
Speaker 1:Fair, yeah, yeah, and then people different career paths, isn't it? I think if you, if you're going into a creative role, you're going to have a lot more volatility as opposed to the stability you can get in a procurement role. Um say, with all the new tools and stuff coming out, you want still great careers in that. It's definitely a lot more cutthroat now uh.
Speaker 2:So on the flip side, to end on a positive, uh, why procurement is good for Gen Z? Again, I asked AI and AI said number one purpose driven work. Gen Z values sustainability, ethics and social impact, which procurement plays a key role in which we said. Number two was tech forward environment. Modern procurement uses AI, data analytics and automation Perfect for a generation raised on tech. Number three um becomes international. Gen z can work with global suppliers and gain cross-cultural experience. Number four was fast career growth. With strong analytical and communication skills, gen z can quickly rise in the procurement roles, especially in dynamic industries like tech, fashion or sustainability. Yeah, you agree, nice. And the last point which we said was variety and impact. Procurement touches every part of a business, from marketing to manufacturing, giving Gen Z a broad view and real influence.
Speaker 1:I like it. Yeah, I can't disagree with that real resource and time into actually kind of promoting what you can do in procurement and what what procurement might find attractive to things like um, you know, like you said, the social impact or environmental impact that you can make, the for technology and innovation, because you could be looking, you know, you could be working on the latest tech, which is quite cool. Um, flexibility, elaborate that careers procurement careers can be done in flexible workloads. Um, yeah, and just that there is a career to be had there. It's not just a you come in and you're stagnant for 30, 40 years until you retire absolutely yeah, and it's a transferable skill as well.
Speaker 2:You know, if you if you're doing a different job or you're doing this job and you want to move to a different industry, there's a lot of skills in there that you need and that you could sell to other potential employers. So we hope you've uh, hope you've learned something from the episode today. Again, if you want to get in touch with us, our email is two luke's one sip at gmailcom. That's the number two luke's plural, the number one cip at gmailcom. That's what we had today. Make sure to tune in next week times two for the next episode assume when we publish on time, see you later.
Speaker 2:See you later.
