20 Years a Buyer
What is your opinion on milestones? Do you notice significant dates and events or pass them by without noticing? Are they important at all?
We think they are. Not always they are a cause of celebration, but very often they are a moment to pause, appreciate, contemplate, look back, and make plans.
In EoS4U Team we have a good colleague who celebrates 20 years being a buyer this month, and today the stage is hers to remember, reflect and look forward to the future.
"It’s been quite a journey, full of excitement about new developments in the industry and new opportunities to make life easier and cheaper, as well as frustrations about savings eaten up by unforeseen economic events, failure to persuade colleagues to save money, or suppliers not respecting a contract.
Many things had to be learned: dealing with suppliers from different cultures and geographies, building trust and relations as well as being tough and pursuing cost reduction and supply chain improvement goals, making sure that the KPIs are met as well as navigating difficult environments while searching for win-wins.
Many things had to be unlearned, or at least pushed to the back of the head. Things that were fitting highly structured and regulated industries but were not possible to implement in more laid-back settings, no matter how beneficial they could be.
Twenty years is a lot, especially if you put it in perspective. It’s a journey from infancy to early adulthood, from early to middle adulthood, or from middle to later adulthood. We tend to forget about it, but when I look back to see where I started, I realize that it’s a whole life behind. Making first steps, unsure what to say when a supplier is calling. First look at a drawing. Many drawings broken down for cost assessment. First successfully executed contract. First delayed start of production. First equipment breakdown and first emergency delivery. Many more contracts and deliveries. First year-long contract negotiations with no party willing to concede. First signed million Euro contract. More high-value contracts. First encounter with ERP. Many people trained on how to deal with it. Development of your own buying platform. The list goes on.
There have been so many “firsts” that turned into skills, knowledge, and even habits. And with the next twenty years to come in a company that represents my way of buying and in the successful and supportive team I love dearly, there will be more. Some can be anticipated already now, like 100 000th EoS4U-ser joining the planform or the biggest saving ever passed to our customers, or the first API integration with a company looking to streamline their purchasing. Others will come as years pass.
What’s important to me is the possibility to take the knowledge and experience of the previous twenty years into the next twenty years, develop them and use them for the benefit of others, small and medium enterprises that didn’t have a chance to get expertise in buying, but shall not suffer because of it".