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Camille is 36 and
has her MBA. For three years she’s been
in purchasing for a global corporation with
over 14,000 employees.
Camille had been working
professionally for several years when in her
early 30s she got the feeling that she wanted
more dynamism and responsibility in her career.
That’s when she decided to get her master’s,
and over the course of her studies she really
fell in love with all of the aspects of e-business
on the Internet. She found out that so many
of the tedious, time-consuming processes that
were boring her in her late 20s at work, were
no longer even necessary. Things could be
automated and made so much more efficient
by taking new approaches to old problems.
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Camille’s MBA and fresh approach landed her
a great job in sporting goods manufacturing
as soon as she got her new degree. For three
years she’s been in materials purchasing for
a global corporation with over 14,000 employees.
Now she’s an associate director and has 8
people on her team in Memphis. They are a
mix of e-business process analysts, materials
specialists, researchers, buyers, and an assistant.
Several of her analysts also have MBAs.
Camille’s team buys things all over the world
and has them shipped to manufacturing locations
in Europe, Mexico, China, Indonesia, and Thailand.
Some of the factories are owned by her company.
Some are 3rd party vendor operations. It’s
all very complex, but that’s what keeps it
challenging and fun.
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It’s Wednesday morning and time for Camille’s
weekly team meeting. They typically spend
the whole morning on this one. It’s a lot
of time away from their desks, but even in
the e-business world there’s no legit substitute
for good communication, cooperation and team
spirit.
Camille runs the meeting. She gives a few
updates from the execs on the quarter and
explains that the rumors of an acquisition
while not completely false are now moot –
e-business as usual. She also explains that
she’s learned from the software vendor that
the new upgrade for their procurement system
will be at least 2 months later than they
were expecting so it won’t impact their day
to day operations at all until the fall buying
season.
Each of her employees then gives a brief highlight
of what they’re currently working on and need
help with. Highlights include:
Julia
– Partners in the SportsNet Buying Consortium
want to aggressively push for another 10%
percent increase in discount on their default
e-BID RFQs. She needs Camille to make the
change in the profile settings. Only she has
the password with enough authority. Camille
should call Kevin in Omaha or Sarah in Pittsburg
if she has questions.
Ash
– Thinks they can save 700K to 1.3 million
per month if they renegotiate several supplier
relationships in Europe. Different vendors
support a variety of English and Dutch auctions
in a new e-marketplace. It’s bound to be cheaper.
Hyong-Ju – Product
Management insists that that the new rock
climbing gear HAS TO BE made of Neumixx. They
don’t care how much it costs or where it comes
from. Camille needs to negotiate with the
manufacturer to get an EDIFACT order process
in place ASAP. The Ops VP will not allow any
more manual ordering after the end of this
month for any reason and Neumixx will not
be available on any online marketplace for
at least 9 months.
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Camille spends her early afternoon following
up on her action items from the morning. Some
of them will have to wait until tomorrow,
though, because she has a project post mortem
management meeting with all of the senior
directors in her division starting at 3:00.
There’s good news and bad news. The new online
RFQ approach seems to be saving 17% per week
in bottom line costs and they were really
only shooting for 15%. But, they hoped purchasing
would be moving 25 to 30% faster and the preliminary
reports are only showing about 21%. It’s probably
just kinks that they can work out. Camille
just wants to stay on top of it and keep it
humming along.
Oh, and she just remembered! She’s got to
be in the office tomorrow morning by 8:00
A.M. for the Web Services video conference
with London and Frankfurt. She’ll have to
print out Joerg’s long e-mail from Monday
and read it before bed. There’s always more
work to do.
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Learn
more about a degree in Management |
The individuals and events depicted in the Day-in-the-Life profiles are likenesses created to reflect situations that may be encountered while working in the respective fields or positions and are not intended to reflect or represent specific individuals, jobs, positions or situations.
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