Advice From Procurements #1 Influencer
Kelly Barner owns, manages, and edits Buyers Meeting Point. She has a unique perspective on procurement from the numerous roles she has held during her 15 years in procurement. Kelly worked for Ahold USA (parent company of grocery chains Stop & Shop, Hannaford, Giant Landover, and more) on their not for resale sourcing team, specializing in systems implementation and hired services category sourcing. She spent three years as the Associate Director of consulting services at Emptoris before it was acquired by IBM in 2011.
For the last seven years, she has covered procurement news, events, publications, solutions, trends, and relevant economics at Buyers Meeting Point. Buyers Meeting Point provides the procurement industry with an events calendar, blog, active social media network, and podcast, all of which are trusted sources of information for practitioners and solution providers alike. Kelly has several regular columns throughout the industry, and in the summer of 2016, was appointed to become the Business Survey Chair for the ISM-New York Report on Business.
Kelly has her MBA from Babson College as well as an MS in Library and Information Science from Simmons College. Kelly has co-authored three books: ‘Supply Market Intelligence for Procurement Professionals: Research, Process, and Resources’ (2014), ‘Procurement at a Crossroads: Career Impacting Insights into a Rapidly Changing Industry’ (2016), and ‘Finance Unleashed: Leveraging the CFO for Innovation‘ (2017). In 2017, Kelly co-founded Palambridge with Phil Ideson (Art of Procurement).
Advice from THE #1 Procurement Guru
I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Kelly Barner about my career and goals. She has always been willing to answer any question or give me help and advice when I needed it (can we say what a great informal mentor!). Not to mention, Kelly was one of the first to notice me when I started blogging and gave me a chance to try a new platform (podcast).
She did all this, with absolutely zero expectations in return.
I’ve found in life that when you give without an expectation to receive, life has a way of rewarding you. It’s typically through Karma. But, I didn’t have that type of patience. So I took the situation into my own hands.
It’s for these reasons; I wanted to interview Kelly for a special #WSW – women supporting women video blog post. Hopefully, we can all learn to support other women without the expectation of getting anything in return.
The Guru’s Advice
A written summary of the video. The information to guide you to become an expert in your industry!
Things to try to avoid
- Never make decisions (big) too quickly, or late at night.
- Never sell someone out, for any reason. Ever.
- Never stop learning. Or considering new ideas.
- Don’t sell yourself short.
- Don’t be unwilling to admit when you are wrong.
- Don’t compromise your ethics or standards.
Practices to improve your career
- Do what you say you are going to, plus 10%.
- Ask for help when you need it.
- Be generous and respectful of the competition.
- Be EXTREMELY careful about what you put in writing
- Make sure to let your enthusiasm show. If you can’t, it is time for a new direction.
- Do not forget to celebrate your wins, no matter the size.
- Always remember, you are the master of your own destiny.
Other Quick Tips (Gather your courage to)
- Owning your failures
- Speaking the hard truths
- Taking a break when you need it
- Learning to say no
- Stray away from complaining
Want More Advice? Connect with Kelly Here:
👉🏼 LinkedIn Profile 👉🏼 Thinkers360 Profile
👉🏼 Twitter: @BuyersMeetPoint
👉🏼 Buyers Meeting Point (LinkedIn)
👉🏼 Buyers Meeting Point (Website)
