“You always really need to look at people, process, and technology. If you don’t look at all three and understand where you are and where you need to be in those areas, you are just going to be chasing.” – Sherry Ulsh, Director, Indirect Procurement, The Hershey Company
At the CoreTrust Conference in April, I had the opportunity to speak with Sherry Ulsh, Director of Indirect Procurement at The Hershey Company, about a wide range of topics, including her own journey from finance to procurement, the evolving role of GPOs, and the changing skill sets required in modern procurement career paths.
When I’m lucky enough to meet with a podcast guest in person, especially against the backdrop of a live industry event packed with insightful discussions and knowledge sharing, the conversation almost always takes welcome twists and turns into unexpected topics.
This conversation was no exception.
Rather than try to recap Sherry’s own insights, I have compiled what I think are some of her most compelling quotes, each offering a glimpse into the mind of a forward-thinking procurement leader whose experience and mentorship are helping to shape the future of the profession.
Here are some of the highlights from our talk, in Sherry’s own words…
On how CFOs perceive procurement’s value:
“It depends on your industry. In the restaurant industry, where I came from, you don’t manufacture. It’s a different structure and set up. On the manufacturing side, we have a very balanced CFO who looks at things from a value proposition. Certainly, we have to drive cost and balance our margins, but he really looks at it from a value point of view.
There is a really broad definition of value. In some of the categories, they are almost to a point cost of goods categories that I can drive certain things down to the bottom line for the organization – like transportation, MRO, facilities, services.”
On the value of proactive relationship management:
“There are two huge management pieces: supplier relationship management and stakeholder management. You want everyone to come onboard with you and come along and understand what you are bringing to them. You really have to spend time with the stakeholder to understand where their fears are – because there are fears.”
On Hershey’s experience getting started with a GPO:
“As we are working through the transformation of procurement, we are really looking at all of those pieces. A GPO is a tool; it is a tool in the toolkit. We are just recent members. There were people on my team who had come from other companies who had used GPOs before.
We sat down in the last year or so and said, ‘Where do we want to go? What do we want to do? What do we want to layer on top of it?’ because it’s our existing procurement organization, then there are additional tools like a GPO or other consultancies that can assist you a long the way.”
On GPO as a supplier:
“GPOs continue to add categories, continue to broaden out, continue to expand their services. I am a ‘never say never’ person. You just can’t assume a GPO will drop in and provide you with exactly what you need. You need to manage it. It is a supplier, and you need to manage it like any supplier.”
On creating a strategic category framework:
“Right now, we are really looking at and working to understand what our strategic category framework needs to be to fit our organization. We are working to understand what our technology ecosystem looks like today, what it should be, and how we should get there. Then, really layering down the appropriate processes across the organization – not just procurement because it doesn’t live in a bubble by itself.”
On cultivating the procurement skills of the future:
“One of the things I think everyone is thinking about and talking about is ‘do our people have the skills for the future?’ Certainly, you would love it if every person could come along with you, but in some cases, some people can’t. How do I bring people along from a heart point of view, and then how do I bring people along from a head point of view in a sense of training and frameworks and templatization? Those are the pieces around it right now.”
On how procurement career paths have changed:
“Grit and resilience will take you through. A career is a long time; it is not like it used to be. You have organizations that are very flat. The whole corporate ecosystem is so different. You don’t stay at one company. I actually was at a company for a very long time, but that is not so usual anymore. It is not this trajectory that is just a steady trajectory that you move through your career.”
On considering whether the C-suite is right for you
Another thing that is really important is if you can really think about it early in your career to just say, ‘Do I really want to be at that C-level of the avenue I have chosen as of right now? Is that something that appeals to me?’ and not the title of C-level. If you can in those first six to ten years really understand, if that’s what you want, that is fantastic, but you have got to plan that out. It just doesn’t happen. If it’s not what you want, then you really have a lot more options. I think companies are much more open, and companies really want to see people lateral a couple of times before they move up a level.”
On procurement’s growing influence at The Hershey Company:
“In our organization, we are growing into a larger role. That is a great opportunity for us. There are a lot of things that others in the organization do just because they have done them. We are helping them understand, ‘You don’t need to do that. What you need to do is really help me understand what it is you really need, and I can get you what you need, and I can get you what you need and more, but we need to work – not the day before. We need to work the 24 months before.’”
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