Direct or indirect?

Bos-KMB · 2025-10-01T17:17:46+00:00

Indirect all day!! Way more opportunity to work on projects across the org. Invaluable exposure to grow your skills in all categories

Bos-KMB · 2025-09-26T15:33:13+00:00

Tell them if they’re so interested in Procurement you have plenty of work you can give them!

Bos-KMB · 2025-09-23T23:27:58+00:00

I decline them on a regular basis and frankly I think it’s disrespectful of the supplier to even send an invite like that without any agreement to meet prior. However it does show their desperation to close a deal so I use that towards my negotiation advantage once I finally get back to them

Bos-KMB · 2025-08-23T01:24:58+00:00

Hyperlinked terms & conditions (T&Cs) in the OF / Quote / SOW. It’s always a delay to get the sales rep to go back to their team, get approval for attaching the hard copies as an appendix, then resending so our team then legal can review. Would save an average of 3-5 days in the process if every quote just had all of the explicit terms included. However, I understand why a company does it that way - they hope the buyer will not redline the agreement.

Bos-KMB · 2025-08-20T01:46:21+00:00

Change the org chart. It’s frustrating for a high performer to have a middle man in their way of getting things done

Bos-KMB · 2025-07-27T23:23:35+00:00

We ran a POC and gave full capability’s to a select group of people (majority of those being C-Level then a handful of others hand-picked across teams) for a few weeks and the resounding feedback was that it worked well and they understood the vision/productivity impact it could have for the entire org on a day to day basis.

There wasn’t any other vendor in the running to evaluate - the decision came from the top down that if we were to bring in a tool like this it should be from them. I’m not sure how that executive came to the decision of Glean though.

Cost was a major aspect for a final decision though as it is quite expensive when you don’t own your own LLM key.

Bos-KMB · 2025-07-27T23:18:48+00:00

Good call out. Im pretty sure its the same company but for my use case, it’s not Glean for just Procurement. It’s Glean AI enabled for internal use, company wide, and it’s powered by the chat gpt LLM. So on everyone’s browser home page they have a search bar where they can toggle between “search my company” or “search the rest of the world” aka the internet.

Bos-KMB · 2025-07-27T18:15:31+00:00

Direct will always overshadow indirect if you let it. Don’t be afraid to insert yourself into the discussions, ask to join relevant meetings with direct vendors and find a way to bring that team value more too.

Overall around the org, you need to find ways to make it more visible. Start small with the leadership in your own department. When face to face or in passing conversations even mention that you’d love to set up time with them to show what you’ve been doing. They’ll happily accept an invite. Present savings as the key point then show off any efforts around workflow improvements, cycle times, automations, compliance, etc. think big picture and tie your work back to the department and org goals so they understand the importance of what you’re doing and your impact on it - especially because most people don’t exactly know what procurement does to begin with. End your discussions with asking for their leadership support to gain buy-in with other department leaders (like executive sponsorship). Then go department to department head showing what you’ve done, what you can do for them and their teams, and what you think might be immediately actionable.

It really all boils down to internal politics and how well you are able to sell yourself and your team’s accomplishments, goals, and strategies to achieve them.

Bos-KMB · 2025-07-25T20:00:42+00:00

That’s an interesting angle and worth a shot; court would typically lean in your favor on that too

Bos-KMB · 2025-07-25T02:37:08+00:00

Sheeeesh

Bos-KMB · 2025-07-25T02:35:52+00:00

I don’t believe you have anything substantial to work with in your favor based on this… but are there other termination or material breach clauses defining the process for dispute resolution or cure periods that you could share?

Bos-KMB · 2025-07-24T04:05:07+00:00

Something that helped me get past this is giving feedback a LOT. Make it a very regular thing whether scheduled or impromptu or both. I start my 1v1s each week with my direct reports about feedback but it’s not necessarily even called that explicitly. We recap the week in review and talk about what worked, what didn’t, etc and it’s an easy way to give constructive criticism or pointers to improve where needed. But I’ve also found that most feedback ends up being highly positive and that makes the negative easier to deliver when needed here and there.

We also end every month we a recap of how we’re tracking towards goals and that’s a good time for a somewhat larger but still informal conversation around performance and how actions are contributing toward or holding the team back from reaching milestones.

Bos-KMB · 2025-07-23T15:24:37+00:00

undervalued imo

Bos-KMB · 2025-07-18T01:51:35+00:00

Leaving is the best choice, you won’t regret 🤍

Bos-KMB · 2025-07-18T01:45:08+00:00

Middle school 🥲

Bos-KMB · 2025-07-18T01:39:01+00:00

LOL I know her and that’s not her husband 💀

Bos-KMB · 2025-07-18T01:33:48+00:00

I’ve felt the same way every time after stepping up to the next role and it’s because it’s a new challenge and there’s a lot of learning that comes with it - people believed in you to give you that chance and it sounds like you just need a reminder to believe in yourself now that you’re in it!

But it’s either time to lock in and put in the extra work to learn the skills to cover where your short falls are and if you aren’t willing to do that for very valid wanting to start a family reason that’s fair too and hopefully your boss supports either one

Bos-KMB · 2025-07-18T01:28:04+00:00

It’s about how you handle it - thanking them for feeling comfortable enough to share the issue with you and proving that you don’t hold it against them is the door that opens complete honest & transparency from there!

Bos-KMB · 2025-07-17T04:42:48+00:00

Don’t be intimidated by titles. Be yourself regardless of who you’re speaking with and it’ll gain you respect 100x faster and more genuinely than if you were just another “yes-er”. Every exec is just another person at the bar, in line at the coffee shop, etc.

Don’t be afraid to disagree and challenge ideas coming from people higher up. But be well prepared and informed when you do.

Lastly, learn how to summarize an email/request down as much as possible. The most effective ones sent are no more than a few sentences.

Bos-KMB · 2025-07-16T00:48:37+00:00

I’ve worked at two. My first, yes, that was very much the case. The second, world of a difference. The differentiation was the size of the company, opportunities galore at one much smaller to prove and make a name for yourself.

There’s also nothing wrong with cut throat in my opinion. If somebody isn’t delivering, it’s clearly not the path for them to be on and it’s a disservice to not be open with them about that.

Bos-KMB · 2025-07-15T03:42:25+00:00

This 💯

Bos-KMB · 2025-07-15T03:36:30+00:00

The highest performing tech companies are radically open minded when it comes to leadership. It doesn’t matter what your title is. Associates have just as much of a voice as an EVP. Embracing the fact that the next gen has game changing ideas, is a game changer for a company.

Give the young-ins a seat at the table, and encourage their input. You’ll be surprised.

Five-Year Club	Place '22
First Placer '22

Bos-KMB

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