®
Mar 2012
March is Supply Management Month!
Each year in March, Institute for Supply
Management™ (ISM) demonstrates its
commitment to lead and serve supply
management by encouraging celebrations and
awareness activities showcasing the importance
of the profession. Supply Management Month is
a time when professionals around the world —
regardless of job title, organizational role or ISM
membership status — can play an important role
in promoting supply management.
Supply managers' capabilities and responsibilities
have seen unprecedented growth in importance in
recent years. Never before have supply managers
been asked to do so much and take on as much
responsibility as they do now. Supply Management Month is a perfect time to celebrate ... and
educate others about who we are and what we do.
THURSDAY MARCH 1st
ETHICS PANEL
See Page 4 For More Information
Prior to 1900-Purchasing was recognized as an
independent function by many railroad organizations.
Prior to World War I (1914-1918)-Purchasing
was regarded as primarily clerical.
During World War I (1914-1918) and World War
II (1939-1945)-Function increased due to the
importance of obtaining raw materials, supplies,
and services needed to keep the factories and
mines operating.
During 1950s and 1960s-Purchasing continued to
gain stature as the techniques for performing the
function became more refined and as the number
of trained professionals increased. The emphasis
became more managerial.
During 1970s and 1980s-More emphasis was
placed on purchasing strategy as the ability to
obtain needed items from suppliers at realistic
prices increased.
During 1990s-Purchasing became more integrated into the overall corporate strategy.
Current-The field is experiencing increasing integration with supply networks and information
technology. The field has changed from
"purchasing" to "supply management" to reflect
the transition from a transaction-based, tactical
function to a process-oriented, strategic one.
TIME: 5:30 p.m. Networking / 6:00 p.m.
Cost $28.00* Includes Dinner.
VISA and MasterCard Accepted
No-Shows Billed
Location: Westmark Hotel,
720 W. 5th Ave. Anchorage Alaska
RESERVATIONS REQUIRED
Contact- Natalia Weems
email: N.Weems@alaskausa.org
(907)-646-6308
no later than
5 P.M. on Monday, 27 February, 2012
ALASKAN PURCHASER
Mar 2012
Supply Management Defined: Joseph L. Cavinato, Ph.D., C.P.M. Institute for Supply Management™
The supply profession continues to change, expand, grow and evolve at an accelerating rate. Today's dynamic times
provide opportunities for new and better strategies, tools and practices which in turn, cultivate more complex supply
professionals and companies. The ongoing development and sophistication of this field of supply management requires a
periodic look at the dimensions of supply to understand how it is being practiced and influenced, and how supply impacts
results and performance across the enterprise and the supply chain.
ISM leadership carefully crafted and periodically updates the future-oriented definition of supply management. Today
it reads: "The identification, acquisition, access, positioning, management of resources and related capabilities the
organization needs or potentially needs in the attainment of its strategic objectives." The remainder of this paper discusses
each of the dimensions of supply. Appendix 1 defines each supply management component.
Identification: Supply professionals' interactions are broader than ever before, from consumer and customer and across
the company's stakeholders and top management and through the supply base—all with the goal to identify opportunities
and needs. Identification continues with understanding risks, effects, performance requirements and paradigm shifts across
products, services, processes and geographies.
Acquisition and Access: Acquisition is a broad concept capturing the concept of the many ways an organization can
acquire and use products and services. Access reflects the use of the assets of others. For example, outsourcing is a way of
accessing the use of others' assets. Other forms of access include creating close relationships that utilize innovation resources and energies from outsiders.
Positioning: Positioning is the posturing of the overall organization to acquire and access the best possible goods,
services, assets and energies from suppliers. It means becoming the best customer to a supplier in order to attain superior
services, attract first innovation, and assure quality and supply flow. Positioning entails having the ability to influence and
affect suppliers' actions, behaviors and investments for the organization's own benefit.
Management of Resources: Management of resources spans both the internal and external spectrums. Internally, the
supply professional leads and manages how the organization produces goods and services for its customers and constituents.
Externally, the supply professional collaborates with suppliers and influences product manufacturing, delivery of services,
logistics performance and delivering value through effective process management. Supply professionals manage resources
to ensure lowest overall cost, increase efficiency and transparency in processes, and shrink the asset base. Leading
companies share their engineering, IT, logistics and other experts to help suppliers innovate and enhance processes, thus
improving and lowering costs' levels and prices.
Related Capabilities: This final dimension, related capabilities, addresses approaches, personal strengths and
organizational abilities that best combine tasks, skills, competencies and systems to meet any challenge or to identify and
gain benefit from any first advantage. Classic examples include (a) strategic sourcing, (b) total costs, including total cost of
ownership, (c) life-cycle costs, (d) scenario planning, and more recently (e) category and risk management and leadership.
Broad capabilities reflect how effective supply professionals detect and flex approaches to tight, loose and shifting markets.
They also reflect the ability to know and understand when it is best to apply primary buying power strength or gain advantage through collaboration. A capable supply professional is financially savvy and seeks performance results through a variety of mechanisms including lower price, total cost, working capital, speeded cash-to-cash cycles and reduced asset bases.
Building Supply Management for the Organization: Creating an expanded future for supply management requires two
things: a vision and a roadmap. Characteristics of an effective supply organization include:








A well-defined vision statement that is written and communicated throughout the entire organization;
Strategic process models for products, services, outsourcing, insourcing, access and technologies;
Business alignment that is synchronous with the strategies and initiatives of the rest of the organization;
A highly-developed understanding of the need for global awareness, culture, geopolitics, demographics and geography.
Assertive roles for influencing value-add throughout the organization and pulling it from the suppliers;
Planning and support of on-going change, development of consultative skills, and building talent;
Leading with new information, intelligence and measurements; and,
Extended influence and "selling" internally and externally.
In these dynamic times, the global environment can bring more change and demands in a month than were
experienced previously over a few years. The supply field and profession will continue to expand and grow in complexity
and challenges. Supply professionals today must understand strategic elements of the business first and then competitively
manage the business as an effective supply professional and leader.
PAGE 2
Mar 2012
ALASKAN PURCHASER
2011/2012 Officers
President
Sonja Love-Hestnes
State of Alaska
Phone (907) 269-3090 fax (907) 269-3061
Email: Sonja.love-hestnes@alaska.gov
Past President
Marlys Hagen, C.P.M.
State of Alaska, Department of Natural Resources
Phone (907) 269-8666 fax (907) 269-8909
Email: marlys.hagen@alaska.gov
Vice President
Anthony Bolido
BP Exploration (Alaska)
Phone (907) 564-4335
Email: anthony.bolido@bp.com
Secretary
Tony Lazenby
Anchorage Neighborhood Health Center
Phone (907)-792-6515
Email: tlazenby@anhc.org
Treasurer
Natalia Weems C.P.M.
Alaska USA Federal Credit Union
Phone (907)-646-6308 fax (907)-375-5039
Email: N.Weems@alaskausa.org
Director of Education
Ben Milam, C.P.M.
Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium
Phone (907) 729-2972
Email: whiskers@mtaonline.net
Director of Membership
Katharine A. Wall, C.P.M.
Northrim Bank
Phone (907) 341-8704 fax (907) 341-8749
email: wall.kat@nrim.com
Director of Communications
Mike Lankford, CPSM
Elmendorf AFB AK
Phone (907) 552-5362 fax (907) 552-7497
Email: michael.lankford@elmendorf.af.mil
Director at Large
PRESIDENT
SONJA LOVE HESTNES
Greetings,
I’m currently vacationing in a very hot climate but will
soon return to Alaska just in time for Fur Rondy.
Some of our NAPM-Alaska Board Members participated
in the annual KASH for Kids fundraiser for the Children’s
Miracle Network (CMN) this year. This great event raised
funds to help ensure that Alaska's kids will receive the best
care possible right here in Alaska. One hundred percent of
these donations to Children's Miracle Network will go to
care for Alaska's kids and support the services provided at
the Children's Hospital at Providence.
Thanks to all who helped support this charity fundraiser.
March is Supply Management Month, I encourage everyone to share this with their co-workers and others and get
them involved in NAPM educational programs.
Sonja
Ward Wells, C.P.M.
State of Alaska Dept. of Natural Resources
(907) 269-8687
ward.wells@alaska.gov
Suzanne Collier
Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium
(907) 830-4021
smcollier@anthc.org
Carol Geiger C.P.M.
Providence
Phone (907) 212-6339
Carol.geiger@providence.org
Monica Ulmer
Alaska Interstate Construction
Phone (907) 777-8244
Monica.ulmer@aicllc.com
Sonja Love-Hestnes
President
PAGE 3
ALASKAN PURCHASER
Mar 2012
Director of Education
BEN MILAM, CPPM, C.P.M.
If you ever purchase software or any Information Technology (IT) services, I hope you were in
attendance at last month’s meeting. If you were there
you are probably beating yourself up, knowing that
you probably spent far too much of your companies
money. We were indeed honored to have Jim
Florentine as our speaker. In a former life Jim was a
salesman and sales manager for large software
distributors. Today he has a company that takes the
knowledge he learned in software sales and uses it to
help procurement folks like us analyze and negotiate
software and IT services procurement. For many of
us it was no secret to learn that most software and IT
services are sold long before the purchasing department gets involved. Backdoor selling takes place in
many procurements, but, appears to be more
prevalent in IT where profit margins are extremely
high. NAPM-Alaska is always vigilant to ensure that
our speakers provide relevant education and not a
sales pitch for their company. I would like to commend Mr. Florentine for his strict adherence to that
policy. His presentation was 100% percent
educational when it could have easily turned into a
sales pitch. Several have already requested his
contact information and I will gladly provide to
anyone who requests it.
March 1, 2012 Meeting: Our annual calendar
calls for an Ethics Panel Discussion this month.
Hopefully we can still pull it off, but some last
minutes glitches may force a change in the program.
Rest assured we will have an educational program
with the meeting. More details will be provided to all
in our monthly email meeting notification.
March is also National Supply Management
Month (still referred to as Purchasing Month by
many). For NAPM-Alaska it is also Professional
Certification Month. Professional Certification is
becoming more and more critical in our profession as
it is now required by many companies and even more
often the differentiating factor in the hiring process.
As a result we will take this opportunity to recognize
those in attendance with a special gift. While the gift
is nice, the real recognition comes from friends and
cohorts. Hope to see you there.
What Has Your Board Of Directors Been Up
To? I am sure it is also mentioned by others in this
newsletter, but here is my synopsis.
PAGE 4
Several of us recently participated in a telethon
to raise funds for The Children’s Miracle Network. It
is not often that we as a group get the opportunity to
show community support and it would be difficult to
find a cause more important that this one. It was fun,
but we also helped raise a lot of money for this
important cause. The 3 day event raised $82,517 and
despite our 6:00 AM time slot, NAPM-Alaska played
a very important part. We were told that we had
surpassed other groups in this early morning slot.
Hopefully we can get more involved with community
support in the future.
Several members also participated in recent
Career Days/Jobs Fair at the University of Alaska.
While most vendors there were trying to hire
students, NAPM-Alaska was there to promote
Purchasing and Supply Management as a career field.
As students approached our booth with large banners
to identify our organization, the most frequently
asked question was, “What is Purchasing?” Hopefully our presence helped to recruit some of this
younger generation to join our ranks.
NAPM-Alaska has placed second for the past 3
years in the ISM contest for the “Affiliate Excellence
Award”. While 2nd place is quite an honor, the Board
of Directors has aspirations of winning the ultimate
prize of “Affiliate of the Year.” Considering that
there are some 180 affiliates worldwide, that is a
hefty goal. But, being gluttons for punishment, a
team of 5 directors spent several hours a week for 6
weeks to document our performance in the tedious
application process. Now all we can do is wait until
May for an announcement of the winner. We know
that NAPM-Alaska deserves the award; I just hope
we can convince the judges at ISM. Ben
Job Announcements
UAA is currently accepting applications for a
Procurement Card Administrator/Purchasing
Agent Position.
Position applications are due Feb 22, 2012
Go to www.uakjobs.com for more info.”
Mar 2012
ALASKAN PURCHASER
PAST PRESIDENT
MARLYS HAGEN, C.P.M.
Happy Fur Rendezvous and Iditarod, everyone!! I can’t believe it’s here already, but the good part
is that winter is almost over. The days are getting longer!
Following is a list of the open board positions, the incumbents, and the candidates. We will finalize the slate of candidates at the March pro-d meeting, and we will have elections at the April meeting.
We will do the installation of officers at our May pro-d meeting. Please note that just because there
is a candidate’s name indicated, that doesn’t mean that other members shouldn’t run. I don’t
have the Membership Chair position listed as being open, but our Membership Chair would like
to take some time off if someone else is interested in performing those duties.
Office
Incumbent
Candidate(s)
Past President
Marlys Hagen, C.P.M.
Marlys Hagen, C.P.M.
President
Sonja Love-Hestnes
Tony Lazenby
Vice President
Anthony Bolido
Anthony Bolido
Secretary
Tony Lazenby
Sonja Love-Hestnes
Treasurer
Director at Large
Director at Large
Natalia Weems
Suzanne Collier
Ward Wells
Natalia Weems
Suzanne Collier
Ward Wells
Marianne Beckham
Mary Beth Overturf
Northwest Purchasing Education Council
More details on the 2012 Pacific Northwest Purchasing Conference (co-hosted with the British
Columbia affiliate of ISM) will be forthcoming as they evolve. Also, we will be having a quarterly
NPEC board meeting in the next month or so (I know I said that last month but it’s still true!.
So get out and “Rondy”!! Marlys
Director of Membership
KATHARINE A. WALL, C.P.M.
Greetings ~ Several NAPM-Alaska members volunteered at the KASH for Kids radio-thon on Feb. 9th
to help raise funds for the Children’s Hospital at Providence. The event was hosted by Jimmy & Roxi
from The Morning Moo (107.5). Though the day started early (6:00am), it was a privilege to be there.
A total of $82, 517.00 was raised and a BIG THANK YOU goes out to all the members who called in
and pledged!
Please Welcome Our Newest Members:
James Potter, Senior Purchasing Agent for Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium
Karen Konopacki, Sourcing Supervisor for ENI Petroleum
Mark Mattingley, Buyer for ENI Petroleum
As we are preparing to finalize our roster counts with national, please take a moment to log into the
ISM website and check your personal information for accuracy. To access the website, go to
www.ism.ws and: Click on the MEMBERS ONLY tab > At the Members Only Main Page, click on
login to see content > Enter your User Name (will be your membership #) and Password (will be your
last name).
We hope to see you at our next Pro-D meeting on March 1st!
Kat
PAGE 5
Mar 2012
National Association of Purchasing
Management - Alaska Inc.
PO Box 93047
Anchorage, AK 99509-3047
www.ism.ws/sites/alaska
®
WHAT’S HAPPENING!
THURSDAY, MARCH
1ST
ETHICS PANEL
Westmark Hotel
WHAT’S INSIDE
PAGE 1/2
MARCH IS SUPPLY
MANAGEMENT MONTH
PAGE 3
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
PAGE 4
EDUCATION NEWS
PAGE 5
PAST PRESIDENT /
MEMBERSHIP
Anchorage, Alaska
The Alaskan Purchaser is published monthly (September
to May) by NAPM-Alaska, Inc., an educational
organization committed to providing purchasing and
material management practitioners the opportunity to
enhance their professional skills and knowledge. If you
have an item you would like to contribute to the
newsletter, please contact: Mike Lankford, CPSM
Phone (907) 552-5362 fax (907) 552-7497
email: michael.lankford@elmendorf.af.mil