I
was a sophomore in high school when I knew I wanted to go into business. At
that time, Sarbanes-Oxley was introduced and it seemed there were a plethora of
accounting opportunities that could lead to well-paying jobs. I decided to go
to one of the best business schools that fit my qualifications for my bachelor
degree endeavor: Penn State University. I was halfway through my time there
when I went to “Consulting Night”, an evening where the big consulting firms
sent young representatives to speak to Penn State business students about why
they should consider a career in consulting. PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte, and
Boston Consulting Group were all in attendance. They blew my mind with how much
fun and interest could go along with the hard work that goes into consulting.
Right
then and there I decided to change my major from Accounting to Supply Chain and
Information Systems. Several close friends and family members were hesitant to
support me in this decision. They were unsure what Supply Chain was and what
kind of career that could lead to. I may have been unsure myself, but I was
entranced by all of my supply chain classes and the professors that educated
me. My favorite class was Strategic Procurement with Professor Christopher
Craighead. There was an excitement to finding out how to save companies money
just by being more efficient or looking at total cost of a unit. I was
astounded by the number of companies just looking at sales and marketing and
new business, never taking into consideration how to reduce the costs they are
already spending.
After
graduating I went back to Dresher, Pennsylvania and looked for any procurement
job out there. I found myself a procurement assistant job where I was sourcing
contractors to perform maintenance on exterior property of Walmart sites. I
moved onto a procurement assistant job for a management company that was part
of the landing gear prime vendor contract. I had a desire to gain more
experience and hands on knowledge about supply chains so I became a planner and
buyer for a helicopter assembly company.
I
am now an Analyst for a strategic sourcing firm - a role that has reinforced my
passion for the industry. An analyst looks strictly at the data one can find
and uses said data to form a conclusion. An analyst lets the data present
itself to a client and shows real results. There are no wishful thinking
situations. There is no “Let me tell you what I think and rush through any type
of reason why”. The best part of being an Analyst for Source One Management
Service is the pride we have in our contingency model. We are willing to trust
our system, our coworkers, and our expertise to produce hard-dollar savings –
and get paid only on results. (We do have fixed fee and other cost models,
though, to fit the needs of our clients).
I
hope this shows the passion that I have for savings. Looking at data and
finding ways to save money, create efficiencies, and consolidate data to make
processes and earnings easier for a company to achieve is an exciting life for
me. I wish all companies luck with their own saving initiatives. I know
first-hand that not every company has the personnel, the time, or the resources
to look into all the opportunities there are to save money. A strategic
sourcing firm is that additional resource that helps achieve the win-win
scenario all are looking for.
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