Procurement / Supply Chain management

Procurement / Supply Chain Management
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Procurement / Supply Chain Management
Procurement refers to the process of obtaining goods from an external source through bidding or tendering. The supply chain refers to the groups of individuals involved in delivering goods to the consumer (Lowe & Leiringer, 2007). The supply chain process's effectiveness depends on the type of leadership used by supply chain management. A commercial manager is responsible for facilitating business growth through the identification and utilization of business opportunities. Commercial managers ought to comprehend the personal needs of those they will lead to ensure organizational development (Cobbinah and Agyemang, 2019). The manager's main role is to ensure a smooth running of the logistics process. The supply management process involves effective communication with customers and suppliers and monitoring the procurement process. The Covid 19 pandemic has resulted in changes in the macro and microeconomic factors that influence economic growth. These factors will have a significant impact on the changing role of supply chain managers. The macroeconomic factors include the changes in national productivity and interest rates. The microeconomic factors are consumer purchasing powers and employee perspectives about the work environment. The pandemic has presented opportunities and threats for industries. The opportunities are represented by new business ideas and an increase in consumer demand for certain products. The decline of consumer demand is the main threat facing industries in 2021. The strength of organizations is their ability to utilize resources in minimizing threats and exploiting opportunities (Cobbinah and Agyemang, 2019). The weaknesses refer to the factors that inhibit organizations from exploiting opportunities and enhance threats to the organization. Therefore, this paper will focus on the changing roles of supply chain managers in 2021 in relation to micro and macroeconomic influences. It will also outline the influence that established leadership, management, and contract management theory have on these changing roles (Wamba and Queiroz, 2020).
Selection and Management of Supplies
The selection and management of supplies are one of the supply chain manager roles that have changed a lot in 2021 due to national growth changes. National growth determines the changes in demand for products. The increase or decrease in demand determine the roles of the supply chain managers. In turn, this changes the nature of contracts between the suppliers and the consumers. According to the contact theory, economic factors that facilitate national growth can affect contractual agreements. For instance, if demand is high in the industry for perishable goods, timely delivery is essential. If the wrong products are delivered to the customer, they might lose trust in the company and, in turn, terminate the contract (Dubey et al., 2021). Organizations aim at maintaining as many customers as possible, and therefore, the supply chain manager ought to ensure that the product selection process is run smoothly. The contract management theory has a lot of influence on managers' changing role regarding selection and management. Once the company has agreed with a customer, they should ensure that the specific supplies are delivered on time to avoid contract breach. A breach of contract by the company can cost it a lot of money for compensating the customer. Therefore, this presents the procurement manager with the task of ensuring that the product selection and management process turns out to be a success (Durach, Kembro and Wieland, 2017). The contract management theory is valuable because it helps managers maneuver their changing roles.
The supply chain is very sensitive to technological changes that influence demand. When the demand for products is high, the supply chain manager will be faced with many orders to process. This has always been a challenging task to do, and it often resulted in errors. However, this role is changing a lot due to technological advancements. Managers can use various software to manage client orders (Ben-Daya, Hassini and Bahroun, 2019). This software enhances the effectiveness of selecting and managing supplies, thus reducing the margin of error. Clients can order their supplies online, thus reducing the management burden of procurement managers. Such has left procurement managers with a few tasks to handle regarding the selection and management of supplies. In turn, this makes the managers more productive because they can focus on other issues of the supply chain. The contract management theory plays a huge role in ensuring the effective use of technology in supply logistics. 
 Employee perspectives about workplace leadership influence the changing role of managers. Most organizations have pre-established leadership that guides the supply chain manager through the supply chain management process. Such established leaderships are most useful to new procurement managers. The employees are used to a certain form of leadership, and therefore, this would make it easy for the new procurement manager to manage them. The established leadership is considered as a culture that should not be altered. An attempt to alter the leadership can result in chaos within the organization, thus creating an unconducive work environment. Therefore, procurement managers ought to follow an organization's cultures to ensure they effectively select and manage supplies (Scuotto et al., 2017). This means they should follow the protocols that the organization has been using. Every organization has its culture, and therefore, this makes it challenging for procurement managers in 2021 to use their previous experience in managing supplies. The managers ought to follow the established leadership of their current work environment to ensure that the supply management process succeeds (Salam, 2017). Organizations that use the transformative leadership theory stand higher chances of adapting to changing management roles. 
Making Transportation and Distribution of Supplies Efficient for Marketing
Given the current technological advancements, a lot has changed regarding the marketing associated with transportation and supplies distribution. The procurement manager has the role of ensuring that the transport and distribution process of supplies is efficient enough to facilitate the marketing process (Arunachalam, Kumar and Kawalek, 2018). Digital marketing has highly affected the relationship between organizations and consumers. Through digital marketing, companies can increase their market share. The procurement manager has to collaborate with the marketing manager to ensure the company portrays a good picture. In a situation where people can trust a particular company's transportation and distribution process, they can be easily convinced by the company's advertisements. The procurement manager's role in managing transportation and distribution of suppliers is highly affected by other organizations' professionals. Therefore, the managers follow the protocols designed for the best interest of the company. Through technology, it has become easy to market products. Digital marketing is one of the marketing strategies known to reach the largest audiences (Ivanov and Dolgui, 2020). In 2021, most people prefer to shop online. Hence, the supply chain manager has to ensure the transportation and distribution of supplies match the description of the company's advertisements. Such brings out the concept of management in organizations. Different organizations have different chains of command. Hence, the 2021 supply manager has to follow such a chain of command to ensure the transportation and distribution of supplies. 
Regarding the contract management theory, every client expects their supplier to deliver products on time and meet the changing consumer needs. Failure to which the client can easily revoke the contract, thus costing the company money (Zhao, Pan. and Song, 2018). This means the procurement manager ought to recruit employees who are the best fit for the job. For instance, competent drivers will reduce the number of accidents resulting in the loss of clients and money. Therefore, the manager has to ensure they have the best employees working in the supply chain's transportation and distribution section. Such would prevent any occurrences that might result in the clients cancelling their contact with the company. The procurement manager has to ensure that the company complies with the contract's terms and conditions to adapt to the changes in consumer needs (Wamba et al., 2018). 
Communication with Customers
with customers is one of the most important aspects of the supply chain, and it has been influenced by technological advancements. Through such communication, the supply chain manager ensures a proper selection, management, transportation, and distribution of supplies. An effective communication process and channels are crucial to ensure that the customers get the best service possible. Once clients have received good quality services, the chances are high that they will send a positive word of mouth to their friends. Such an increase in the company's market share (Munir et al., 2020). However, procurement managers' role in communicating with customers has changed a lot due to technological advancements. In most organizations, the procurement manager does not interact directly with the clients. Their work is to ensure that all the supply chain processes run smoothly. Technology has made it easy for organizations to use communication platforms to place an order and track their supplies. Without the current technological advancements, such communication used to be done manually. This means the procurement managers had a huge task of managing the clients, especially during periods when demand was high. Currently, supply chain managers can easily manage many orders simultaneously without necessarily interacting with the client (Sreedevi and Saranga, 2017). The established leadership in organizations enables the supply chain managers to follow a certain protocol when communicating with customers. In some cases, the leadership protocols might require the managers to delegate the duty to communicate with customers to the team leader. Such reduces the burden of this task, thus allowing the manager time to focus on other supply chain management issues (Lambert and Enz, 2017). Through contract management theory, the company and clients enter into a written agreement. This agreement facilitates the timely delivery of supplies to the client. A written agreement enhances the client's trust in their supplier because a breach of the contract could negatively impact the company. Therefore, the changes in technology influence how managers will effectively communicate with consumers to facilitate organizational growth.
The communication role requires mutual assistance from other professionals within the company to meet national growth changes. According to Mendelow's matrix, organizations should consider the stakeholders' influence on the business before making essential decisions (Costa, 2019). The procurement manager has many activities to oversee, and therefore, focusing on communication could result in challenges in other sectors of the supply chain (Saberi et al., 2019). The help that procurement managers get from other professionals within the company has changed their role of communication with clients. The managers delegate all the communication duties to other employees working in the supply chain department. The procurement managers only address disputes that require the attention of the communication managers. Given the influence of macro and microeconomic factors that have led to the growth of many businesses, it has become challenging for the supply chain manager to handle all communications (Tatham et al., 2017). Large organizations supply products to many customers, which makes it impossible for one manager to handle the communications. The issue of delegating duties in the supply chain has become an established management concept in most organizations, which relieves the procurement managers from this task. Such explains why most organizations have efficient supply chains (Jadhav, Orr, and Malik, 2019). Through the Mendelow matrix, organizations can match their decisions with stakeholders nee...