{"id":3135,"date":"2011-11-21T17:42:00","date_gmt":"2011-11-21T17:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/2011\/11\/21\/procurement-parable-a-procurement-certification-or-mba\/"},"modified":"2021-07-06T07:53:42","modified_gmt":"2021-07-06T11:53:42","slug":"procurement-parable-procurement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/procurement-parable-procurement\/","title":{"rendered":"Procurement Parable – A Procurement Certification or MBA?"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

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Everyone that knows Gary had noticed that his mood had changed. Always known to be chipper and talkative, Gary was seemingly distracted in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

After watching Gary be aloof for so long, Chas had to intervene. Chas, like Gary, is senior buyer in Fictitious Company, Inc., a mid-sized engineering firm. Both Gary and Chas started out as buyers for Fictitious in the late \u201990\u2019s and both got promoted to senior buyers when the company went public five years ago. They both report to Jim, the procurement manager.<\/p>\n

One day, Chas said to Gary, \u201cHey bud, what\u2019s up with you lately? You haven\u2019t seemed like yourself. Is everything alright?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just mulling over some decisions I\u2019m thinking of making,\u201d Gary replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnything I could help you with?\u201d Chas asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, here\u2019s the deal,\u201d said Gary. \u201cYou know how Jim has been procurement manager since before we started?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd how he\u2019ll always be procurement manager til they haul him out in a body bag?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHaha, yeah!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I need advancement,\u201d explained Gary. \u201cI want to be a vice president of procurement some day and that isn\u2019t going to happen here at Fictitious.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re probably right about that,\u201d nodded Chas. \u201cSo you\u2019re trying to decide on another job offer?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish,\u201d sighed Gary. \u201cI\u2019ve been sending out resumes and I\u2019ve even been on a decent number of interviews. But every procurement management job I\u2019ve applied for requires either a purchasing certification<\/a> or an MBA.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBy MBA, you mean a masters in business administration degree, right?\u201d asked Chas.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah,\u201d answered Gary. \u201cAnd I\u2019m having trouble deciding which one to go for.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy not get them both?\u201d Chas asked. \u201cThey\u2019re not mutually exclusive, you know.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I know that,\u201d Gary declared. \u201cAnd if I didn\u2019t have a wife and kids, I probably would go for both at the same time. But they both cost money and they both take time out of your week for studying. With my responsibilities, I can only do one at a time and I\u2019m not sure which to do first.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWanna know how I\u2019d decide?\u201d asked Chas.<\/p>\n

\u201cSure,\u201d said Gary. \u201cI need something to break the tie.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I\u2019d look at my financial situation,\u201d Chas replied, speaking slowly as if he was thinking up his answer on the spot. \u201cIf I could afford the most expensive option right now, I\u2019d do it. Yeah, the economy is going well now, but it\u2019s been so unstable over the last decade or so, you never know if you\u2019ll have the money to do the most expensive thing at a later point in life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHmmm,\u201d said Gary, aloud. \u201cThat\u2019s\u2026a\u2026.different way of looking at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut doesn\u2019t it make sense?\u201d Chas retorted, not giving Gary a chance to respond. \u201cThe problem with saving your pennies for a rainy day is that when that rainy day comes, something else has already come to take your pennies. If you can afford the more expensive option now, do it. Then, if you want to do the less expensive option later, you\u2019ll need less time to save.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chas\u2019 advice didn\u2019t exactly resonate with Gary. Actually, Gary felt a little uncomfortable with Chas\u2019 suggestion as it was quite a contrast to the way Gary usually made decisions.<\/p>\n

Sensing Gary\u2019s apprehension, Chas tried to comfort Gary: \u201cLook, I know it\u2019s a big decision. So, take your time and just think about it. I gotta run to a meeting.\u201d With that, Chas patted Gary on the back and walked down the hallway.<\/p>\n

\u201cStupid idea,\u201d Gary thought to himself as he returned to working in his cubicle.<\/p>\n

But later that night, Gary pulled out some paperwork from when Fictitious went public. All current employees got generous stock options at that time and, since then, Fictitious\u2019 stock price had gone up, up, up with the rest of the market over the past couple of years.<\/p>\n

Gary found that, by cashing in his stock options, he could cover half of the cost of the MBA. And with his savings \u2013 or at least the portion of the savings that he and his wife didn\u2019t need to keep as an emergency fund \u2013 he could cover another \u00bc of the MBA tuition. He thought that getting a loan to cover the last quarter of tuition would be more than reasonable. Maybe Chas did have a good idea after all.<\/p>\n

Gary decided to go for his MBA. It wasn\u2019t easy convincing his wife of his choice. His wife had a hard time getting past the idea that the cost of a purchasing certification was 30 times less expensive than an MBA. But she and Gary had always supported each other in their career decisions \u2013 she left her accounting job to be a greeting card illustrator to fulfill a lifelong dream \u2013 so she deferred to Gary\u2019s judgment.<\/p>\n

Gary enrolled in an executive MBA program at a local university, where he attended class on evenings and weekends. Within three years, Gary had his MBA.<\/p>\n

One week after graduating, Gary had not one, not two, but three interviews for vice president of procurement positions at other companies. The job market, like the economy, was going as strong as it had in his memory, yet still Gary was pleasantly surprised at his success in securing interviews.<\/p>\n

Though two of the companies for which he interviewed sent him rejection letters, Gary did get offered the position of Vice President of Procurement at the third company \u2013 Mean Business Construction. He accepted.<\/p>\n

The day he accepted the job and turned in his resignation at Fictitious, Gary went to Chas\u2019 cubicle and thanked him for the advice. \u201cMan, that was some odd advice you gave me about getting my MBA a couple of years ago, but you know what? It led me to the right decision!\u201d<\/p>\n

Chas was glad he could help his friend. He had no plans to ever leave Fictitious, so he felt no competitive angst as many coworkers might. He was happy to see his friend succeed.<\/p>\n

Gary was thrilled with how things were turning out. He didn\u2019t exactly make the average salary of other procurement VP\u2019s due to the fact that this was his first supervisory position, but he did get an office with a nice view and an assistant who catered to his every professional need. He had arrived!<\/p>\n

Gary\u2019s first few weeks at the new job were chaotic and perhaps a little surprising. He didn\u2019t anticipate that the other senior executives would expect him to \u201crule with an iron fist.\u201d Gary was a pretty low-key type of guy, so being tough with his employees was out of character for him. The company\u2019s successful run of the past few years \u2013 as well as the economy \u2013 was beginning to be subjected to downward pressure, so the company\u2019s leadership was feeling stressed. But Gary felt he was adapting.<\/p>\n

However, things took a turn for the worst around the time that Gary was celebrating his three-month anniversary with the company. Waning sales combined with the fact that a major account canceled its construction plans the day before it was scheduled to sign a contract with Mean Business Construction put some severe financial pressure on Mean Business. It had no choice but to shed employees to stay near profitability.<\/p>\n

Gary was called into the CEO\u2019s office one day. The CEO explained that, because Gary was one of their most highly paid employees and he had the least seniority, that his job was being eliminated. Gary was devastated.<\/p>\n

Yet, Gary remained confident. \u201cI have an MBA and now VP-level experience,\u201d he thought to himself. \u201cI\u2019ll be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the more time went on, the less \u201cfine\u201d Gary felt.<\/p>\n

The economy began to crumble before everyone\u2019s eyes, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average shedding over a quarter of its value in a month\u2019s time. There weren\u2019t many available procurement jobs to be found on job sites. And the interviews that Gary did get didn\u2019t go so well.<\/p>\n

Gary would interview for senior buyer jobs, similar to the one he held at Fictitious. Yet, the hiring managers would tell him that an MBA and experience as a vice president overqualified him for them. Though Gary explained that he did a similar job for over 15 years and he would be happy to do it again, his pleas fell on deaf ears.<\/p>\n

Gary would also interview for procurement vice president jobs, similar to the one he held at Mean Business. Hiring managers at those organizations told him that three months of leadership experience paled in comparison to the years of experience the many other candidates were able to offer. Apparently, Gary wasn\u2019t the only procurement VP displaced by the bad economy.<\/p>\n

Gary tried to keep his chin up. But, after nearly a year searching for a procurement job \u2013 any procurement job \u2013 Gary was still unemployed.<\/p>\n

One day, Gary was entering the office building for the region\u2019s largest employer, on his way to interview for a procurement manager job. As Gary was walking in, who did he see walking out but his old buddy Chas from Fictitious.<\/p>\n

After exchanging pleasantries, they realized that they were both interviewing for the same job.Five weeks earlier, Chas was laid off by Fictitious.<\/p>\n

Chas remembered his conversation with Gary years ago when Gary was trying to decide whether to get a purchasing certification or an MBA.<\/p>\n

\u201cDude, you were so smart to cash in your stock options when you did,\u201d Chas told Gary. \u201cYou probably got a fortune. I didn\u2019t cash mine in until they canned me. Of course, with the stock market tanking, I only got pennies on the dollar. You were able to get an MBA out of it. Oh well, at least I got enough to get a purchasing certification. Looks like I\u2019m gonna need it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah,\u201d Gary thought to himself. \u201cNow that stinkin\u2019 MBA is actually doing me more harm than good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chas ended up getting the job for which both he and Gary were competing. However, the story does have a happy ending. One month later, Gary got a buyer position making almost as much money as he had when he was working at Fictitious during good economic times. The part that Gary was bitter about, though, was the strategy he had to use to get it: he actually excluded his MBA work from the \u201cEducation\u201d section of the resume he submitted.<\/p>\n

Whenever the topic of graduate education came up at family gatherings, Gary would always half-heartedly joke \u201cFor every job that an MBA qualifies you for, it disqualifies you for a million other jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Don\u2019t miss updates on Procurement & Supply Chain, Subscribe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":4085,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-procurement"],"yoast_head":"\nProcurement Parable - A Procurement Certification or MBA? - Next Level Purchasing Association (NLPA)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/procurement-parable-procurement\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Procurement Parable - A Procurement Certification or MBA? - Next Level Purchasing Association (NLPA)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"  Don\u2019t miss updates on Procurement & Supply Chain, Subscribe […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/procurement-parable-procurement\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Next Level Purchasing Association (NLPA)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/NextLevelPurchasing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-11-21T17:42:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-07-06T11:53:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/11\/nlpa-images-095.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1050\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Galo Matagay\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@nextlevelpurch\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@nextlevelpurch\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Galo Matagay\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/procurement-parable-procurement\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/procurement-parable-procurement\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Galo Matagay\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/#\/schema\/person\/72d094fab77892483dfa6e061cb27eaa\"},\"headline\":\"Procurement Parable – A Procurement Certification or MBA?\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-11-21T17:42:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-07-06T11:53:42+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/procurement-parable-procurement\/\"},\"wordCount\":1823,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Procurement\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/procurement-parable-procurement\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/procurement-parable-procurement\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/procurement-parable-procurement\/\",\"name\":\"Procurement Parable - A Procurement Certification or MBA? 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