Transferable Skills and Carving a Career Path in Procurement with MD at Participation, Simon King – Episode 57

 
 
 
 
 

Episode show notes

“In procurement, you’re trying to get meetings with people who don’t want to see you, persuade them to do things they don’t want to do, and negotiate a deal. Procurement and sales are very similar in skillset.”

With over 13 years in Coca-Cola, a CPO role at Tata and an influential stint at Mitie, rolling out the UK’s largest pure electric fleet, Simon King has seen it all.

While we’ve considered the need for obvious routes into the procurement profession, it’s always inspiring to hear from those who have found considerable success.

We’re splitting Simon’s story into a two-part episode, this week covering the roots of his love and passion for sustainability, why soft skills are essential over technical knowhow, advantages of gaining interdisciplinary experience, and much more.


This episode of Talent Talks covers:

  • Simon’s start in analytical chemistry before his corporate career
  • Lessons from almost 14 years within various roles at Coca-Cola
  • Advantages of setting processes in a greenfield function
  • Transferable skills between sales and procurement
  • Combining the Coca-Cola process and Dairy Crest people-management in a role at Tata

This episode of Talent Talks is sponsored by Nutral. Through their neutral vendor managed service, Nutral offers an easier, streamlined way to achieve better fulfilment, improved quality, 100% visibility & control of expenditure, less risk, and bottom-line savings. They place the interests of customers first when selecting suppliers – every time. Find out more at https://nutral.uk/


Episode highlights

“In procurement, you spend an awful lot of time trying to get meetings with people who don’t want to see you, persuade them to do things they don’t want to do, and then negotiate a deal and sign a contract. Procurement and sales basically, therefore, are very similar in skillset. ” – 4:00 – Simon King

“The reason I moved is that there’d be a small number of people in the team. I figured that being in a procurement environment with fewer people and a new organisation, it was a bit of a sink or swim moment, and I was fortunate that I floated.” – 6:45 – Simon King

“Things that we thought were quite obvious are not necessarily obvious in other organisations. I know from talking to people who’ve worked at Mars and Diageo and other large organisations, that’s true for them as well. So I’m hugely grateful both to the people and the organisation for that experience that I got early on in my career.” – 10:25 – Simon King

“If you’ve got the ability and you give people the opportunity, they really can step up and succeed. That’s something that I’ve carried with me for many years since, and has really helped me throughout my career. That was the mindset and I’m hugely grateful for it.” – 13:20 – Simon King

“I had strong indirect experience from Coke, but I hadn’t been responsible for direct procurement before. That was a big change and a great opportunity. I was really fortunate, again, to work for that sort of organisation.” – 16:50 – Simon King

“I’ve done a CISL (Cambridge Institute of Sustainable Leadership) course at Coke, and that really opened my eyes to how much of a role business had both in the situation that we find ourselves in as a species, but also how much of an opportunity business had to make a difference.” – 18:05 – Simon King

 

Links & References

  • Simon King, MD and Sustainability & ESG Senior Leader

https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-king-45284533/

  • Martin Smith, Founder & Director of Talent Drive

https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinsmith2009/

 

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