Transferable Skills and Carving a Career Path in Procurement with MD of Participation, Simon King #57

“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/

Links and references at: https://talentdrive.co.uk/