Gene Ciemny was requested by The Washington Post’s CFO to become an independent consultant and separate from IBM. With IBM’s consent, he signed a long-term consulting agreement to lead the transformation from a decentralized purchasing entity to a cohesive Shared Services Organization (SSO). However, developing a centralized procurement function required decision-making autonomy from the business units, and the staff and consulting team at The Washington Post corporate office struggled with communicating the value of an SSO to them.
Gene Ciemny, Director-Level Procurement Consultant
The Director-level Procurement Consultant hired three new team members, realigned resources, and defined specific roles and responsibilities for the shared services staff. He then educated new and existing team members on the strategic sourcing process and implemented supply chain best practices and category management efficiency. Gene led the team in defining the strategy to garner the business units’ support and establish companywide contracts. He created a two-day supplier summit at The Washington Post headquarters to foster cross-company collaboration. Finally, Gene developed an eProcurement portal for all shared services contracts, suppliers, and marketing collateral to track, publish, and market the savings realized by the shared services efforts.
The development of the SSO and group’s collaborative efforts drastically boosted the organization’s savings from $7.5 million to $30.7 million over three years.
Watch full video interview below.
Contact Gene Ciemny via LinkedIn or his Career WebFolio.
Fred Coon, CEO
ViewPoint© is a production of The US AT Work Network© and Stewart, Cooper & Coon, a Human Capital Strategies Corporation. Contact: Fred Coon – 866-883-4200, Ext. 200, for more information.
© 2004-2022 Stewart, Cooper, & Coon, Inc. All rights reserved. Limited to personal use and allowable only if this copyright message is left intact. Any duplication, alteration, or publishing of this content without express company permission is prohibited. Contact fcoon@stewartcoopercoon.com.
See also: viewpoint, experts, interviews, solving, problems, workplace, topics, focused, decision, executive placement, executive search