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December 4, 2019.”

Anna looks at her journal and then looks at her face on the laptop screen. Then shifts her perspective and watches the bridge over the window. She feels the empty street and contemplates, overlooking the frozen white river underneath. She feels how one virus reached and disrupted every aspect of 2020. How efficient its supply chain must have been.

She misses those warm and bright colors amidst this chilling winter.

She imagines the last year’s Christmas time. She misses the aroma of mulled wine and gingerbread in the air. She remembers how the main square and the university transformed into a massive Christmas village dotted with hundreds of stalls.

She misses the secret Santa gifting ritual and the anticipation of their reactions.

She misses the office party, the laughter, and those hugs before the holidays. The excitement of gift getting and giving.

But though we are not physically present to provide the warmth that gifting offers, we can have our efforts on the gift provide a vicarious yet worthwhile warmth and emotion in this holiday season.

Holidays are about love, togetherness, and gratitude – none of which fit into a gift box. But when done in the right spirit, it can be a surprisingly meaningful act. And it doesn’t have to be all about consumerism – no matter how many commercials we see this time of year. At its best, gift-giving is a way to show the people in our lives that we care about them.

So how to choose the right gift for our procurement partners at the workplace?

The answer lies in mapping their procurement traits vs. personal traits. Our procurement gifting guide may help you in this case.

Each one of us has our tacit individual traits, which shapes up our ability at the workplace. Within this canopy of rationality, we tend to ignore the personality stones that shape up as a complete whole.

So, the way each of us excels in our job function, we have a set of personality traits that create excellence. You can tell you a lot about anyone’s personality and what they might like by mapping it to their job function excellence. In this upcoming holiday season, then get personal and make gift giving an art.

With that in mind, here you go: on a unique journey on finding out which of 5 unique procurement traits suits your colleagues and the ideal procurement gifting guide for every one of them in this holiday season.

The Big 5 Procurement Personalities:

The Master Negotiator:

This person is the epitome of taking it through and making it. From onboarding new suppliers, identifying cost-benefit trade-offs to contract terms: They are at the forefront of supplier relationships.

These individuals ensure that a mutually healthy and profitable relationship is maintained with all the suppliers and vendors.

Action-oriented, boisterous, and spontaneous, fun-loving. Negotiators love tackling problems as they arise and telling great stories about their solutions afterward.

They are not the wrapping gift types. They prefer something that simulates and give them a point of pride in talking about it.

So, send them a gift that creates experiences.

1) Seek Excitement: High Adrenaline activities like rock climbing, archery lessons, mountain biking. If they already are into some of them, an appropriate gear would be a great gift.

2) Exploratory Gifts: Negotiators are explorers of ideas. Exploration stimulates them. A Tasting flight of particular new health food, coffee, tea, and chocolate from different origins would interest them.

3) Give them a talking point: Negotiators love talking. Any gift that gives them a story to talk about will be loved. A vintage stopwatch, a collectible stamp, a recycled wall hanging can be good gifts.

The Procurement Zen Master

This person is the ideal procurement leader. This individual has an unusual mix of skills and experience. Not only does this person have technical procurement expertise, but he/she is also able to manage and support suppliers, staff, and an increasingly complex mix of stakeholders.

This individual is fluent in the evolving big data strategies and the technology that are reinventing the procurement process

These individuals will thank you effusively for pretty much any gift – and they’ll mean it. As long as there is a meaningful backstory, they get excited about everything. They appreciate the extra thought that goes into picking presents that suit them.

1) Feed their love for nature: A lot of credit for their zen-mindedness goes to their nature time: a terrarium, snake plant, bonsai, or even an exciting plant from a different Continent could be a fun gift.

2) Add on to their Journal collection: Most of these individuals are disciplined and tend to journal their emotions for clarity. A lovely vintage Journal can be a nice gift for them.

3) Make their life more comfortable: Any gift is a thoughtful attempt to save them time, and energy is always welcome. For example, an external battery pack, a set of noise cancellation earphones are always appreciated.

The Risk Assessor:

Risk Assessors are the quiet masters of the procurement game. They strike the critical balance between risk and reward to generate both savings and added value.

These individuals can find the pin in a haystack. You can rely on this person to find out the minute details in the contract, suppliers’ reliability, and the possibilities of external market factors in the supply chain. The risk assessor is always ahead of the curve.

Risk Assessors fall into the ‘Reactive Introvert’ category. They have strong analytical skills and are experts in applying logic and caution to deal with complex subjects with accuracy and precision.

These individuals are focused, fact-oriented, reserved yet willful, with a rational outlook on life

Planned and cautious, Risk assessors are the ones who least enjoy surprises.

They prefer to live in a minimalistic and straightforward. So, typical gifts rarely appeal to them. Fortunately, you can use your creativity to choose presents the Risk Assessor will appreciate with a little thought and effort.

1) Offer Practical Useful Products: Risk assessors always welcome items that are readily usable and consumables. The practicality of the gift makes them appreciate it all more. A shirt, a good pack of food and beverages, an elegant pen, and a good pair of shoes can be options. Rest lies in your creativity and the personal connection with that person.

2) Items that can add to their Planned Life: Risk assessors are planned individuals and love the very essence of planning. Planners, online subscriptions to time management, and planning services are perfect.

The Digital Transformation Guy

They are the technology advocates of the organization. He always keeps listing the benefits of automation on reducing contract errors, improving supplier evaluation, improving system efficiency, and the list goes on and on.

They are the ones to reach out to discuss the future of AI, BOTS, and how the new decade will redefine procurement.

They tend to be bold and creative, deconstructing, and rebuilding ideas with astonishing mental agility. They enjoy painting the future picture and explaining how human behavior will fit into technology in the upcoming future.

When picking out gifts for them, keep in mind that they tend to enjoy extremes. They are also highly likely to say that “staying unique” is important to them. The upshot? Steer clear of cookie-cutter gifts for these types.

1) Create a novel Learning Adventure: A local history book, a museum tour, a DIY kit. Anything that caters to their curiosity will make them happy.

2) Ignore the Top 10 Gift list: Instead, go for specialty items. Ghost pepper sauce, Dried leaf pendants, a local painting can be good options as they always prefer something unique and memorable.

The Spend Setters:

Savings, costs, percentages, and profits are their four meals for the day.

They are always on their toes, consolidating vendors for volume discounts and efficient management. These individuals keep a low profile with a detailed eye on maverick spends with regular spend analysis and insights.

They are the go-to people to understand any spending leakages and cost reports on every aspect and function of the organization.

These individuals are strategic thinkers, highly detail-oriented, and analytic. They are decisive people who love momentum and accomplishment. They gather information to construct their creative visions but rarely hesitate for long before acting on them. They love a good challenge. Their love for efficiency and unwavering belief in the merits of rationalism, especially professionally, makes them unique but difficult to shop for.

1) Opinionated and straight-shooting, they won’t make a fuss over a gift they don’t like. Fortunately, by paying close attention to their behavior, you stand a good chance of coming up with something they’ll genuinely appreciate.

2) Go with something homemade. A customized gift – for example, a painting or mug with their favorite quote (or even something they’ve said themselves!) – can be much more appealing to these personalities than something generic or off-the-shelf.

3) Choose quality over quantity. Spend Stars don’t expect a plethora of gifts – they’d rather receive one nice thing. In other words, a tiny bottle of truffle oil would probably appeal to them more than a big sampler of less exquisite oils.

When we have physical restrictions in place, gifts can help us reconnect emotionally.

Summary:

This procurement gifting guide is by no means is an exhaustive one, but I am sure this new mapping and gifting technique would take some pressure off your shoulders.

Just in case you would like to add up a personalized Christmas Holiday card for your procurement partners, visit here and find out what Christmas characters they resemble.

Remember, this procurement gifting guide is not only about getting the perfect gift but also about the affection and effort you put behind it. We at Zycus wish you a happy holiday season ahead.

Just in case you would like to add up a personalized Christmas Holiday card for your procurement partners, visit here and find out what Christmas characters they resemble.

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