The best fit for today and sustainable for tomorrow is a driving direction.  Ashok Asawale, Vice President Corporate IT, Mahindra & Mahindra, shares his take on the current challenges for project procurement, beating the procurement blues and what all lacks in the Indian procurement practice.
Major challenges for procurementAshok outlined some major challenges that are being faced in the areas of project procurement. He says, “The awareness of total business needs for handling the project procurement are the wishful aspects, they are never met. The capability of exploring and formalising the assumed conditions across projects is always a tough task.”
According to Ashok, there are enough quality standards that are available. It is high time we need to adopt them. He feels, “The quality should never be compromised is a norm in dealing with this journey.”
Beating Procurement BluesWhen asked about the methods that can help beat procurement issues, Ashok said, “To beat the above challenges and to create a win conditions, at the same time no one should feel that they have lost, we need to create co-create culture and win every one’s mind. It is a tough challenge, but not difficult.”
He adds, “All these are human behavior driven conditions and hence understanding and handling the mind is a critical journey. The formalisation of each aspect and the PDCA cycle (Plan followed by Do followed by Check and Act) helps in capturing handling the master data and related attributes in effective ways.”
Global challenges in procurement China market is known for economic alternatives vs US market is known for technology upgradations vs Japanese’s methods are known for lean thinking and we Indians are known for integration capability. Cloud and digital is one more dimension. Before going into the challenges, Ashok feels that one should first understand the importance of these pillars and our integration capability in dealing with the procurement for the projects.  “The project cost needs to be minimum and China has capability to give cost effective alternatives. During planning phase, we should look upon, what makes China to give the unthinkable low cost and to be used as data or the contents. For future readiness right selection of technology is equally critical and hence focuses need to be on Western case studies. The best fit for today and sustainable for tomorrow is a driving direction,” says Ashok.
Priority watch out listHe feels that the bitter truth is to either be an early adaptor and take risks or, be a slow follower and avoid them. One should try finding answers of questions like: • Have I used the design thinking methodology? • What is my investment capability? • What is my RISK taking power?
Dealing with unfair practicesExpressing about how Mahindra & Mahindra deals with the unfair practices of the dealers, Ashok said, “There are enough systems, tools and techniques available. At government level, from Aadhar card journey to each day event, enough formalised way of working is getting built with system driven approach and tools.”
He adds, “Let us work together in building the robust due diligence in building the future of India and hence that of us all.”