“We have to think beyond our role and help the business from the forefront. Step out of predefined roles — we have to move ahead. You need to understand the business needs first,” Singh told the room.
He urged his peers to grab a “bigger piece of the decision-making pie”.
“It’s very important to keep challenging yourself. How can we bring more efficiency to the process? I’ll give you an example — we all use a smartphone, the old era of phones has gone. So now why do we not use the best tools [in our roles]” said Bhanu, recommending investment into modern buying systems.
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“What you did in 10 minutes you have to do in two minutes,” agreed Nair.
Aside from strategy, Sohail Ahmed, materials manager, Hyatt Capital Gate, spoke up from the audience, suggesting that when it came to international best practices, the Middle East was behind on three counts: sustainability, sourcing from local suppliers, and e-procurement.
The panelists agreed sustainability was important, but Hassan argued that “the industry has to walk before it can run. It must dedicate time to it”.
E-procurement
The issue of e-procurement dominated several of the panel sessions, with delegates divided as to how useful online systems could be.
One concern raised by Zahid Aslam, area director of purchasing, Shangri-La Hotel Dubai, was that there was a risk of it limiting decisions because only a certain percentage of suppliers would be listed on each system. Others questioned that the potential risk of e-bidding was that it would bring decisions back to price — something the industry is trying to move away from as a sole motivator. Having already implemented e-bidding at Atlantis, Singh said there were multiple tools available and that in his experience, it still meant all opportunities were open.
“It’s not just financial parameters,” he said. “Our system creates feedback based on how the supplier is performing so far with us,” he added, accepting there was a risk factor with new companies, which would need to be quantified.
Manesh Balani, director, Direct Hotel Supplies, (DHS) & Orsini SPI, said “online purchasing in the Middle East has not reached the level of Europe or the US”.
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