Designing a management development programme for procurement executives

Purchasing has undergone significant changes in many organisations and has moved from a reactive activity to a strategic one, contributing to a firm’s competitive success. This article charts the development of the purchasing function within a multinational aerospace company as a result of introducing major structural changes. Maister’s Professional Service Firm (PSF) model is then applied in an operational manner to outline the changing roles and responsibilities of the procurement function and to identify potential areas for training and development. Finally, based on the outcomes from the PSF framework, a customised postgraduate diploma for purchasing executives is described and evaluated. It is proposed that this framework not only illustrates how planning and organising issues can be addressed using the concepts developed by Maister, but also provides an illustration of how one model propounded by management educators can provide a foundation for enhancing organisational performance.