Meet the buyer - Scott Hesketh

Name: Scott Hesketh
Position: Buyer – Fleet 
How long have you been working at YPO: Five Years

What do you like most about working at YPO?
I enjoy working in such a friendly environment that has a great set of moral principles and values. Being a not-for-profit organisation shows that our intentions are genuine; to obtain the best value for the public-sector purse.

I find it very rewarding to work for an organisation where we put our customers at the heart of everything we do. Obtaining the best value for money for our customers can be challenging but being constantly challenged keeps my job interesting and provides an added motivation to succeed. I am extremely proud to work at YPO and excited to see what the future holds for me in my new role as fleet buyer.

What are your main responsibilities?
My main responsibilities are to ensure we provide our customers with a compliant route to market and offer solutions to meet their needs.

I manage numerous fleet frameworks and my role includes keeping up to date with markets, drafting and advertising tender opportunities and staying customer focused. There is nothing more rewarding than providing the best service to our customers, particularly when this leads to our customers making savings. Another one of my responsibilities is to build and maintain relationships with customers and suppliers. Communication is key in procurement and having strong relationships with our suppliers and customers puts YPO in a great position to deliver great results to our customers.

What is the most challenging part of your job?
I am really enjoying the wide range of products and services that our frameworks cover, although at the same time this is proving to be a huge challenge. Our frameworks cover anything from vehicle telematics to large refuge vehicles. On our Specialist Vehicles framework alone we have 23 Lots which involves many suppliers - lots of relationships to manage!

I have many frameworks to manage simultaneously so it is important I prioritise my workload to ensure all framework agreements have the necessary attention.

Describe your role in three words:
Challenging, invigorating, fun

How did you get involved in procurement?
I started working at YPO in 2013 in the customer services team. Speaking with our customers first hand gave me an understanding of customer behaviour and what solutions they were looking for. I have always enjoyed working with customers and providing a great service, so when an opportunity in procurement came up in 2015 I jumped at the chance. I immediately knew the fascinating world of procurement was the right career move for me.

Tell us a bit about your procurement experience?
In my role within the customer service team I worked closely with the buyers and this gave me an insight into procurement and sparked my interest in this career.

In 2015 I accepted a 12-month secondment role as the assistant buyer for the food team. At the time the food team were launching a new innovative framework offering our customers a route to numerous food markets under one framework. Such was the success of this framework and the secondment I was made the permanent assistant buyer for food. The following two years were a steep learning curve in which I had a great hunger to learn more about procurement and take on more responsibility.

I started studying towards my MCIPS qualification in September 2017 and I am enjoying being back in education. In April 2018 I made the step across from food to take on a new challenge in the fleet team. I am looking forward to learning more about the category and bringing fresh ideas to the team. Exciting times ahead for me and my procurement career!

What do you like to do in your spare time?
Spare time? Between my working life, studying for CIPS and ensuring I get my equal share of beauty sleep, I don’t have a lot of spare time. I am a big sports and music fan who likes to attend as many live events as possible. My interests in both sports and music are very broad, so anything I can get tickets for I will be there!