Common Sense Purchasing: Hard Knock Lessons Learned From a Purchasing Pro

by Tom DePaoli

Common Sense Purchasing is a no holds barred practical guide to purchasing and negotiations success. If you don't like consultants, buzzwords and theory this book is for you. Straight forward and to the point you will not be able to put it down until you have finished the purchasing journey.

92 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2004

About the author

Dr. Tom DePaoli is currently the Management Program Director at Marian University in Fond du Lac Wisconsin. He is the Principal (CEO) of Apollo Solutions (apollosolutions.us) which does general business consulting in the human resources, supply chain and lean six sigma areas. The company was founded in 1995. He retired from the Navy Reserve after over 30 years of service. In other civilian careers, he was a supply chain and human resources executive with corporate purchasing turnaround experience and Lean Six Sigma deployments. He has worked for over 10 major companies and consulted for over 50 organizations throughout my career. Some of his consulting projects included: transformation, information systems projects, re-engineering organizations, e-procurement, e-commerce, change management, global sourcing and negotiating. His industry experience is in the chemical, paper, pharmaceutical, IT, automotive, government, consumer, equipment, services and consulting industries. He has been published extensively in journals, magazines and books. He has been involved in many forms of communications including website design, marketing campaigns, political campaigns, radio advertisements, and scripts.

Reviews

[Abbas Mouffok · Rating 3 out of 5]

Common Sense Purchasing is a straightforward, experience-driven guide to smart and ethical purchasing. Dr. DePaoli shares lessons that feel authentic and hard-earned, focusing on practical improvements rather than academic theory. While it’s not a deep strategic book, it’s full of realistic insights that can help any manager or business owner strengthen procurement practices.

[Iliana · Rating 2 out of 5]

My first impression when I received the book, unfortunately was not changed. Book was so small, almost like a child's book. I had higher expectations and wanted to believe that "good things are coming into small bottles" but no. I had read one online article from Mr. DePaoli and that's why my expectations were high. But the book was disappointing, reminding me of PowerPoint presentation with bullets. There was some very good ideas, that's why the 3 stars. What I would love to see is what steps exactly he used to decrease the suppliers number and not just to read I decreased the suppliers by that number. So I would love to see a real case study and experience of him written on that book. Hopefully he will improve the book. Some ideas are very inspiring but in general is a boring book.

[راضي النماصي · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a buyer, I could not agree more on its content. Dr. DePaoli has left no effort to show what should a "procurement cycle" be with enthusiastic compelling way of writing. However, this book might be directed to directors/CPOs as most of it is regulated to governance and policies. In a work realm that is governed by lobbies and office politics, I do not think that such principles could be applied.