Her Story
About Anna
I started my career in an administrative role within R&D, even though my educational background was in pedagogy. I was always curious about how you can design things, create things, and work on research projects, so that really drew me in. As I progressed, I discovered that I really love procurement and purchasing because it's a very connected world - you're connected to your internal stakeholders, to suppliers, and even to customers. I like how those three points are always connecting together and giving you perspective. I developed myself from administrative procurement roles and then took a step back to get into a more specific procurement role before advancing to where I am now. About four months ago, I moved from Poland to the U.S., which has been a very different way of doing business with so many exciting learning opportunities. Currently, I'm responsible for creating a new sourcing strategy and building a team from scratch for a company that decided to open a branch in the U.S. I'm building new sourcing and supply chain strategies, looking for suppliers, making long-term contracts, and building up the entire team and structures so we can operate sustainably and effectively. We're probably in the month of kicking off our production fully, so I'm just at the finishing line, and then we'll see how it goes because there's always things that come up in practice that you can't plan on paper.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Anna
01What do you attribute your success to?
I think it's patience, and maybe that's a little bit of a cliche, but I never was looking for any workarounds or fast tracks. I was just focused on the hard work and effort I need to put in. What I'm having now is just kind of a thank you note to me that I didn't let go. I think that's what I would say - doing those small steps, trial and errors, and just thinking on my own. In the current world, we are being influenced so much, and people just forget about thinking what I want to do, and they just do what they're expected to do. You just need to go and make mistakes - that's what being creative means. I think even especially today, with AI, people entering the workforce are thinking, oh, what am I supposed to do? I would say that's now the best time to do what you want, not what's best on paper or whatever, because AI might take what's best on paper. You just do your own thing.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Don't think that there's no space you can take as a woman in procurement. It's very male-dominated, but there's a lot of space you can take because that's a place where you need to have relationship builders, where you need to have more collaboration instead of being in silences, and these are skills that women are often best at - they're just superior in that compared to most men. It's not about competition, and that's not what's needed. It's been like that for years, but if you have the skill set, you can enter this industry. The other thing is just being curious, being willing to volunteer, and learning things from the business perspective - understanding why those decisions matter. It's not just about tracking what I have to do, it's about understanding how business goes. If you do that, you might be really, really easygoing into that industry.
03What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I think I'm most proud of the fact that I never traded off my values or anything. Being integrity and just believing my own intuition always guided me. It was not always a perfect decision, but they were always aligned with who I am and how I act. I saw through the years of my career that maybe in the beginning, it seemed like being a little bit naive, or like people are not like that in this very competitive environment. But after years, it was always coming back to me with a kind of good karma, and I always was getting even bigger opportunities. I think that's always the most important to me - having this internal integrity and being respectful of other people, especially if they have different opinions, because that's where the growth comes from. Curiosity is one of the most important things for me - I really value being curious about other people. My mind is just blown by how things can be done differently and understood differently.
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