THE “GAP” THAT GOT HIM THE JOB

“I don’t have direct procurement experience.” That was the story Saurabh kept telling himself. And to be fair, it was true.

He had worked across almost every pillar of the value chain… except one. 

Procurement. 

And that one gap? It started to feel like a blocker. Here’s where most people go wrong.

They zoom into the gap. We did the opposite. We zoomed out. We looked at his entire career.

• Every time he had moved into a new function.
• Every time he had entered unfamiliar territory.

And something interesting showed up. A pattern. Every time he stepped into a new pillar, he didn’t struggle because he lacked experience. He succeeded because of it. 

His outsider perspective helped him:

• Challenge assumptions others didn’t question
• Connect dots across functions
• Drive change where specialists stayed stuck 

So instead of saying: “I don’t have procurement experience…” 

He walked into conversations saying: “I bring a full value chain perspective that most specialists don’t.” 

Same reality. Completely different positioning. He landed the procurement role in record time. At senior levels, this becomes even more important. Because after a point:

You are a business leader first.

Your function matters. But it’s rarely the deal breaker. What matters more?

Your ability to:

• Learn fast
• Ask better questions
• Connect across functions
• Drive enterprise-level impact

The best leaders I have worked with have one thing in common:

They don’t get stuck defending what they don’t have. They lead with what makes them different. 

Be the CEO of your Career.

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Shub (Your career growth partner)