On Wednesday March 24, 2010 the graduation of Bert Doosje MBA in Procurement Management was celebrated at the office of BAM Infratechniek in Nieuwleusen.

Bert Doosje is Procurement Manager within BAM Infratechniek and completed his MBA study with a thesis about Commodity Hedging in the Construction Industry. Raw materials or basic commodities form the basis for each construction project and particularly the last few years these materials show rather significant price fluctuations. For construction companies these fluctuations mean increase of risk. In case of small operational profits combined with a rather high purchasing ratio this risk puts pressure on operational profits. In his thesis Bert concludes that commodity hedging is a suitable method for a construction company to reduce risk, however… it is definitely not the solution for a construction company to start with. Commodity hedging is a last financial instrument to manage a company’s residual risk. Creating awareness and making use of (or even better: influencing) the power balance in the supply chain are important steps to take first.

Prof. Doeve congratulated Bert with his thesis: "The quality of the research and the analysis in the thesis is excellent! Bert was able to analyze a complex procurement problem through a process oriented evaluation. Additionally, he was able to optimize the company’s business by solving the procurement risk problem. In a company as BAM where project management is leading in stead of the process, the organization went through a steep learning process."

On behalf of the board of directors, drs. Marco de Rooij RC emphasized how Bert developed during the Procurement MBA program and took a leading role in improving the procurement organisation within BAM Infratechniek: actual application of the learned theory within the daily practice! Further more, besides his own personal growth, Bert also involved his colleagues in the change process.

Bert's thesis report is confidential and exclusive to BAM; he is currently working on a public version of his thesis.

The graduation party was attended by Bert’s family members, colleagues and co-students.