Supply chain and procurement professionals are used to supporting informed decision making, but the last few years have been far from ordinary. Decisions are being made more frequently with less time to prepare, and each one has a far greater impact on business continuity and supplier relationships.

This is even more true for direct materials. Sophisticated supply chain models and mature procurement strategy have been put to the test - each time the team must cross the ‘decision abyss’ could make the difference between competitive advantage and operational disruption.

Keith Hartley is the CEO of LevaData and Lance Younger is the CEO of ProcureTech. They spoke at a live event co-created by Art of Procurement and LevaData earlier this year: Navigating the Decision Abyss: Managing Direct Spend in Chaotic Times.

In this session, moderated by Philip Ideson, they address:

• What the decision abyss is and what it means to procurement, supply chain professionals, and category managers in today’s uncertain economic conditions
• The level of urgency being experienced by today’s corporate leaders, and how each decision making team is converting that urgency into action
• How LevaData is investigating the decision abyss to learn more about its causes and effects

Procurement 6 is a short podcast from Art of Procurement that publishes in the Art of Procurement feed every Friday morning at 6am US Eastern Time.

Presented by a member of the Art of Procurement team, each episode has 6 short segments that summarize the week in procurement.

Segments range from procurement tips to podcast summaries, from details of events to news or overviews of blog posts that capture our attention.

There will always be things procurement does not know. Even if all of the data in the world were magically made available, there would be quality issues and analytics challenges to overcome. Data has to be validated - at scale - before the business can be confident making decisions based upon it. 

In this episode, Philip Ideson is joined by Florin Tufan, Co-Founder and CEO of Veridion. Florin was recognized by the 2020 Romania Forbes 30 under 30 program for his willingness to take on the entrepreneurial risk associated with tackling the problem of firmographic data on an enterprise scale.

During this conversation, Philip and Florin discuss:

• Why a company’s age impacts the data quality challenges they are likely to face through layers of legacy systems
• What firmographics are and why procurement should be investing in them
• The role that AI needs to play for robust firmographics data to be made actionable quickly and at scale

Procurement 6 is a short podcast from Art of Procurement that publishes in the Art of Procurement feed every Friday morning at 6am US Eastern Time.

Presented by a member of the Art of Procurement team, each episode has 6 short segments that summarize the week in procurement.

Segments range from procurement tips to podcast summaries, from details of events to news or overviews of blog posts that capture our attention.

According to research conducted by CADDi, 28.1 percent of procurement professionals know what should-cost analysis is, but only 4.6 percent use it. Given the critical importance of efficient direct material sourcing to manufacturing companies, these numbers justify further investigation.

In this episode, Kelly Barner is joined by Yushiro Kato, Co-Founder and CEO of CADDi. He is an advocate for should-cost analysis based on his first hand experience leveraging it as an effective cost reduction strategy and also for its potential to serve as a catalyst for collaboration with key suppliers.

Yushiro and Kelly take this opportunity to discuss:

• Why there is an understanding gap around should-cost analysis
• How accurate should-cost analysis needs to be in order to be actionable
• What it looks like to conduct a collaborative should-cost analysis exercise with suppliers, and what results such an effort can deliver

Procurement 6 is a short podcast from Art of Procurement that publishes in the Art of Procurement feed every Friday morning at 6am US Eastern Time.

Presented by a member of the Art of Procurement team, each episode has 6 short segments that summarize the week in procurement.

Segments range from procurement tips to podcast summaries, from details of events to news or overviews of blog posts that capture our attention.

Years of supply chain disruptions have caused global organizations to rethink the role of procurement - and procurement teams are doing some reflecting of their own. This is the time for procurement leaders to reexamine their operating model in preparation for the next potential crisis. 

In this episode, based on an AOP Live session, Art of Procurement’s Philip Ideson and Kelly Barner are joined by Jake Taylor, Senior Director of Advisory at ProcureAbility. He provides his view on how leading procurement organizations are realigning themselves with the business and reinforcing that alignment with their operating model. 

Jake answers questions on topics such as:

• The pros and cons of various procurement operating models
• Change management considerations that will put operating model adjustments into context
• Actionable insights that will help you make purposeful changes to your procurement operating model

Procurement 6 is a short podcast from Art of Procurement that publishes in the Art of Procurement feed every Friday morning at 6am US Eastern Time.

Presented by a member of the Art of Procurement team, each episode has 6 short segments that summarize the week in procurement.

Segments range from procurement tips to podcast summaries, from details of events to news or overviews of blog posts that capture our attention.

Procurement teams are tasked with moving the ball on so many ‘important’ projects in parallel that it can be hard to put them in priority order. In fact, procurement could ask five executives which effort - cost savings, risk mitigation, or ESG - is the most important to the company and get five different answers. Clearly, building a mechanism to decide is the right place to start.

In this episode, Philip Ideson is joined by Chris Riley, a Principal in Supply Chain and Procurement at Deloitte Consulting based in Perth, Australia. Chris has experience in a variety of procurement roles in the UK, Singapore, and Australia, with companies such as Ford, Cap Gemini, Lloyds Banking Group, and Rio Tinto. 

During the conversation, Chris and Phil have the opportunity to discuss:

• Where procurement should go next, after the elevated role they have taken on over the last couple of years in response to supply and cost pressures
• How portfolio management and leadership strategies based on operational excellence can drive significant short and long-term improvements in procurement performance
• The role procurement can take on to support the corporate desire to spend with a social conscience

Procurement 6 is a short podcast from Art of Procurement that publishes in the Art of Procurement feed every Friday morning at 6am US Eastern Time.

Presented by a member of the Art of Procurement team, each episode has 6 short segments that summarize the week in procurement.

Segments range from procurement tips to podcast summaries, from details of events to news or overviews of blog posts that capture our attention.

Effective today, Art of Procurement has a new brand: an uploaded logo, look, and feel that align with our vision for procurement and the expanded content and events that are available to the AOP community.

This rebrand comes after eight years of gradual shifts. Starting with the launch of the podcast in 2015, Art of Procurement has grown to become the leading source of trusted, actionable insights for forward-thinking procurement leaders.

In this bonus episode, Partners Philip Ideson and Kelly Barner explain the intent and process behind this change:

• How our rebrand goes beyond just sporting a ‘new look’
• The need for procurement advocacy across the executive suite
• How this brand update aligns with our larger mission to 10X the impact of procurement

Supplier.io recently analyzed $1.4 trillion in spend looking for supplier diversity benchmarks that can be used to identify top performers and aid the advance of these programs regardless of maturity, size, or industry.

In this episode, drawn from an AOP Live session, Philip Ideson and Kelly Barner are joined by Aylin Basom, CEO of Supplier.io, and Lois Eichacker, their Vice President of Customer Success. They share the findings of the 2023 Supplier Diversity Benchmarking Report and discuss the importance of having an accurate, reliable, and consistent way to measure supplier diversity program results. 

Listen to this interview to discover:

• Why actionable data and benchmarks are critical to advancing the mission of the supplier diversity movement
• What the data reveals when small supplier spend and diverse supplier spend are studied separately
• The role industry plays in determining relevant supplier diversity benchmarks

Procurement 6 is a short podcast from Art of Procurement that publishes in the Art of Procurement feed every Friday morning at 6am US Eastern Time.

Presented by a member of the Art of Procurement team, each episode has 6 short segments that summarize the week in procurement.

Segments range from procurement tips to podcast summaries, from details of events to news or overviews of blog posts that capture our attention.

Despite the efforts that have been made to eradicate slavery, the practice has adapted. People all over the world are being held against their will and forced to provide labor, endure inhuman treatment, and are even subject to forcible organ harvesting.  

Tim Nelson is the CEO of the charities Hope for Justice and Slave Free Alliance. He was working in the banking industry when he met a ‘slave hunter’ through a friend - a chance encounter that started his mission to expose and address the slavery and human trafficking that exist within today’s supply chains. Today he is fighting both worldwide through an ever-expanding network of team members and partners.

In this episode, Tim shares his knowledge and and advice with Philip Ideson about:

• Some of the products, services, and supply chains that are at high risk of involving modern slavery 
• Internal and external drivers of change that are starting to move the needle on modern-day slavery
• The role that procurement professionals can - and must - play in working to protect human rights and protect companies from reputational risk

Procurement 6 is a short podcast from Art of Procurement that publishes in the Art of Procurement feed every Friday morning at 6am US Eastern Time.

Presented by a member of the Art of Procurement team, each episode has 6 short segments that summarize the week in procurement.

Segments range from procurement tips to podcast summaries, from details of events to news or overviews of blog posts that capture our attention.

The combined challenges of the global economy and digital competition are very real for most executive leadership teams. While many of the decisions they must make are focused on short term agility and operational resilience, they can’t allow themselves to lose sight of the investments required to fuel longer term growth.

In this episode, based on an AOP Live session, Kelly Barner and Philip Ideson are joined by Yatin Anand, Principal and Procurement Leader at KPMG, and Michael van Keulen (“MVK”), Chief Procurement Officer at Coupa. They address how procurement can increase overall business resilience for the sake of short term agility and long term growth.

Yatin and MVK answer questions about:

• How CEOs and leadership teams are approaching the challenges and opportunities they face today and the steps they are taking to prepare for the future
• Ways to enable companies to make better decisions across a range of strategic objectives by achieving better control over their spend 
• Where ESG targets fit into supply chain programs that are constantly being forced to emphasize risk and cost

Procurement 6 is a short podcast from Art of Procurement that publishes in the Art of Procurement feed every Friday morning at 6am US Eastern Time.

Presented by a member of the Art of Procurement team, each episode has 6 short segments that summarize the week in procurement.

Segments range from procurement tips to podcast summaries, from details of events to news or overviews of blog posts that capture our attention.

The sooner procurement is engaged in a business need, sourcing project, or contract process, the better the outcome will be for the business. This principle is widely accepted within procurement as truth, but has it ever been proven? If procurement could provide data to support earlier engagement and stronger upstream relationships with the business, the entire value equation would change.

Brian Peters is the Senior Director of Global Procurement Services & Delivery at Gilead Sciences, and he has a theory. He believes that if procurement has better upstream relationships, he will be able to measure the benefits in terms of:

• Higher savings
• Improved business outcomes
• Increased stakeholder satisfaction
• Shorter cycle times
• Improved supplier experience

In this conversation with host Philip Ideson, Brian talks about his theory regarding the ROI of procurement’s upstream relationships and the process he and his team are going through to prove it is true.

Procurement 6 is a short podcast from Art of Procurement that publishes in the Art of Procurement feed every Friday morning at 6am US Eastern Time.

Presented by a member of the Art of Procurement team, each episode has 6 short segments that summarize the week in procurement.

Segments range from procurement tips to podcast summaries, from details of events to news or overviews of blog posts that capture our attention.

Many leading procurement professionals started out in completely different fields. And while they manage spend and suppliers today, those past practices, skills, and perspectives are still available to them. That diversity of perspective is part of what makes procurement teams so creative and resilient.

In this episode, Philip Ideson is joined by Fadi El Mouallem, a global procurement executive and digital transformation advocate. Fadi has experience working at companies like Salesforce and Apple, but his original field was architecture… something that has come in particularly helpful in a field that is constantly balancing art and science.

When it comes to building and enabling amazing teams, Fadi has plenty of advice to share:

• The importance of being able to step back and take in the big picture while also keeping an eye on the details
• Purposefully pursuing a broad range of talent and backgrounds when introducing someone new the team
• The many forms that organizational influence can take, and why it always starts with human connection

Procurement 6 is a short podcast from Art of Procurement that publishes in the Art of Procurement feed every Friday morning at 6am US Eastern Time.

Presented by a member of the Art of Procurement team, each episode has 6 short segments that summarize the week in procurement.

Segments range from procurement tips to podcast summaries, from details of events to news or overviews of blog posts that capture our attention.

In this four-part special series, host Philip Ideson speaks with members of the Sievo team. In each episode, we discover a unique way that differentiated decision making can help procurement 10X their impact: procurement as an information hub, ESG analytics, investments in talent, and crossing the data to action gap.

In the fourth and final episode in this series, he is joined by Sammeli Sammalkorpi, CEO and Co-Founder of Sievo, to bring the whole series together by looking at how procurement can cross the data to action gap.

They take this opportunity to discuss: 

• What the next frontier in procurement analytics may look like 
• Whether automated decision making will replace procurement professionals 
• How procurement decision makers should think about procurement data assets

In this four-part special series, host Philip Ideson speaks with members of the Sievo team. In each episode, we discover a unique way that differentiated decision making can help procurement 10X their impact: procurement as an information hub, ESG analytics, investments in talent, and crossing the data to action gap.

 In the third episode, he is joined by Deep Singh, a Presales Manager at Sievo, to talk about the current state of human decision making and the tools available to drive decisions into actions.

 They take this opportunity to discuss: 

• How procurement can connect global sources of spend data with existing decision making processes
• What the decision making process looks like today with regards to managing risk
• Whether companies spend sufficient time cleaning and interpreting their data so they can improve their decisions

In this four-part special series, host Philip Ideson speaks with members of the Sievo team. In each episode, we discover a unique way that differentiated decision making can help procurement 10X their impact: procurement as an information hub, ESG analytics, investments in talent, and crossing the data to action gap.

 In the second episode, he is joined by Heta Pirttijärvi, a Product Manager at Sievo, to talk about ESG analytics.

 They take this opportunity to discuss: 

• Why ESG topics are becoming more important and receiving more attention 
• The main obstacles companies struggle with as they try to translate their ESG vision into an actionable strategy 
• Procurement’s likely future role in ESG initiatives

In this four-part special series, host Philip Ideson speaks with members of the Sievo team. In each episode, we discover a unique way that differentiated decision making can help procurement 10X their impact: procurement as an information hub, ESG analytics, investments in talent, and crossing the data to action gap.

In this first episode, he is joined by Heta Ruikka, VP of Product Management at Sievo, to talk about how procurement’s role has adjusted in response to differentiated decision making.

They take this opportunity to discuss: 

• How the last few years have altered procurement’s role
• The new challenges that are increasing procurement’s visibility and responsibility
• Examples of how increased complexity affects procurement’s analytical and sourcing work