The deal is done, the contract signed, and the supplier starts supplying. Then the invoices roll in. But how much time do we invest in making sure that the supplier is invoicing the right amount?
In a world of competing priorities, I am afraid to admit that I trusted my suppliers to be billing the correct amounts. Yet, mistakes happen. In fact, as today's guest Ben Evans shared, between 40%-60% of suppliers whose invoices his firm, Auditec, review contain material billing errors. Categories with a lot of SKU's, line items, or a high volume of transactions are particular areas of focus.
In today's pod, Ben and I explore what a procurement professional can to do minimize the risk of overbilling and ensure compliance with contractual terms - from creating a culture of compliance with suppliers to the steps needed to reactively identify and recover cash after the billing has occurred.
I’m joined on the pod this week by Odelle (Brown) Bell, Managing Director of 8 Consulting. Odelle is well known within procurement across Australia and New Zealand, having previously owned and led the procurement recruiting firm Evolve People. Now at 8 Consulting, Odelle is focused on helping her clients cultivate workplaces that enable greater employee engagement - and ultimately more impactful teams.
Our conversation spanned the topic of workplace behaviors and effectiveness. Odelle is a big believer in the power of choices, and our ability to create our own paths rather than wait for others to show us the way. We discussed in detail about self-awareness and the importance of understanding both our surroundings and how we are perceived as the cornerstone of our personal growth, and of our ability to drive change. Odelle also shares what a "typical" procurement professional looks like from a behavioral perspective, and highlights the blind spots that we need to overcome if we are to have the impact we desire.
Odelle is very engaging, and I really enjoyed our conversation! Odelle provides a ton of actionable advice on how we can identify opportunities for growth - if you are prepared to be vulnerable and seek to understand your weaknesses.
This episode marks our first serious foray into understanding why people do the things they do. Our guest, Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman of Ogilvy and founder of Ogilvy Change looks at consumer behavior, media and communications through the twin lenses of Behavioral Economics and Evolutionary Psychology.
We sought Rory out because we believe the implications of his work go well beyond how to better sell consumer products and services. His is a powerful perspective for us to incorporate into our collective work elevating the procurement function in terms of the value we create, how we create that value and how we are perceived by our stakeholders.
Rory is one of the most interesting, irreverent and generous guests I have had the pleasure of interviewing. While this episode clocks in at about one hour and thirty minutes, I was so engaged with Rory’s ideas and how he expressed them that the time just flew by. I trust you have the same experience.
Today’s guest on the pod is Jonathan O’Brien. Jonathan is the CEO and a founding member of Positive Purchasing. He has over 25 years’ experience of working with household name companies around the world to help transform procurement capability.
Jonathan works with executive teams to shape and implement procurement strategies, he also trains, coaches and develops procurement teams to perform and realize their potential.
Many listeners may recognize Jonathan as the author of a number of procurement-related books including Supplier Relationship Management: Unlocking the Hidden Value in Your Supply Base. Jonathan just published the second edition, and so I invited him on the show to talk about advanced supplier relationship management strategies.
Back in 2016, I interviewed Jimmy Ankleseria over the course of two podcasts, on the topic of strategic cost management. They were very popular at the time, and contain a number of timeless insights into how we can be more strategic about understanding and managing the input costs of the products and services we buy.
With today being a holiday week here in the US, I have combined the original two shows - which clocked in at over 2 hours - into a single 40-minute episode.
Listen in to hear Jimmy share ideas of how to build cost models for both products and services, and then his approach for partnering with your supplier to manage total cost once the contract is signed.