Cryptography, tokenization, tokenomics, initial coin offerings, security, utility and payment tokens, crypto wallets, and blockchain.
If some or all of those sound like a mish-mash of buzzwords, then today’s episode is for you!
I’m joined to explore these topics and their applicability to procurement by Charlotte de Brabandt and Henry Fudge.
Charlotte is the current ISM 30 Under 30 Megawatt Winner. Henry is the Founding Partner and CEO of Cryptonox - an initial coin offering consulting firm, and Founding Partner of the Young Blockchain Professionals Network.
We start by digging deep into cryptography and tokenization, as I explore how I could leverage an initial coin offering for my company, CatalystCo.
We then talk in more detail about different use cases for blockchain, with a particular focus on procurement and supply chain.
For more information, visit https://artofprocurement.com/crypto
How to Buy a Gorilla?
The good news is that it is a figurative question rather than a literal one! In fact, it is the title of the book written by today’s guest, David Meikle.
David has a deep background in advertising, including work with some of the world’s most iconic brands, for agencies such as Ogilvy and Mather, where most latterly he was the Managing Director of their Russian business.
The gorilla in question was an award-winning 2007 TV advert in the UK created to advertise Cadbury’s chocolate. The advert in question was a 90-second shot of an actor dressed up in a gorilla costume, playing the drums, to the Phil Collins song “In the Air Tonight”. The ad was considered a runaway success.
In short, How to Buy a Gorilla is all about buying creative services - using advertising as the example - with a focus on creating productive relationships between procurement, internal marketing, and advertising agencies.
While our conversation is based on the advertising business, the principals we discuss can be applied to any people-based creative services where success may be difficult to define, but that requires an alchemy that goes way beyond the contract to create an environment that enables creative individuals and teams to do their best work.
Today’s guest is Oliver Gall, the Head of Global Sourcing at S&P Global. Oliver has responsibility for the strategic vision, operational planning and the execution of Procurement strategy and he leads a team of direct reports and outsourced functions located in multiple locations across the world.
In our conversation, we focused on the future of the procurement operating model - we consider what this is likely to look like, how we all can adapt to thrive in this new environment, and what are some of the unknowns that we need to keep a look out for.
We also talked about our own development, and that of our teams, as Oliver provides some great advice on how to manage the panic that often sets in when faced with change, or new challenges!
I left the conversation inspired both by the opportunities available to us, and the power of our own individual choices in taking advantage of those opportunities.