Digitization is a hot topic in procurement today, and while it will undoubtedly have a big impact on the future of our profession, it is often difficult to separate the hype from the reality. There are few organizations better positioned to help me explore this topic than HfS Research – a company I have followed for a long time – and their Chief Strategy Officer, Saurabh Gupta.
In today’s episode, Saurabh provides a “Three Horizon” roadmap. Horizon One technologies are those that must be explored and utilized today, while Horizon Three technologies are those that are more experimental. I also question Saurabh to share details of HfS’ “OneOffice” thinking, and to answer a question that has long been on my mind: how exactly an analyst research report is written.
I have long admired Vodafone as being a pioneer in both embracing and supporting supplier enabled innovation and last year Vodafone partnered with the government of Luxembourg to launch what I believe is an innovative approach to working with smaller, growing, companies that they named Tomorrow Street.
I wanted to learn more about Vodafone’s approach, and so I invited Warrick Cramer, the CEO of Tomorrow Street, and Mark Perera, the CEO of Old St Labs and a Tomorrow Street partner, to join me on the show.
On launching Tomorrow Street, Warrick shared how he had a blank piece of paper in terms of where to position it within the Vodafone organization. I really enjoyed learning why he chose to partner with procurement, and the opportunity that he sees for procurement in facilitating and delivering supplier enabled innovation.
Today’s show comes to you straight from the SIG Spring Summit last week in Washington DC, and features Danny Ertel, the founding partner at Vantage Partners. Danny’s practice focuses on helping buyers and providers of services enter into, manage, and when necessary, remediate their relationships.
Danny is a lawyer by training, and prior to founding Vantage Partners, he served in a number of high profile roles including as a law clerk to Justice Blackmun on the U.S. Supreme Court and as a Senior Researcher at the Harvard Negotiation Project. Danny has co-authored four books, including “Getting Ready to Negotiate – The Getting to Yes Workbook” with Roger Fisher, and is frequently cited in publications such as The Economist and Harvard Business Review.
I have followed Danny’s work for a long time. He first came to my attention as a thought leader and subject matter expert when while I was a Category Manager for Outsourcing & Offshoring, and I was delighted to welcome him onto the show. We focused our conversation on ways in which we can turn around difficult relationships, both with suppliers and internal stakeholders.
My guest on the show today is Walt Charles, the Chief Procurement Officer at Biogen. Walt will be well known to a number of listeners – he is a long time CPO with such illustrious companies as Johnson & Johnson’s Consumer Division, Kellogg’s, Kraft Foods, and now at Biogen.
As you will hear in the interview, Walt is very passionate about the potential power of procurement, but also believes that some of our more traditional approaches – such as the parent principle - may no longer be fit for purpose.
Walt has achieved significant results throughout his career by redesigning processes and investing in enabling tools and technology.
In our interview we talk about the “how”, with a specific focus today on tools and technology. But in the first part of the interview, I wanted to dig a little deeper into Walt’s background, and his philosophies as a leader.
Back in September 2016, Kelly Barner and I opened the mic for 40 revolutionaries to share their thoughts on the future of procurement as part of The Procurement Revolution event. One of the conversations that we enjoyed the most was with Jack Miles, the former CPO of CIBC, AIG, Computer Associates and the Secretary of State for the Florida Department of Management Services.
Our topic of conversation with Jack is just as relevant today as it was 18 months ago. We focused on the topic of mindset, and how a growth mindset is so important to be successful given the changing nature of procurement.
In today’s show, I am publishing the Q&A with Jack in its entirety.
I was delighted to welcome onto the show this week Jocelyn Stahl, the Director of Indirect Sourcing for The Hershey Company. The Hershey Company are on an ongoing transformation journey to build an Indirect Procurement organization that embodies the ideals of being a catalyst.
In our conversation, recorded live at ProcureCon, I ask Jocelyn to share the work that she and her team are doing to create a culture that respectfully challenges the status quo while maintaining a laser focus on the needs of the stakeholder – which can often come into conflict with one another! I also ask Jocelyn her perspective on Guided Buying as a strategy to not only as a tactic to manage tail spend but also as an opportunity to increase the stakeholder perception of working with procurement.
In the episode this week, I want to talk a little bit about the idea of stepping back and challenging things that we do every day, or the things that have become “generally accepted procurement thinking”. I won’t be seeking to suggest we are doing things wrong, or that things need to be fixed. No, my intent is to help us all, collectively, get our creative juices flowing! I kick things off by challenging three of our commonly held beliefs and strategies: supplier consolidation, high spend equals high importance, and that our stakeholders have seek to avoid, rather than collaborate, with procurement.
I’m joined today by Jeanette Nyden. Jeanette is a well renowned contracts and negotiations specialist, who approaches her work with a focus on building win-win, sustainable, agreements. In fact, Jeanette was a co-author with Kate Vitasek and David Frydlinger of Getting to We: Negotiating Agreements for Highly Collaborative Relationships. Today’s podcast is the first of a two-part series that I am recording with Jeanette that will deep dive into negotiating balanced deals.
Jeanette has a fascinating background – including as a trial lawyer and professional mediator – that she applies to her work. Today, we focused on the role of procurement as the facilitator, and how Jeanette’s applies her learnings as a lawyer and mediator to pre-negotiation preparation and developing the persuasive arguments that are necessary to secure complex, yet balanced, deals.
This week, I am joined by negotiation ninja Mark Raffan. Mark leads a negotiations training business – both for buyers and sales professionals – and recently launched his own podcast – Negotiations Ninja – which I highly recommend that you check out.
We had a wide-ranging discussion on all things negotiation - from negotiation strategies and approaches, to the common pitfalls that negotiators face. What was particularly insightful was hearing how a salesperson is taught to negotiate so that we could spot those tactics, and understand when they are being used, as we sit on the opposite side of the table.
I had a blast talking to Mark, and I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did!
My guest is Joseph Richardson. Joseph is the President and CEO of Professional Purchasing Partners which he founded in 2014, after a long spell as a practitioner. Joseph’s most recent buy-side roll was as a Head of Indirect Procurement in the Oil and Gas industry.
In our discussion, we touch on a wide range of topics, from the evolution of procurement to value beyond savings, and much more. One of the points that really resonated with me is when we talked about the notion of best-in-class procurement and benchmarking our organizations against others.
My guest on the Art of Procurement this week is my friend Johan-Peter, or JP, Teppala. JP is the CEO of the US operations of Sievo, a Finland-based procurement analytics company, encompassing spend analysis, spend forecasting, savings management and contract management.
The core of our conversation today focuses on how procurement can be the driver of what JP termed “radical transparency” through data.
We discuss three key themes:
In my mind, these are core building blocks for any catalytic procurement organization. It is hard to make a mark without good data.
Hitting publish on the show is a culmination of a lot of thinking and reflection as I look to continue the evolution of Art of Procurement.
I reflect on where we have come from, but more importantly look to the future and the building blocks of what my team and I have termed Art of Procurement 3.0.
In today's episode, I start by sharing the importance of finding your Why, and the process that I went through to articulate my own.
I then explore why I believe Art of Procurement must continue to evolve to be in service of my Why.
And then I deep dive into that evolution, and how my thinking has evolved over the course of 175 interviews, and putting those learnings into practice for my clients.
Finally, I share the six content pillars for Art of Procurement in 2018, and how they connect with our core philosophies of Making Choices, Leaving a Mark and Generating Fulfillment.
For more information, visit http://artofprocurement.com/episode169
How can we work collaboratively with our suppliers to manage and mitigate risk? That is the question I put to today’s guests on the Art of Procurement, Margaret Gilbert and Anthony English.
Margaret is the Director of Corporate Contracts Management, where she works with buyers and suppliers in all areas of procurement and contracting. Anthony has enjoyed a long career as an IT consultant working as a supplier inside both large and small organizations, and together they are co-authors of ‘Contract Matters: Procurement and Risk: A practical guide for buyers and suppliers’.
I invited Margaret and Anthony on the show because I wanted to understand the supplier perspective, and the unintended consequences of some of the decisions we make!
Tania Seary is passionate about raising the profile of procurement, and is a master connector, and networker. She is the Founding Chairman of Procurious, The Faculty and The Source, and in 2016 was named “Influencer of the Year” by Supply Chain Dive magazine.
I was delighted to invite Tania back onto the show for what is now her third appearance. I wanted to dig deeper into her success as a networker – with a focus on how to balance our online and in-person networking in an age where “connecting” is as easy as a click of a button. What can we do to make meaningful relationships out of those connections that we make online?
We caught up on the progress that Procurious has seen over the past 12 months and their plans for the future – if you are a Procurious member, or have interest in joining, you’ll enjoy this behind the scenes look!
I was inspired to cover today’s topic based on a question from a listener who has resolved to make a career move in 2018…
I know from personal experience that at this time of year, we are often making decisions on our career strategies for the year ahead. When I made the decision to pursue setting up my own business, I made the decision over the holiday period, and I’m sure many listeners may have done the same this year – whether it is to pursue a new role internally, or externally.
So what I thought I would do today is share a number of tips to consider if you are considering a new role in 2018 – based on both my own experiences, but also gleaned from interviews and conversations with a number of recruiters.
These tips are focused on what you can do TODAY to be prepared.