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Art of Procurement

Learn from Procurement Experts. Host Philip Ideson talks with thought leaders who share the trends, strategies and tactics that you can lever to elevate the role of procurement - and your career.
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Now displaying: November, 2021
Nov 29, 2021

In 2021, 62% of the companies in the S&P 1500 index did not provide an annual forecast - some even stated that there is just too much uncertainty for them to be accurate (WSJ, 9/22/21). This is a reality that all companies in all industries worldwide have accepted; market conditions will remain uncertain for the foreseeable future. 

In this episode, based on an AOP Live session, host Philip Ideson talks with Sherri Barnes, Director of Market Intelligence Services at ProcureAbility, and Kristen Rellihan, Senior Manager of Advisory at ProcureAbility. They discuss how procurement can develop strong buying strategies despite the certainty of uncertainty in the market and what tactics may be best suited in our current inflationary environment. 

Sherri and Kristen also answer live audience questions about:

  • The current state of the economy and how long ProcureAbility expects the uncertainty to last
  • What economic information sources procurement may want to consult, and how we can turn what we learn into actionable insights
  • How to bring market information into conversations with internal stakeholders, especially when the news is not positive
Nov 22, 2021

Usually the transformation journeys we hear about are focused on a single company, but there are instances of industry wide transformation efforts as well. The oil and gas industry is a perfect example. These companies are looking to evolve into broader chemical and energy organizations for the sake of sustainability, and procurement has the opportunity to become a strategic partner in this transformation. 

​​In this episode, host Philip Ideson gets a look into the role of procurement transformation in the oil and gas industry by interviewing Artem Sherekh, the Global Oil and Gas Practice Lead at SAP, and Ferhat Eryurt, a partner at apsolut Group. Headquartered in Germany, apsolut Group is an SAP and SAP Ariba consulting partner that delivers on-premise cloud and hybrid procurement solutions. 

After shining a light on the role of procurement in the oil and gas industry, Artem and Ferhat talk about:

  • How companies are overcoming the cost-based hurdles associated with transitioning from conventional oil and gas to more expensive but sustainable renewable energy sources
  • Ways for procurement to reevaluate their value proposition to the company as conditions change, and how that should guide their activities
  • Why high quality, centralized data is an absolute must, even in fast-paced, regulated organizations going through a lot of M&A activity
Nov 17, 2021

Leading procurement organizations are constantly reimagining their processes and operating models, but in today’s unpredictable and fast-changing world they are under more pressure than ever to deliver a high-level roadmap to building the procurement function of tomorrow.

 In TRANSFORM - a thought-provoking new podcast series from Art of Procurement in partnership with Globality - we spotlight the agenda-setting procurement leaders and companies who are changing the game and redefining the Future of Procurement.

 For the first episode in this special series, host Philip Ideson talks with Dr. Elouise Epstein, a partner at Kearney and the acclaimed author of Trade Wars, Pandemics, and Chaos: How Digital Procurement Enables Business Success in a Disordered World. She is surely at the forefront of driving the procurement profession to an elevated future.

Dr. Elouise shares her honest perspectives on:

  • How she thinks most procurement leaders need to change their thinking about the profession
  • How technologies like AI can enable companies to achieve their ESG goals and tap into new sources of innovation, growth and enterprise value
  • The traits that distinguish the companies that have best positioned themselves for long term success
Nov 15, 2021

The State of the Procurement Profession report, one of the largest studies of the profession, is now in its fourth year. Among the key takeaways is data that suggests cost-related objectives remain dominant, with sustainability initiatives far down the list of priorities, despite discussions and content that suggest more progress has already been made. The silver lining is that the entrepreneurial procurement movement seems to be taking hold, and may usher in a time of accelerated change.

 

In this episode, host Philip Ideson is joined by Dr. Marcell Vollmer, Partner and Director at Boston Consulting Group, and Christoph Bode, Professor at the Business School of the University of Mannheim and Endowed Chair of Procurement. They recently collaborated, with the assistance of ISM, to survey the procurement profession, and have published their findings in the newly released report “State of the Procurement Profession 2021.”

 

The key findings of the research focus on entrepreneurial orientation, digitization, and ESG, as well as considering procurement reporting structures:

  • Early indications that the first ‘big wave’ of procurement digitalization may be coming to an end
  • Why recent concerns about supply chain risk are changing how companies approach sustainability, and why this shift plays to procurement’s strengths
  • The mindset and risk tolerance that are observed in entrepreneurial procurement teams - who also appear to be outperforming their peers
Nov 8, 2021

In a recent Art of Procurement survey, access to market insights was cited as the second most pressing challenge for procurement professionals. Even when procurement is able to access the insights they need, they still have to ensure that they are up-to-date, harder than ever given the level of uncertainty and unpredictability in today’s business climate.

In this week’s episode, Host Philip Ideson is joined by Ashley Cruz, Manager of Client Services at ProcurementIQ, and Thomas Lawson, their Product Development Manager. Starting by providing an honest look at procurement’s legacy relationship with market intelligence, they share some of their best tips for making insights actionable and provide a behind the scenes look into how ProcurementIQ builds their market intelligence reports.

In particular, Ashley and Thomas answer questions about:

  • Why the time has come (or passed) for procurement’s market intelligence to move beyond supplier discovery and cost/price benchmarking
  • The value of incorporating market trends and dynamics as well as models into the negotiation and bid review process
  • The most frequently asked questions they hear from procurement teams when it comes to accessing and acting upon market insights and intelligence
Nov 4, 2021

The high number of low-cost transactions is just the beginning of the challenges with tail spend management. Spend often finds its way into the tail through multiple ‘wrong turns,’ each of which requires a different approach by procurement and a correspondingly different resolution. There is no one ‘cause’ of tail spend and therefore there is no one solution. 

In this episode, which is based on an AOP Live session, host Philip Ideson speaks with Jean-Baptiste Anne, Head of Enterprise Sales and Professional Services Teams for Amazon Business, and Vishal Patel, VP of Product Marketing at Ivalua about all things tail spend.

How do they define it, how to integrate self-service models, and ways to look at the ROI of your tail spend program.

Jean-Baptiste Anne and Vishal Patel answer audience questions about:

  • The differences between a dedicated tail spend solution and integrating that same capability into a platform
  • How to know that you are making the right investment to deliver a tail spend ROI for your company
  • The criticality of understanding what is in your tail spend to being able to direct it through self-guided buying options such as Amazon Business, new procurement-led sourcing projects, or incorporation into existing contracts
Nov 1, 2021

Procurement has been working hard to expand our value proposition beyond savings for a long time, and the current conditions in service-based industries may provide a perfect opportunity. Many service and people-based industries are being hit hard by what is being called ‘The Great Resignation.’ Managing these categories on cost alone will definitely not be enough.

In this episode, host Philip Ideson speaks with ​​Amy Fong, Vice President of Sourcing and Vendor Management at Everest Group. Amy has had a front row seat to procurement transformation as both practitioner and an advisor, and she is currently focused on services categories. This interview was recorded as part of PASA’s (Procurement and Supply Australasia) ninth annual PASA Premier Confex.

Amy answers service-specific questions about:

  • The roles and industries where labor shortages are the greatest - and therefore the potential price increases are the highest
  • Evidence that companies may be pre-buying digital services the way they were hoarding toilet paper in 2020
  • The trends she sees with regard to service providers integrating technology and automation into their delivery models
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