It is not easy to strike a balance between the need for speed, control, and compliance. 

Get it right and you’ve unlocked the X factor. Get it wrong and the customer experience will suffer.

The business wants more convenience but procurement is wired to ensure control. Can procurement satisfy both at the same time?

In this session from Mastermind LIVE 2022, Radhika Samant, VP of Finance and Head of Global Procurement at Optimizely, and Lalitha Rajagopalan, Co-founder and Head of Strategy & Marketing at ORO Labs, share their thoughts on the procurement X factor and why it is so critical to transformation.

They shared their perspectives about:

• How procurement can be a revenue driver as well as a cost manager
• What is driving the shift towards decentralized procurement activity and ownership
• Ways that new digital capabilities are allowing greater freedom spending without sacrificing oversight

Procurement 6 is a new short podcast from Art of Procurement that will be published 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 will have 6 short segments that summarize this week in procurement.  

Segments will range from procurement tips to podcast summaries, from details of events to news or overviews of blog posts that have captured our attention this week.

The procurement talent landscape has always been complex, and the last few years have accelerated the rate of change and amplified the impact on companies of all sizes.

First there was the pandemic, and the transition to working from home. This gave way to the Great Resignation, which saw people leaving their jobs in droves. Some exited the workforce altogether, others switched jobs or industries, and many decided to take the opportunity to dabble in entrepreneurship. 

Now, with trouble looming on the economic horizon, the pendulum is starting to swing back in the other direction, and news of large scale layoffs is making people think twice about leaving a secure position.

In this episode, based on an AOP Live session, Joe Payne, SVP of Source-to-Pay, and Jennifer Ulrich, VP of Advisory, from Corcentric answered a range of questions about these employment trends and how they are impacting procurement talent:

• The challenges created by the 59% of procurement professionals who told us that when faced with talent shortages they just “work harder”
• The opportunity that exists to leverage hybrid insource/outsource procurement delivery models - particularly at the strategic end of the hiring market
• How the combination of so much disruption in the overall employment market is expected to affect hiring managers and procurement organizations into next year

Procurement 6 is a new short podcast from Art of Procurement that will be published 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 will have 6 short segments that summarize this week in procurement.  

Segments will range from procurement tips to podcast summaries, from details of events to news or overviews of blog posts that have captured our attention this week.

What does it take to formulate an ambitious vision and then go hands-on to bring it to fruition?

Tony Uphoff is a growth advisor, tech mentor, and turn around expert. He was the President and CEO at Thomas (formerly ThomasNet), and personally drove the effort to transform the 100 year old business into a modern media enterprise, what he calls a “125 year old startup.”

This week’s episode is from the first session of Mastermind LIVE 2022. Tony joined Kelly Barner to kick off the two day event by sharing his experiences with driving organizations towards a big goal or vision - despite enterprise inertia in a challenging market.

Listen to hear Tony share his point of view on:

• How to drive significant change quickly without jeopardizing the future success of the company
• One of the most common mistakes turnaround leaders make when they are approaching a new project
• Strategies procurement can use to liberate themselves from traditional roles, perspectives, and results

Procurement 6 is a new short podcast from Art of Procurement that will be published 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 will have 6 short segments that summarize this week in procurement.  

Segments will range from procurement tips to podcast summaries, from details of events to news or overviews of blog posts that have captured our attention this week.

The last few years have seen an explosion of new investment and startups to serve leading procurement organizations. While procurement is certainly worthy of such attention and enablement, they are also the ‘innovation gateway’ for the company as a whole. Keeping them inspired is a critical job - one that this week’s guest takes personally.

Matthias Gutzmann founded DPW in 2019 to deliver against an unmet need that he recognized in the procurement community. He didn’t want to host another conference, but rather to create an event, one that would bring together the most diverse community of professionals possible.

In this conversation, Matthias joins host Philip Ideson to share his founder’s story and talk about where his attention is focused right now:

• The lengths he and his team go to in their efforts to avoid the ‘same old stuff’ onstage at DPW
• The genesis of the ScoutLab initiative and how it is making it possible for innovation to scale within large procurement teams and large organizations
• The potential downside of having so many digital options at a time when procurement is facing constant challenges and change

Procurement 6 is a new short podcast from Art of Procurement that will be published 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 will have 6 short segments that summarize this week in procurement.  

Segments will range from procurement tips to podcast summaries, from details of events to news or overviews of blog posts that have captured our attention this week.