“Taking the time to get input, to get the feedback and listen to the needs might add a few weeks up front, but ultimately, you're going to have a better, stronger solution and support and alignment.” - Jesse Jacoby, Founder and Managing Principal, Emergent, LLC
Procurement and business leaders face a tangled web: legacy systems, evolving digital capabilities, and rising pressure to do more with less.
How do you design an operating model that truly enables transformation without adding more complexity?
In this episode, Philip Ideson speaks with Jesse Jacoby, Founder and Managing Principal at Emergent LLC. Jesse’s experience guiding Fortune 500 organizations through high-stakes change gives him a practical, people-focused outlook on what really makes business transformation work. In this episode, Philip and Jesse explore how operating models can either help or hinder procurement, why quick fixes rarely stick, and how to leverage change management and AI for meaningful, lasting results.
Jesse’s insights on avoiding common mistakes and building “muscle memory” for change are a must-hear for anyone stepping into (or leading) transformation.
In this episode, Jesse discusses how to:
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“We want our customers to be able to put their own internal procurement rules into our Amazon Business marketplace, so they can feel secure and still get that great experience.”
- Todd Heimes, Vice President and General Manager, Amazon Business Worldwide
Right now, procurement leaders are balancing pressure to deliver savings, manage risk, and remove barriers for business users. As organizations get more complex, the need for connected digital procurement – and real-time, actionable insights – makes all the difference.
In this episode, Philip Ideson speaks with Todd Heimes, Vice President and General Manager of Amazon Business Worldwide. With over two decades at Amazon, Todd shares how the team is tackling tail spend, embedding compliance, and rolling out new analytics and AI-driven tools designed for modern enterprise needs. They go beyond just digital catalogs: this is about building a procurement ecosystem that works for both CPOs and everyday users.
This conversation is an inside look at how Amazon Business is helping procurement teams automate the busywork, drive transparency, and support smarter, decentralized decision-making.
In this episode, Todd discusses:
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Procurement’s problem isn’t speed. It’s form.
They’ve gotten great at automating and accelerating weak processes while quietly rewarding the “good contract, bad deal” mentality that ultimately undercuts their own efforts.
In this podcast episode of “Buy: The Way…To Purposeful Procurement,” Omid Ghamami, president of the Procurement and Supply Chain Management Institute and former Intel purchasing operations leader, joins co-hosts Philip Ideson and Rich Ham to challenge procurement’s most comfortable (bad) habits.
He argues that the function claims victory at signature, books “savings” that never actually hit the P&L, and then moves on to the next thing while suppliers are left to harvest margin in the years that follow.
Omid also goes after the most likely root causes of all these bad habits: procurement lets business units fixate on what they want to buy instead of what they need to accomplish. That framing hardwires cost into scopes through custom specs, gold-plating, and activity-based requirements.
The cure is outcome design and total cost discipline up front, informed by external references, public contracts, internal history, and supplier knowledge. Pay now or pay later… and most teams pay later.
Procurement needs to stop rewarding the ‘heroes’ who rush in to fix broken deals instead of the leaders who design processes that prevent fires in the first place. As Omid puts it, “We don’t reward Smokey the Bear. We reward the firefighters.”
If incentives continue to glorify this kind of firefighting, the flames will keep coming. But when procurement starts recognizing prevention as performance, they will finally become the quiet force that keeps value – and trust – intact.
“If your only role is cost management and processes, that’s scary to me. The value of procurement is so much more than that.” – Etosha Thurman, Chief Marketing Officer, Finance and Spend Management at SAP
AI is rapidly changing procurement’s mandate and the expectations that business leaders now have.
Technology is no longer just digitizing processes; it’s opening the door to new operating models and deeper business impact. To thrive, procurement teams must deliver far more than savings. They must bring innovation, resilience, and data-driven influence to the table.
In this episode, Philip Ideson welcomes Etosha Thurman, Chief Marketing Officer, Finance and Spend Management at SAP. Etosha’s career spans sourcing at P&G to leading finance and procurement solutions at SAP. She shares stories and hard-earned insights on how AI is reshaping procurement, what it means for team structure, and why soft skills matter more than ever.
Whether you’re exploring practical use cases for AI or looking to reposition procurement as a strategic partner, Etosha offers advice you won’t hear elsewhere. She also dives into driving internal investment and how procurement leaders can tell a more powerful story about their work.
In this episode, Etosha explores how to:
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“The value you bring as a procurement function has transcended being a cost saver. They are now a discussion partner with other functions and bring value in the form of intelligence.” - Adrian Vicol, Data Strategy Lead & Data Architect, Siemens Energy
Procurement leaders are facing more complex questions about data than ever before. As organizations move toward AI and automation, the need for clean, reliable, and actionable data is skyrocketing – but most teams are still wrestling with legacy challenges and data silos.
Getting this right is no longer optional; it’s becoming mission-critical.
In this special episode, recorded on-site at ProcureTEX in London, host Philip Ideson speaks with Adrian Vicol, Data Strategy Lead at Siemens Energy. Philip was there at the invitation of Beroe to speak with some of their customers about turning data into actionable insights.
Adrian shares a no-nonsense perspective on what it really takes to close the data-to-action gap for procurement. You’ll hear firsthand how Siemens Energy is building a strong data foundation, implementing practical governance, and reshaping the way their procurement teams deliver value across the business.
In this episode, Adrian discusses how to:
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“The value isn't in giving them the coffee beans and hoping they take that away and make a cup of coffee – what they need is a drink. So instead of giving them the data, do the extra steps and pull out the insights for them.” - Satvinder Panesar, Data and Analytics Strategy Director, AstraZeneca
Procurement leaders are surrounded by data, but turning numbers into true business impact is a new kind of challenge.
As AI and analytics tools promise even more information, the real differentiator is knowing how to interpret, validate, and act on those outputs… before your competitors do.
Satvinder Panesar, Data and Analytics Strategy Director at AstraZeneca, joined Philip Ideson at ProcureTEX in London. Philip was there at the invitation of Beroe to speak with some of their customers about turning data into actionable insights.
In this conversation, Sat breaks down the evolution of procurement analytics, explains why data literacy is a must-have skill, and points out how any leader or team can begin building those muscles, starting with the tools they already have.
Expect a practical, honest conversation about the skills gap, the dangers of outsourcing data thinking, and how procurement teams can take charge in a world of increasingly complex analytics:
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