333: Overcoming the Procurement Language Barrier w/ Steve Wills

For a long time, procurement has gotten feedback that our terminology - and, more specifically, our abbreviations - have a distancing or alienating effect on internal stakeholders and budget owners. But if language has the power to push people away, it can also be used to purposefully clarify, align, and collaborate.

Steve Wills is the founder and Managing Director of Procurement Central and formerly served as the Procurement Advisor to the 2012 London Olympic Games. He has extensive business experience with blue chip organizations and has worked with leaders in industry and commerce as a CPO to transform complex procurement and supply chain functions.

In this interview, Steve outlines:

• Some of the ways procurement can use language and messaging to bridge the gap between ourselves and the other functions in the organization
• The more expansive notion of stakeholder management procurement should embrace if we want to build stronger relationships with the business
• What to do when circumstances call for pragmatism instead of our polished procurement processes