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.

My guest today is Chandar Pattabhiram, the new Chief Marketing Officer at Coupa. We sat down and recorded this podcast during the SIG Fall Summit in Carlsbad, California, which explains all of the interesting background noises you may hear. I took that opportunity to get his fresh perspective on how procurement can elevate its role in the organization.

My guest today is Lawrence Kane, a Fortune 50 strategic sourcing and functional excellence lead. Lawrence and I sat down to talk at the SIG Fall Summit in Carlsbad, California, where our conversation focused on what he has learned during his three-decade career.

Hi there everyone, and welcome to this week’s Art of Procurement interview, which is powered by SIG.

My guest today is Kate Vitasek, a member of the graduate faculty in executive education at the University of Tennessee, and the creator of the Vested model. Kate and I have recorded several podcasts together, but in this case we connected in person at the SIG Fall Summit in Carlsbad, California. We took that opportunity to discuss the Vested model and how procurement (after long delay) is embracing the mindset.

We started our conversation by getting caught up on what has transpired in the world of Vested since the last podcast.

Hi there everyone, and welcome to this week’s Art of Procurement interview, which is powered by SIG.

My guest today is Chris Camejo, the Director of Product Management and Threat Intelligence at NTT Security - probably the scariest sounding title I’ve ever had here on Art of Procurement. Chris and I connected in person at the SIG Fall Summit in Carlsbad, California, where we had an opportunity to talk about what threat intelligence means and what role procurement can play in strengthening a company’s security risk level.

Welcome to today's Art of Procurement interview powered by SIG.

Today's show is part of a mini-series of six different episodes that I recorded live at the recent SIG Fall Summit in Carlsbad, California. Being a live recording, you'll hear background noises like baristas making coffee, venue employees taping wire to the carpet, and lots of other little sounds in between. We actually had a booth set up in the main corridor of the conference venue, so you're sure to get the atmosphere from the event from those interviews.

Today I'm delighted to be joined by Alan Holland, the founder and CEO of Keelvar. Given that Alan has a degree in computer engineering, a PhD in artificial intelligence, and has worked as a research fellow and a lecturer, he is probably one of the most qualified people in procurement to answer my first question, “What really is AI?”

My guest this week on the pod is Tim Cronin, the CPO of GuideWell, a not-for-profit mutual holding company in the healthcare industry. Tim and I connected live at the SIG Fall Summit in Carlsbad, California, where we had an opportunity to talk about his journey with Sourcing Business Models in a presentation with Kate Vitasek, founder and lead researcher for the Vested business methodology.

What I really enjoyed about our conversation is that Tim shared putting the theory of ​​Sourcing Business Models into practice - what worked, what didn't, and what lessons were learned along the way.

You will notice from the title, that this is not an ordinary Art of Procurement podcast.  In fact, it is not an AOP podcast at all.

As regular listeners will know, I have been working very closely with Kelly Barner – we partnered on The Procurement Revolution, co-founded Palambridge, and Kelly helps me behind the scenes to keep the wheels on here at Art of Procurement.

Kelly has been hosting a procurement and supply chain podcast for over six years, and in fact it was one of my inspirations behind starting Art of Procurement. We announced yesterday that Kelly’s show – Buyers Meeting Point – or BMP Radio – will be produced by, and hosted on, the Art of Procurement Network.

Today, as an introduction to BMP Radio, I am including today's episode in the AOP feed.

Kelly's guest is Jonathan O'Brien.  Jonathan is the CEO and Owner of Positive Purchasing, an international procurement consultancy and training provider. He is also the author of four books, the most recent of which was just released this year, titled ‘The Buyer’s Toolkit: An Easy to Use Approach for Effective Buying.’

Hi there everyone, and welcome to this week’s Art of Procurement interview, powered by SIG.

My guest today is Christian Lanng, the co-founder, Chairman, and CEO of Tradeshift.

I’m really happy to welcome Christian back to the show. He first joined me in August of 2016, all the way back in episode 80! It was one of my most enjoyable interviews because Christian has strong views on the future of procurement, and the intersection of technology and supply chains.

In today’s conversation, I wanted to follow up to see what, in his mind, has changed since we last spoke – is technology evolving as fast as predicted? How does Christian see organizations starting to adapt? I was also interested to learn how Tradeshift determines which ‘future technologies’ to invest in, and why they recently became members of the Hyperledger project, a global, open source collaborative effort created to advance cross-industry blockchain technologies.

Today, I am joined by Gene Zaino, the founder and CEO of MBO Partners. MBO Partners are at the forefront of the gig or the project economy. I was delighted to welcome Gene onto the show to discuss a little bit more about the gig economy - particularly in the context of knowledge-based workers.

We discussed how organizations can start thinking about taking advantage of an on-demand workforce. And if they already are, what are some of the things that they can do to take it to the next level?

So, my first question for Gene was if he could share a little bit more about what MBO Partners actually does.

I am joined today by Antonio Humphreys, the Senior Manager of Global Procurement at Adobe Systems based in California.

I’ve actually seen Antonio speak before, and he has always been high on my list of practitioners that I wanted to interview and so I’m delighted we were able to make it happen.  We were connected by the team at ProcureCon, as Antonio will be speaking at the upcoming ProcureCon Marketing conference in New Orleans at the end of November.

Antonio has enjoyed a career that, after an internship with NASA, actually started in sales before he jumped over to the other side of the table and joined procurement.  He worked for organizations such as Shell, Hewlett-Packard, and Gap before joining Adobe.

He has a deep background in procurement organizational development and marketing, and those two topics were the focus of our conversation.

I started by asking Antonio what keeps him in procurement after spending time in both sales and procurement...

I am joined today by Julienne Ryan, Principal of J Ryan Partners. Julienne is a former Executive Director of ISM-New York but the majority of her career has been in the world of HR, recruitment, and organizational development.

Her keynote was focused on effective communications, and so I invited Julienne on the show to talk about the art of storytelling and how we can use that technique in our careers and to influence our stakeholders.

I am joined today by a repeat guest and friend of the show David Hearn.  David is a long time procurement executive for companies such as Juniper Networks, Kaiser Permanente and Sun Microsystems.  Today, he is the CEO and Founder of advisory firm CPO Advisement Services.

I caught up with David at the recent ProcureCon Indirect West conference in Scottsdale where he was talking about Machine Learning and its impact on procurement. Our chance to talk came in the midst of the hotel’s garden, surrounded by birds, waterfalls - and a construction site!

With this natural backdrop, we started our conversation about machine learning - the opportunities for procurement and the long term value proposition.

I am joined today by two guests, Jen Warner and Eric Martin.

Jen Warner is the Vice President of Compliance and Chief Development Officer of Ashe Legal Group (a member of the Palambridge ecosystem). Prior to joining Ashe, Jen served as the Chief Compliance Officer of a Fortune 500 multinational company and, in that role, oversaw the company’s global data privacy compliance program.

Eric Martin is the Associate General Counsel and Global Privacy Officer for JELD-WEN in Charlotte, North Carolina. He is responsible for all labor and employment and privacy matters, including GDPR compliance.

Our conversation today is on the topic of GDPR, or General Data Protection Regulation, an EU-based regulation that takes effect on May 25, 2018. Once that date arrives, all organizations - regardless of their location - that collect personal data in the EU (including consumer data, customer data, employee data, other third party data) must demonstrate that they are in compliance or face strict penalties.

Today I am joined by Fraz Baig, a long time listener and friend of the show who is a Senior Manager at Ace Hardware, managing all of Ace’s corporate spend including IT, Marketing and Supply Chain.

As Fraz and I have got to know each other, I learned about the successes that he and his team have had at Ace in build strong partnerships with their stakeholders.  One of the fundamental pillars to that success is a Collaboration Model that explicitly lays out the roles and responsibilities of both the procurement team and their stakeholders as they engage in category management and sourcing projects.

And so I invited Fraz onto the show to explain a little bit more about the model, and his learnings from its implementation and evolution.

Software has always been one of those categories where on the surface, cost savings appear hard to find. Often the vast majority of spend is with software industry giants over whom the majority of procurement teams have little negotiating leverage.

In today’s show, I focus on how to identify savings opportunities across your entire portfolio of software suppliers.  And when I say cost savings, I don’t mean relying on getting a better rate, but partnering with IT to look more holistically across your entire software category spend.

My guest to take us on this journey is Mohammed Faridy, the CEO of OneView, a contract management tool. I met Mohammed through a mutual acquaintance, and Mohammed is also an experienced technology sourcing consultant and practitioner.

After a week hiatus for Labor Day here in the US, we are back with another great interview (and I mean great!) Joining me today is my good friend Naseem Malik, Managing Partner of MRA Global Sourcing.

If you are attempting to retain or hire procurement talent, and you are in a location where the market is tight, then this show is for you!

Our conversation is split broadly up in to three parts.  First, I hit Naseem with a number of questions related to the procurement job market today – what is the current state, what signals would suggest the market is changing, and what are the most in demand skill sets. 

Naseem then shares his perspective on what a procurement leader can do to not only retain the A-level talent that they have in their team today, but also how to attract the professionals needed to take their organizations to the next level.

Today I am joined on the Art of Procurement by Peter de Heer, a partner at Expense Reduction Analysts.

Before joining Expense Reduction Analysts, Peter enjoyed a successful career with the leading consumer goods company Henkel.  Peter started outside of procurement leading marketing teams, and as a COO of their Mexico operations, before moving over into procurement executive roles.

I invited Peter to join me having read a white paper that he authored discussing the CFO and CPO relationship – and particularly the areas where Finance and Procurement should align, but often do not!

I explore how we can build better relationships with our peers in Finance, and begin by asking: what keeps a CPO up at night. 

Today, we are doing something a little bit different, and today’s show is for independent procurement consultants or for those considering making the switch to self-employment. 

It is a topic that I am asked about frequently by listeners, either through email or in person at industry events – and is one that I believe we will become increasingly relevant as the nature of work continues to shift.

I’m joined by Anthony English, a business coach focusing on helping consultants and small businesses win new business. Anthony and I focus on some of the mindset shifts necessary to increase your chances, as an independent procurement consultant or small business owner, of maximizing the value of your time.

My guest today is Nick Seiersen, a Director with the International Association for Contract and Commercial Management, or IACCM for short.

Nick is an contracting expert, and it is a topic that I haven't covered on the show in as much detail as I think it deserves! 

In our conversation, I wanted to explore a couple of topics – firstly, what are some of the contracting pitfalls that Nick sees Buyer’s make time and time again that we should be aware of, and then secondly is there such a think as innovation in contracting.

Nick shares innovations taking place both in terms of commercial models, but also contract design and shares one particular example in which a fully illustrated contract was used in lieu of a standard employment contract.

I'm not sure that lawyers will soon be replaced by artists, but it was really interesting to hear what is possible if we think outside of our traditional assumptions of how a contract must be written.

I am joined on the virtual couch this week by two returning guests and friends of the pod, Greg Tennyson, the CPO of VSP, and Stephany Lapierre, CEO and founder of supplier intelligence platform, tealbook.

You may recall earlier in the summer, I mentioned that I had facilitated a number of roundtables around the US on the topic of supplier intelligence. The roundtables were titled “Exploring the Upside of Accessible Intelligence”

Steph accompanied me at all roundtables, and Greg chaired our session in San Francisco, so I thought I would invite them both on to the show to share some of the key insights that they walked away with - and actions that procurement executives can take - based on the collective input of over 60 procurement leaders.

Joining me today on the show is Pierre Lapree.  Pierre founded Per Angusta, a procurement project pipeline and performance tracking tool, over four years ago following a career within IT, and then procurement, at staffing firm Adecco. 

For regular listeners, you may recall that Pierre was previously one of our revolutionaries at The Procurement Revolution event that I co-founded with Kelly Barner last September.

Today, we talk all about the savings process.  Specifically, what are the actions that we can take to bring trust, transparency and consistency to the savings tracking process. It is widely reported that CFO’s neither trust our reported numbers, nor see the majority of our claimed savings dropping to the bottom line.  So, what can we do to bridge the gap. 

Listen in as Pierre and I discuss the best practices that we have observed and implemented throughout our careers – both as practitioners and service providers.

Today I am joined by Michael Shaw.  Michael is well known through the Sourcing industry, particularly here in the US, he is currently chairperson of the American Council of Sourcing and Procurement Executives.

The heart of today’s conversation revolves around a concept called 3SI – Supplier Specific Sourcing Intelligence. The premise is that a number of companies struggle to access the supplier market intelligence that they need to really enable them to build win-win relationships with key suppliers.  We tend to focus on win-lose, or leverage when it comes to using market intelligence.  Following the principles of 3SI provides the ability to craft deals with key partners – and Michael provides an example of a Microsoft licensing deal – that provide better results than a typical negotiation would achieve.