Back in my days in the automotive industry, supplier led innovation played - and still plays - a key role in the development of new innovative products. Procurement organizations have been set up for a long time to facilitate this process. However, on the Indirect side of things, we still struggle to integrate supplier innovation - certainly at scale.
If you are a long time listener, you will have heard me share my thoughts about the importance of innovation as a key component of the new procurement value proposition. But, where do we start, and how can we enable innovation at scale?
Today’s guest answers those question. I am joined by Jon Washington, founder of The Innovation Garage. Jon help clients increase their profitability through innovation design encompassing products, processes and delivery models.
I think it is fair to say that you can’t move for reading Blockchain related articles today. But to be honest, I have always been a little confused by them in terms of understanding what Blockchain actually is.
In today’s show, I attempt to demystify Blockchain, and its impact on procurement.
Helping me understand the potential of Blockchain is Jack Shaw. Jack is a business technology futurist who has spent his career leading companies in numerous industries to lever technology to find better, more efficient ways of conducting and operating their businesses.
Jack has authored three critically acclaimed books and numerous articles and is a prolific keynote speaker, including the recent ProcureCon Indirect East. He also is the co-founder of the Blockchain Executive and American Blockchain Council.
In today’s show we go down to the very basics to understand what Blockchain actually is, so that we can then begin to understand what are some of the technologies that can be built upon it. We then discuss usage cases and their impact within procurement and supply chain.
My guest on the Art of Procurement this week is Lara Nichols. Lara is the Head of Procurement for insurance company NFP Corp, and is also leading the conference organizing committee for ISM2017, the largest procurement related conference of the year.
Prior to NFP, Lara enjoyed roles of increasing responsibility across Fortune 100 organizations such as Wachovia (now Wells Fargo), Tyco and Merck.
Our conversation today is broadly split into three different parts. Lara shares her experiences switching the comfortable surroundings of a Fortune 100 procurement organization for a mid-market firm in procurement start-up mode.
We then discuss the impact that the current anti-globalization political environment is impacting her procurement strategies, with an increased focus on risk mitigation.
Finally, we talk conferences. What does it take to plan a conference with the depth and breadth of ISM2017, and what, as an attendee, can you do to maximize your experience.
Today I am joined on the Art of Procurement by Jim Butler, the Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) for my home State of California
Prior to joining the State of California, Jim enjoyed a successful career as the CPO for Levi Strauss, and held a number of senior procurement leadership positions with Dell Computer.
In today’s conversation, I wanted to learn about the leadership role that the State of California is taking in building sustainability into its supply chain, and in providing opportunities for small and local businesses.
Sustainability is often a topic we talk about in procurement, but I think it is fair to say that best practices are not widely implemented. Jim shares some of his experiences in California, along with the added dimensions – which create both opportunities and challenges – of doing so within a public body.
Brian Bancroft, the Vice President of Direct Procurement at The Coca-Cola Company joins me today as my guest on the Art of Procurement.
The diversity of our conversation today matches the depth and breadth of Brian’s career. Brian has enjoyed multiple VP of Procurement and CPO roles at companies such as Kellogg's and Coca-Cola covering both Direct and Indirect spend, while also having P&L and operational responsibility for other business segments.
Listen in to hear Brian’s perspective on a wide range of topics, from how to be successful moving between Indirect and Direct procurement, why global sourcing strategies are often setting buyers up for failure, and how working with procurement as a stakeholder shaped Brian’s approach as a CPO.
Today, Kelly Barner (Buyers Meeting Point) and I announced that we have founded a new entity to meet the strategic needs of forward-thinking procurement leaders. Palambridge brings procurement experts, technology, and intelligence together and makes them available on demand via a virtual platform.
In this bonus podcast, I go beyond the press releases to share more details on the Palambridge journey, our ecosystem, the reason behind the name, and much more!
After we ran The Procurement Revolution in 2016, we wanted to create a lasting force for change. After much discussion and consideration, Kelly and I realized that nothing held more value than the network of experts and partners we built in preparation for the event - and that became the foundation for Palambridge.
Palambridge is the culmination of a 15-year journey working across the procurement and outsourcing value chain, as a buyer, client and service provider, and the delivery model is one that I first mapped out many years ago.
As a procurement leader, I was always frustrated that my ability to access the subject matter expertise that I needed to solve difficult problems was directly related to my ability - or lack of - to make long term investments in hiring, consultants, contractors or outsourcing firms. Palambridge solves this problem, by taking advantage of the platform economy. Our model is built to seamlessly deliver procurement solutions that bring together the best of the best under an on-demand, subscription based, commercial model.
What does this mean for the Art of Procurement?
I am excited about what today’s announcement means for the Art of Procurement. Log on today and you will see a new site design with upgraded search capabilities. But that is just the start. I launched the Art of Procurement as a way of giving the procurement profession a voice, a way for us to work collectively to increase our impact on the organizations we serve. However, my ability to grow and expand the site has always been limited by my own bandwidth.
In addition to co-founding Palambridge, I am honored that Kelly will be joining me on the Editorial team of Art of Procurement as we seek to build and grow a multi-format procurement insights platform. Stay tuned for more information!
How does the role of procurement differ in a mission driven organization? Today on the Art of Procurement, I explore how procurement can help save lives with Brian Kyle, Managing Director of Strategic Sourcing and Contract Management at the American Cancer Society.
Kyle shares his experiences of moving from a profit-driven to mission-driven organization, and the journey that American Cancer Society has taken to elevate the role of procurement from a sourcing to category management led organization - at zero incremental cost.
Today on the Art of Procurement I am joined by Kevin Giblin, Head of Global Sourcing & CPO of data analytics company Dun & Bradstreet.
In today’s episode, I start by asking Kevin for his perspective on creating value beyond savings, and towards the end of our conversation Kevin gives some great advice to procurement pro’s looking to stand out from the crowd.
However, the purpose of our conversation is for Kevin to share a real-life example of how to significantly increase internal client satisfaction, and how reducing stakeholder friction on transactional activities leads to increased early engagement on more value added projects.
Pardon the interruption!
It has been a busy couple of weeks here at Art of Procurement Towers, and so I wanted to share details of a couple of new shows that have launched is week.
For more information, visit:
http://artofprocurement.com/evenbiggerideas
Today’s guest was the first ever interviewee on the Art of Procurement. All the way back in Episode 2, Tania Seary, the Founder of Procurious, as well as procurement consulting firm The Faculty and recruitment company The Source, joined me to talk about all things related to the importance of creating a personal brand through social media.
In today’s discussion, we focus on a couple of topics that both intertwine with each other. First, I ask Tania for an update on how things are going at Procurious, and we both share our own motivations for following the paths that we have – in fact Tania turns the table on me by asking a couple of questions on why I started the Art of Procurement.
We then talk about the notion of Procurement 4.0, which will be the focus of the Big Idea Summit, and the impact it is set to have on the way that procurement organizations of the future will operate.
Areas we cover in today’s conversation include:
For more information, visit: http://artofprocurement.com/BIL2017
I have always sought out the Deloitte CPO Survey as a leading indicator on the health of the procurement function and just a couple of days ago, Deloitte published the results of their 2017 Survey.
Today on the Art of Procurement, I am joined by Lance Younger. Lance is the Head of Procurement and Sourcing Consulting in the UK, a Partner of Deloitte’s Strategy and Operations Practice, and a co-author of the report that accompanies this year’s survey findings.
In today’s conversation, we go beyond the numbers to identify some of the trends, challenges and opportunities that look set to shape the procurement profession in 2017.
Areas we cover in today’s conversation include:
For more information, visit: http://artofprocurement.com/deloitte2017
My guest today is Drew Polin. Drew is the president of OpDecision, a company that helps organizations reduce their wireless spend, specifically without having to go through the upheaval of switching out their service providers.
Our conversation today is split into two parts. First, we talk about gainsharing. It's a commercial model that I have been very skeptical about in the past, as I think it can incent the wrong behaviors, and can become a way for service providers to take advantage of less sophisticated buyers. OpDecision uses a gainsharing model, but with a twist. I think that if you are considering any time of gainsharing engagement, you should listen in to Drew’s lessons learned.
We then move into wireless, where Drew shares some of the tips and strategies that you can use to make an impact on your wireless spend here in 2017.
Topics that we discuss include:
• Tips on how to structure gainsharing engagements so that they incentivize the right outcomes, and result in win-win deals.
• The major areas of wireless spend, and how the category is evolving • How wireless carriers make their money in 2017.
• Top pain points for out of control wireless costs.
• Why international wireless costs are set to plummet.
• Supplier dynamics in the US wireless market and the impact that has on pricing.
• Why you are leaving money on the table is you only review and agree wireless pricing as part of your contract negotiations.
For more information, visit: http://artofprocurement.com/wireless2017
Today’s Art of Procurement interview is a real treat. It is chock full of actionable insights on how we can position our careers, and our organizations, to fully take advantage of digitization and its impact on what, and how, we buy.
My guest is Bill Huber. Bill is an active participant in the procurement community and I have followed his career for some time. Bill has worked as a practitioner – most recently as Chief Procurement Officer of Wachovia - as a service provider as head of IBM’s procurement outsourcing offering - and as a consultant and advisor. Today, Bill is a Partner at Information Services Group (ISG), responsible for Digital Platforms and Solutions.
Areas we cover in today’s conversation include:
For more information, visit: http://artofprocurement.com/billhuber
“We never put our own priorities first. If I save money and diminish my stakeholders ability to succeed, then I am counter productive and they are not going to use me again.” – Greg Antoniono, Anthem
Today on the show, I am joined by Greg Antoniono. Greg is the Sourcing Director for Marketing at Anthem, one of the giants of the US Health Care industry
Over the course of the last eight years, Greg has taken his marketing procurement group on a journey from having very limited influence to being a key partner with a direct line to the Chief Marketing Officer.
In today’s show, Greg and I discuss the key steps and learnings that he, and Anthem, took on that journey.
Areas we cover include:
For more information, visit: http://artofprocurement.com/anthem
January 2017 marks the first month of a new collaboration that I am very excited about. I am co-hosting a new monthly show, imaginatively titled The Month in Procurement, with Mark Perera.
Mark is the CEO and Founder of Old St Labs, the Founder of Procurement Leaders, and as I have got to know him, I see how passionate he is about levering innovation and technology to help businesses really harness the power of their supply networks.
The show is meant to be a conversation. We’ll be bringing in other people to join us every month to just chat about the issues of the day and their impact on procurement, and, frankly, anything that we have on our mind!
I’ll be leaving the edit button at home, so what we say, is what you will hear!
This Month in Procurement will have its own podcast channel that you can subscribe to, and I’ll let you know when that is ready to go.
However, for this month, I’m including our conversation in the Art of Procurement feed.
I hope you like it – let me know what you think.
For more information, visit: http://thismonthinprocurement.com
My guest on today’s show is Mark Webb. Mark is the Managing Director of UK based procurement consultancy firm, Future Purchasing.
Following experience as a practitioner and then in consulting with PwC and QP Group, Mark co-founded Future Purchasing, and they have grown from strength to strength since their inception back in 2002.
Future Purchasing undertakes what I think is the leading piece of industry research on the subject of Category Management.
They just put the final touches on their 2017 Global Category Management Leadership Report, a research collaboration with Henley Business School.
What I wanted to do in my conversation with Mark is to pick apart some of the key findings, and understand what differentiates the leaders from followers in terms of their approach to category management, and the subsequent results that they enjoy.
Areas we cover include:
For more information, visit: http://artofprocurement.com/fpsurvey
Today’s guest on the Art of Procurement is Mark Trowbridge, the co-founder and Principal for Strategic Procurement Solutions, and the former Director of Sourcing and Contracts at Bank of America.
Mark is a published author, and a regular presenter at procurement and supply chain conferences. In fact, it was at the recent ISM Indirect conference in December that Mark and I met. As I got to know Mark I knew that I needed to invite him onto the show, and fortunately he accepted my invite without reservation.
The main topic of today’s conversation is the notion of procurement superheroes – what are their characteristics, how can procurement leaders best deploy, and retain them.
However, as you will hear in the interview, we discuss much more than that!
Areas we cover include:
Mark’s two resolutions for procurement in 2017.
For more information, visit: http://artofprocurement.com/sps
Welcome to 2017! In this first show of the year, I share details of Art of Procurement's publishing schedule in 2017, invite applications to a new AOP Circle of Experts, and share thoughts on facilitating innovation following a recent visit to a startup accelerator program.
For more information, visit: http://artofprocurement.com/ep116
So here we are: The Best of 2016 List.
As the year comes to a close, I sat down to consider which episodes have been the most powerful and impactful in 2016. Some of these have been my personal favorites, others determined by download numbers. What I did try to do is to make the list as diverse as possible, and it features interviews with CPO's, CEO's, Founders, Educators and Consultants. There should be something for everyone here!
For more information, visit: http://artofprocurement.com/bestof16
Pierre Mitchell was the first supply chain practitioner to become a procurement "industry analyst" with roles at AMR Research (now Gartner) followed by The Hackett Group, and now Spend Matters. There are few people, if any, that cover procurement than understand, and have such passion for, the growth of our profession.
Both Pierre and I were together last week at the ISM Inside Indirect Conference 2016 in Las Vegas, and so we picked up the mic’s and hit record! So, today’s show is an informal chat covering a range of topics.
Areas we cover include:
For more information, visit: http://artofprocurement.com/ismindirect
On today's Art of Procurement, I answer a listener question. The question was: how do you make a supplier happy.
Now, I’m going to assume that the right answer isn’t to give them riches for providing peanuts! So, I sat down and thought through 6 different ways that I think we can all put at least a half smile on the faces of our suppliers this Christmas!
For more information, visit: http://artofprocurement.com/113
I will be in Las Vegas this week at the ISM Indirect Conference, and with Las Vegas also known as Sin City, I thought it would be fun to look back at some old Art of Procurement episodes and come up with a list of 10 sins of procurement!
Now, frankly, there are a lot more than 10! However, I had to stop somewhere! These are inspired by my own experiences, and the guests that we have had on the show. I kept them to what I think are our day to day dealings with suppliers and stakeholders rather than looking at it from an organizational design perspective.
For more information, visit: http://artofprocurement.com/procurement-sins
This week I welcome Gordon Donovan on to the Art of Procurement. Gordon is a presently a member of the procurement leadership team at Metro Trains Melbourne, and he has a broad range of experiences as a practitioner including Head of Procurement roles, consultant and training.
Gordon's career spans both the UK and Australia, and includes roles at organizations such as the UK National Health Service, Transport for London, Healthscope, ArcBlue and The Faculty.
Today, we are going to discuss influence and I’m willing to say that there are few, if any, who have studied the topic of influence and procurement as thoroughly as Gordon. He wrote a 20,000 word dissertation for his Masters Degree on the topic of the development of influencing skills within the Australian procurement community, and he frequently weaves the topic into his procurement learning and development programs.
Areas we cover include:
For more information, visit: http://artofprocurement.com/influence
With it being a holiday weekend here in the United States, I thought I would do is share with you one of my favorite submissions from The Procurement Revolution event from back in late September.
More and more, I believe the mindset is a key enabler or roadblock in our efforts to think differently and elevate the procurement value proposition.
Without that change in mindset, it makes the other necessities – such as competency development – almost irrelevant. And so I wanted to focus today in the topic of mindset.
Today’s piece was one that I really enjoyed.
It is a submission from Elisabeth Lawrence. Elisabeth is a long time procurement executive who just after we recorded todays piece joined a leading materials company to set up their Category Management Center of Excellence.
You will hear Elisabeth talk about the need to shift mindsets if we are to take procurement to the next level.
For more information, visit: http://artofprocurement.com/mindset-shift