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.

Today I have a really insightful interview to share with Jonathan Grant and Ben Szostek, two senior leaders within the procurement group at Newell Brands.

Jonathan and Ben have been on a journey to bring advanced analytics capabilities to Newell Brands, delivered through a center of excellence model.

In today’s discussion, we talk about some of the tactics they use, from clean sheet costing and cost modelling to negotiation fact packs which is a concept I really like.

You will also hear examples of different sources of data used, the skill sets necessary to build out a team like this, and how advanced analytics are being applied to both Direct and Indirect areas of spend.

If you have an interest in understanding how you can build an advanced analytics capability, this is a must listen!

Today on the Art of Procurement, I welcome back David Bush, the Chief Revenue Officer for SpendHQ.

David joined me back in Episode 139 to share his advice on the steps that procurement leaders can take to gain greater visibility into supplier spend, which is the foundation of robust procurement strategies.

Today we continue the conversation with a look to the future - how will spend analytics evolve, and what impact are emerging technologies likely to have in the way we understand and gain visibility into the products and services that we buy.

It is Independence Day week here in the US, and so what I thought I would do today is to go back into the achieves and replay one of my solo shows that I recorded almost 18 months ago now. 

It is a topic that I remain passionate about – why I think we in procurement should care less about being “best-in-class”, and more about what our internal organization really needs from a procurement function.

We have all read the blog posts and listened to the talking heads who inform us that Generation X believes this, and Millennials believe that. But are these generational labels actually true, or do we use them as a lazy or misinformed way to try and understand and connect with peers who are not within our own age group.  That is the topic of today’s Art of Procurement.

I am joined in today’s discussion by two experts in the field.  Jim Baehr is group lead for Sourcing Strategies Group and through roles both in consulting and as a procurement leader has helped a number of organizations through procurement transformation initiatives. Joining Jim is Mike Urick. Mike is Graduate Director and Assistant Professor at St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.  Both Jim and Mike have joined forces to explore the future of work and the impact of generational labels at they seek to understand how procurement leaders can mitigate the coming talent shortage in our profession.

Today on the pod I am joined by David Bush, formerly of IASTA and Determine, and now Chief Revenue Officer for spend analytics specialist SpendHQ.

It has been a year since I first met David, and so his appearance on the Art of Procurement is long overdue!

I invited David onto the show discuss the topic of spend analytics.  Spend analytics have always been a bit of a pain for me - I have spent a lot of time playing with pivot tables and searching Google to try and categorize suppliers which leads to lots of errors and a lot of time invested!

But I know that it doesn’t have to be like that.  

I invited David on to the show to hear his advice on the steps that procurement leaders can take to gain greater visibility into supplier spend, which is the foundation of robust procurement strategies.

We are in for a treat this week on the show.  I am joined by Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, the inventor of the personal computer, and a serial entrepreneur.  Steve really needs no introduction!

Steve recently keynoted the Coupa Inspire conference in San Francisco that I attended a couple of weeks ago.  Coupa arranged for Steve to spend 15 minutes with me after he got off stage, and so fresh off his fireside chat, we sat down and I recorded the conversation.

As I considered what kind of questions to ask to maximize our 15 minutes together, I focused on areas that have been a key part of Woz’s experiences as an innovator, and from his first-hand experience building the Apple brand with Steve Jobs.

This Month in Procurement returns, and this week Mark and I welcome a special guest, Sigi Osagie.

Sigi is the charismatic author of the popular procurement book, Procurement Mojo, and a has an extensive background driving performance improvement and change across multiple functions and industries - both as a practitioner and business owner.

Mark and I invited Sigi to join us this month to chat about Procurement Mojo, and to hear Sigi’s perspective on some of the actions we can take to create procurement success.

At the Art of Procurement, we get many press releases - usually detailing client wins, technology updates, or company acquisitions.  However, there was one that came across my desk recently announcing the launch of an Indirect Procurement Standard.

With my interest piqued, I reached out to the author of the Standard - Sime Curkovic - to learn more. Sime is Professor of Supply Chain Management at Western Michigan University, and joins me on the show today to share more details about the Indirect Procurement Standard - what was the need, how was it developed, and what does the final output looks like.

There was a time, not long ago, when the only procurement professionals who bought software had responsibility for IT sourcing.

Today, with the explosion of SaaS, and the use to SaaS technology to deliver tradition labor based services, buyers across many categories must now negotiate software licenses, either directly or with the help of their peers in IT.  At the same time, IT sourcing professionals are faced with the increasing supplier requests to move from on-premise to cloud based solutions.

My guest on this episode of Art of Procurement is Randy Roth, the President of Seprio.  Randy helps me unpack the world of software licensing, while providing tips to help procurement build stronger relationships with IT, navigate the move to the cloud, and negotiate with the big boys.

As a procurement leader, how do you balance the needs of your stakeholders with your responsibility to be guardians of third party spend?

That is the challenge being addressed head on by today’s guests on the Art of Procurement.  I’m delighted to be joined by David Natoff, the Head of Procure to Pay at Google, and Dr Bernd Huber, the Head of Google’s Sourcing Center of Excellence.

We focus our conversation on how Google Procurement continues on their journey to become a trusted business partner in a complex and agile organization, while ensuring that they remain strong corporate guardians.  Balancing these two objectives that are often in conflict with each other is Google Procurement’s greatest challenge – one that they are solving through their journey to move their sphere of influence.

I am joined today by Shaz Khan, the co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Vroozi, a leading cloud-based business purchasing platform.

Shaz has a deep background in procurement technology, with a particular focus on SAP.

As long time listeners will know, I learn more and more every day about the nuts and bolts of procurement technology, while tending to spend more time looking for trends that I think will impact our profession.

One of those trends is self-service sourcing – empowering the organization to buy directly the vast majority of products and services they need, one the frameworks and governance structures are in place to support it.

And so, the main topic for today’s conversation is that of self-service sourcing.  Is it a threat, or an opportunity for procurement?

Joining me on the show today is Dave Quillin, the manager of procurement for Alliant Credit Union, the seventh largest credit union in the United States.

Dave has specialized in technology procurement with organizations such as Orbitz and Groupon before taking on a new opportunity at Alliant to build a procurement and vendor management office from the ground up.

In today’s Art of Procurement, Dave shares his journey at Alliant.  What I really like is that Dave built his organization by first listening to the needs of the business, and by focusing more broadly on value rather than cost savings alone.

Dave shares the importance of balancing process with agility, particularly in regulated industries such as financial services, along with lessons learned along the way.

For his work at Alliant, Dave was recognized by Supply & Demand Chain Executive as a member of their 2017 Pros to Know.

Today, I'm joined by Tim Meester. Tim is the Senior Director of Procurement and Sustainability for Best Buy, an almost forty billion dollar revenue provider of technology products, services, and solutions.

As I got to know Tim in our pre-interview, I was very impressed by his and his team’s efforts to deliver value beyond savings at Best Buy. We connected to discuss CSR and sustainability, but that is only the start for his team.

In today’s discussion, Tim shares the actions that Best Buy procurement is taking to expand the procurement value proposition and importantly, how Best Buy actually incentivizes their teams to enable them to focus on more than just cost savings alone.

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!