“Savings is completely self-invented and pointless because it's separated from the real P&L."
This assessment from Bayer Chief Procurement Officer Thomas Udesen captures the essence of what may be procurement's most radical transformation in decades.
In this episode of “Buy: The Way...To Purposeful Procurement,” Thomas joins Philip Ideson and Rich Ham to discuss how one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies abandoned traditional procurement metrics entirely, replacing “savings” with six C's that actually drive business outcomes: cost, cash, carbon, community, compliance, and continuity.
Thomas's approach defies conventional wisdom at every turn.
At Bayer, every employee can spend up to €50,000 without pre-approval – a level of transactional autonomy that would terrify most procurement organizations. Yet the results speak for themselves: increased responsibility, entrepreneurial thinking, and more strategic spend management decisions driven by transparency rather than control.
The conversation reveals how procurement's obsession with “savings” has become a self-inflicted wound. Stakeholders roll their eyes when procurement leads with savings slides because the metrics mean nothing to them. Instead, Bayer measures real P&L impact through price index benchmarking and spend ratios that directly correlate to competitive performance.
In this episode, Thomas demonstrates that purposeful procurement isn't just theoretical; it's already happening. His parting challenge: procurement can be “the heartbeat of the change that is coming.”
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"I believe if you can define it, you can source it. And if you can source it, you can auction it." - Adam Collins, Head of Sales, Esker
Procurement teams are navigating unprecedented global disruptions, from tariffs and geopolitical tensions to supply chain instabilities that refuse to settle.
What if these chaotic conditions actually present procurement's greatest opportunity to demonstrate strategic value?
In this episode, Philip Ideson and Kelly Barner are joined by Adam Collins from Esker to explore how procurement can leverage fundamental strategic sourcing techniques to not just survive but thrive in turbulent market conditions.
Adam’s procurement technology experience is predominantly focused on source-to-contract capabilities that offer practical ways to turn market chaos into competitive advantage.
In this episode, Adam discusses:
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There is no template for transformation. You have to build transformation for the organization that you're in. Go and learn as much as you can about the organization and then pivot where you need to.”
- Tanya Roach, Director of Procurement, Federated Co-operatives Limited
Building procurement from scratch is never easy… let alone within a 90-year-old organization, during a pandemic, and with business demands changing faster than ever. Resilient, adaptable team members are the key to overcoming challenges and creating lasting transformation.
In this episode, Tanya Roach, Director of Procurement at Federated Co-operatives Limited, speaks to Philip Ideson at the 2025 Supply Chain Canada National Conference.
Tanya shares her transformation journey: from assembling a new team during COVID to designing processes with flexibility, and the lessons learned from steady, people-centered change.
In this candid conversation, she details how picking the right talent, using technology as a true enabler, and upskilling for AI set the stage for procurement success in a complex cooperative model.
Whether you’re leading a transformation or shaping day-to-day change, Tanya’s story offers practical strategies:
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Halfway through their journey toward purposeful procurement, the co-hosts confront a fundamental question: if procurement drives value in so many ways beyond cost savings, why do incentive structures ignore virtually everything else?
In this episode of "Buy: The Way...To Purposeful Procurement," Philip Ideson, Rich Ham, and Kelly Barner discuss insights from their recent conversations with Martin Chilcott and Paul Polizzotto to explore a troubling pattern: procurement consistently creates value despite their flawed incentive structures, not because of them.
The conversation maps procurement's hidden value drivers… from supplier-enabled innovation that harnesses R&D capabilities many times larger than any single organization, to supplier diversification efforts that identify alternatives but rarely get implemented, to risk mitigation strategies that could free companies from incumbent supplier traps.
The hosts also examine why procurement tends to abandon innovation initiatives precisely when they're most needed, creating self-defeating cycles that damage supplier relationships. Kelly adds a practitioner's perspective into the mix, pointing out the frustration of extensive supplier qualification work that gets shelved due to entrenched decision structures, systematically wasting value creation that never appears on any scorecard.
The episode also sets up the series' next phase: conversations with executives who've successfully broken the mold on traditional incentive structures, proving that purposeful procurement is achievable at any scale.
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“Deglobalization is a nice soundbite, but the reality is, we need more focus on risk management and mitigation.” – Philip Ideson, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Art of Procurement
Deglobalization is a hot topic right now, but behind the big headlines and boardroom buzzwords, real change is proving to be slow, complicated, and deeply influenced by geopolitics and regulation.
Are companies really bringing supply chains home, or is the story much more nuanced?
In this episode, Art of Procurement co-hosts Philip Ideson and Kelly Barner get candid on what’s behind deglobalization: from shifting away from China and the reality of “diversifying in name only,” to why risk management and local expertise matter now more than ever.
They discuss why many global supply strategies often move in cycles, and what procurement leaders can do to shape smarter, more resilient portfolios (despite increasing uncertainty).
In this episode, Philip and Kelly cover:
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Procurement 6 is a short podcast from Art of Procurement that publishes in the Art of Procurement feed every Friday morning at 6am US Eastern Time.
Presented by a member of the Art of Procurement team, each episode has 6 short segments that summarize the week in procurement.
Segments range from procurement tips to podcast summaries, from details of events to news or overviews of blog posts that capture our attention.
"I think we have hit a tipping point where procurement has become a pretty complicated practice. There's so many options and choices and optimizations with concepts that are just so alien to the typical user." - Jason Kim, Senior Director of Product Management, Coupa
The procurement technology landscape demands solutions that work for both power users and occasional requesters, yet many organizations struggle with platforms that create friction rather than facilitating smooth workflows. Usability isn't just about the user experience. It’s about adoption, compliance, and ultimately the strategic perception of procurement itself.
In this episode, Jason Kim, Senior Director of Product Management at Coupa, explains how AI, integration capabilities, and user interface design are reshaping the procurement experience for everyone from seasoned buyers to infrequent requesters.
Jason shares practical insights on designing systems that eliminate cognitive overhead, the critical importance of transparency in procurement workflows, and how meeting users where they are (rather than forcing them into rigid interfaces) drives better outcomes for procurement organizations.
Jason also discusses:
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Procurement 6 is a short podcast from Art of Procurement that publishes in the Art of Procurement feed every Friday morning at 6am US Eastern Time.
Presented by a member of the Art of Procurement team, each episode has 6 short segments that summarize the week in procurement.
Segments range from procurement tips to podcast summaries, from details of events to news or overviews of blog posts that capture our attention.
“Businesses are wasting more money than they're making.”
This stark assessment from serial entrepreneur Paul Polizzotto frames a provocative question: what if procurement's greatest untapped opportunity lies not in negotiating better prices, but in redirecting the millions corporations already squander on ineffective sales and marketing spend?
In this episode of "Buy: The Way...To Purposeful Procurement," Paul Polizzotto, founder of Community AI and former CEO of EcoMedia (which was sold to CBS), joins co-hosts Philip Ideson and Rich Ham to explore how procurement can transform transactional moments into powerful engines for social impact - without paying a penny more for goods and services.
Paul's track record speaks for itself: at EcoMedia, he redirected over $600 million of incremental advertising revenues toward community projects, powering solar installations on schools and city halls (including making Miami's City Hall the first major municipal building powered entirely by renewable energy), while making CBS more profitable. The secret? Tapping into the 10-30 percent of gross revenues that Fortune 500 companies routinely waste on ineffective SG&A expenses.
The conversation reveals a fundamental misunderstanding about social impact procurement.
While procurement teams worry about paying extra for "do-good" initiatives, Paul demonstrates how suppliers can fund meaningful community projects from their existing – and often wasteful – advertising, marketing, and event budgets. These are dollars that currently provide zero value, yet can be redirected to create measurable local impact while strengthening supplier relationships.
As Paul notes, 92 percent of CEOs surveyed by BCG believe that embedding social impact in procurement significantly elevates the function's importance and relevance within their organizations. If procurement seeks to demonstrate value beyond traditional cost savings, community impact offers a measurable, strategic pathway to C-suite relevance.
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Paul Polizzotto on LinkedIn
Rich Ham on LinkedIn
Learn more at FineTuneUs.com
“You really have to intimately understand what the organization needs out of you, and that happens through good discourse, good conversation, good communication.”
- Jack Skerry, Vice President of Supply Chain, Moosehead Breweries
Transforming procurement performance demands more than technical expertise.
Senior leaders know that without strong communication skills like active listening, transparency, and empathetic engagement, procurement’s impact is, at best, limited. As organizations adapt at speed, active communication is a non-negotiable difference-maker.
In this Art of Procurement podcast episode, Moosehead Breweries’ Vice President of Supply Chain, Jack Skerry, sits down with Philip Ideson at the Supply Chain Canada National Conference.
Jack’s two decades spanning marketing, HR, sales, and supply chain provide an uncommonly broad background for a procurement leader. He shares practical ways to align teams, build trust with both internal stakeholders and suppliers, and move procurement from cost center to valued business partner.
Jack’s insights on transparency, negotiation, and the power of a ‘T-shaped career’ resonate in a market where supplier relationships and stakeholder engagement define competitive advantage.
In this episode, Jack discusses:
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Procurement 6 is a short podcast from Art of Procurement that publishes in the Art of Procurement feed every Friday morning at 6am US Eastern Time.
Presented by a member of the Art of Procurement team, each episode has 6 short segments that summarize the week in procurement.
Segments range from procurement tips to podcast summaries, from details of events to news or overviews of blog posts that capture our attention.
“It’s not going to take much to push us back into a shortage market where demand would exceed supply.” - Graham Scott, Vice President, Global Procurement at Jabil
Semiconductor volatility is grabbing headlines again, but what’s really happening beneath the surface for organizations buying and managing critical components?
Graham Scott, Vice President of Global Procurement at Jabil, knows this landscape inside and out. In this episode, Graham speaks with Philip Ideson about the biggest pressures facing procurement teams, from AI-driven shifts in global supply, to the real cost of building resilient risk-management strategies.
Graham discusses how transparency and agility will set the winners apart, and why procurement teams must stay close to both operational details and C-suite priorities. For procurement teams steering spend, pushing for greater optionality or navigating complex geopolitical headwinds, Graham shares strategies they can use right now.
Graham also covers:
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Procurement 6 is a short podcast from Art of Procurement that publishes in the Art of Procurement feed every Friday morning at 6am US Eastern Time.
Presented by a member of the Art of Procurement team, each episode has 6 short segments that summarize the week in procurement.
Segments range from procurement tips to podcast summaries, from details of events to news or overviews of blog posts that capture our attention.
Between annual targets and cost-focused KPIs, procurement leaders find themselves in an impossible bind when it comes to decarbonization: they know sustainability matters, yet the very incentive structures designed to reward their performance actively undermine their decarbonization efforts.
In this episode, co-hosts Rich Ham and Philip Ideson speak with Martin Chilcott, Founder and CEO of 2 Degrees Limited and Founder of Manufacture 2030, to explore how procurement incentives could rapidly accelerate corporate decarbonization.
Martin works with global corporations across manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, and automotive industries, and he's seen firsthand how carbon strategies succeed or stall based on the commercial relationship between procurement and their suppliers.
Martin points out an important truth that many procurement leaders understand but struggle to quantify: "Carbon costs exist right now, even if they don't appear on your budget line." He shared concrete examples like Panama Canal disruptions and cocoa price hikes, with climate disruptions already impacting business financials.
The problem, he says, isn't awareness, but short-termism and narrow financial definitions that discourage investment. As Martin says, "If reducing emissions isn’t explicitly worth the effort financially, suppliers won’t make the effort."
The way forward requires fundamental changes to how procurement defines value. By reframing total cost of ownership to explicitly include carbon, implementing longer-term contracts with carbon reduction targets, and building targeted supplier incentives, procurement can make decarbonization both profitable and achievable.
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“My number one rule for being a professional procurement person is to be fair and consistent. You've got to give every supplier the same opportunity, the same amount of time, and the same pieces of information, so you've got a level playing field.” - Michael Bertalli
Today's procurement teams must deliver value through strong relationships and a reputation for professionalism that extends far beyond cost savings alone. Exceptional relationship skills – both within organizations and with external suppliers – have a significant strategic impact and can dictate lasting business outcomes.
In this episode, experienced procurement leader Michael Bertalli outlines exactly what it takes to build impactful relationships and project authentic professionalism.
Michael reveals practical insight on internal and external relationship strategies, explores actionable steps for deeper stakeholder collaboration, and emphasizes the nuanced art of supplier engagement.
Michael also discusses:
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Procurement 6 is a short podcast from Art of Procurement that publishes in the Art of Procurement feed every Friday morning at 6am US Eastern Time.
Presented by a member of the Art of Procurement team, each episode has 6 short segments that summarize the week in procurement.
Segments range from procurement tips to podcast summaries, from details of events to news or overviews of blog posts that capture our attention.
“During COVID, we went from just in time to just in case. Unfortunately, now supply chains have to factor in risk mitigation. Finding alternative sources of supply might be a little more pricey, but it reduces the risk.” - Alan Arcand, Chief Economist at Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters
Economic uncertainty and tariff volatility continue to shape procurement strategies and supply chain decisions across North America. As businesses grapple with unpredictable policy shifts, the need to interpret nuanced economic signals accurately has become critical to maintaining stable operations and safeguarding organizational profitability.
To decode these trends and recommend timely strategies, Philip Ideson spoke with Alan Arcand, Chief Economist at Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, at the Supply Chain Canada National Conference.
In this conversation, Alan highlights key factors procurement leaders should monitor, including the inflation implications of tariff decisions, investment behaviors influenced by economic uncertainty, and the profound impact all of this has on manufacturing sectors, particularly automotive.
Alan also discusses:
Links:
Procurement 6 is a short podcast from Art of Procurement that publishes in the Art of Procurement feed every Friday morning at 6am US Eastern Time.
Presented by a member of the Art of Procurement team, each episode has 6 short segments that summarize the week in procurement.
Segments range from procurement tips to podcast summaries, from details of events to news or overviews of blog posts that capture our attention.
Halfway through their 24-episode journey, the co-hosts of “Buy: The Way...To Purposeful Procurement” pause to assess what they've learned so far about how procurement has and is evolving, and, more importantly, what’s ahead for the future.
In this reflective episode, Philip Ideson, Rich Ham, and Kelly Barner bring together insights from their recent conversations that confirm a troubling trend in procurement: not only are the P&L-related harms of procurement's flawed incentive structures real, they're also worsening over time.
It is time for procurement to course correct.
Rich explains why by pointing out an important lesson learned from previous episodes: suppliers have figured out the game. They've learned that winning the initial deal is what matters, because procurement's incentives usually revolve around projected savings rather than actual P&L impact.
This discovery has unleashed an avalanche of post-contract margin-grabbing tactics, from billing for non-existent inventory to charging premium rates for basic services during crisis situations, that are diluting procurement value creation.
This episode reveals a fundamental paradox within procurement: while they consistently report driving value in multiple ways (sustainability, risk mitigation, social impact, strategic sourcing for M&A targets), procurement is still measured almost exclusively by narrow, often dysfunctional savings definitions.
This misalignment doesn't just harm savings outcomes; it may be crippling procurement's ability to deliver value across the business.
Finally, this episode sets up the series' pivot from problem diagnosis to solution exploration, as the co-hosts discuss their plans for future episodes to examine how organizations can move beyond “savings” toward comprehensive “value” metrics that more accurately reflect the depth and breadth of procurement's true contribution.
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"The way we start looking at every unit of work in a workflow flips from being something that's truly human-led to something that can be increasingly human-reviewed and driven, but not necessarily initiated as a human." Nick Heinzmann, Head of Research at Zip
The pressure for procurement to do more with less means innovation is no longer optional… It's necessary for survival and growth.
The game changer? Agentic AI: artificial intelligence capable of perceiving, analyzing, and taking action, all with minimal supervision.
In this Art of Procurement podcast episode, Philip Ideson interviews Nick Heinzmann, Head of Research at Zip, to dive deep into real-world applications and opportunities that Agentic AI holds for procurement.
Nick demystifies this powerful technology, showcasing practical ways it is already being used to automate workflows, solve procurement headaches, and address age-old data challenges.
In this episode, Nick covers:
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Procurement 6 is a short podcast from Art of Procurement that publishes in the Art of Procurement feed every Friday morning at 6am US Eastern Time.
Presented by a member of the Art of Procurement team, each episode has 6 short segments that summarize the week in procurement.
Segments range from procurement tips to podcast summaries, from details of events to news or overviews of blog posts that capture our attention.
“The greatest challenge facing the world today isn't tariffs or monetary uncertainty – it's stagnating productivity.” - Baber Farooq, Senior Vice President, Product Marketing SAP Ariba & SAP Fieldglass
Navigating today's interconnected global business landscape has thrust procurement directly into the heart of strategic risk management. Supply chain disruptions, new AI-driven realities, looming ESG regulations, and shifting diversity initiatives pressure leaders to redefine procurement’s strategic impact.
In this episode, Baber Farooq, Senior Vice President, Product Marketing SAP Ariba & SAP Fieldglass, joins Philip Ideson to unveil pivotal findings from the latest SAP Economist Impact report: “The Resilient Edge: Procurement in an Era of Polycrisis.”
Baber shares why procurement leaders everywhere must proactively align their operating models to evolving global challenges – especially in preparation for generative AI, stringent sustainability standards, and shifting supply chain landscapes.
Baber covers how to:
Links:
Procurement 6 is a short podcast from Art of Procurement that publishes in the Art of Procurement feed every Friday morning at 6am US Eastern Time.
Presented by a member of the Art of Procurement team, each episode has 6 short segments that summarize the week in procurement.
Segments range from procurement tips to podcast summaries, from details of events to news or overviews of blog posts that capture our attention.
Sometimes the most damning evidence about an industry or an organization comes from the inside. In this second installment of “Buy: The Way…To Purposeful Procurement’s” deep dive into supplier tactics, two former supply executives continue exposing the ins and outs of the supplier playbook they used on procurement when they were on the other side of the fence.
Bob Schreiner, former CIA section chief and G4s operations executive, explains how security guard service providers can obscure margin increases within seemingly reasonable wage adjustments for officers. He also exposes the “position rate variance” tactic, where suppliers charge premium rates for senior guards to fill junior positions, and also how disasters can become margin-grabbing bonanzas for suppliers.
Keith Robinson, one of only 150 board-certified entomologists working commercially in North America, exposes seasonal billing schemes in the pest control industry, where compliance rates plummet in colder months, yet billing continues unchanged. Perhaps most shocking is his revelation that 80-90 percent of fogging and fumigation services are often completely avoidable.
These true stories from industry insiders point to a troubling reality: procurement is sometimes so focused on up-front savings that they inadvertently signal to suppliers exactly how to game the system. In effect, procurement ends up creating the perfect conditions for the kind of post-contract chicanery that can create significant cost increases for the business over the years, without any change in service scope or delivery.
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“Procurement officers are going to have to go hunt for the solutions they need and the workflows that can help their business. I do feel like to do this job properly moving forward, it's an offensive job, and you don't have the luxury of sitting back.” - Matt Ziskie, Co-Founder, Bungalow Capital
How procurement approaches working with smaller, innovative startups can look quite different than other supplier relationships.
From lengthy sales cycles, complex negotiations, and mismatched expectations… these and other roadblocks can crop up in different ways depending on the size, scale, needs, and maturity level of the supplier. Procurement has to understand the unique needs and constraints that each type of supplier brings to the table.
In this episode of Art of Procurement, recorded on stage at Catalyst LA, Philip Ideson speaks with Matt Ziskie, Co-Founder of Bungalow Capital, about bridging the gap between enterprise procurement and startup innovation. Matt offers a unique perspective, having worked as a procurement leader at companies like Box and Airbnb, and now as an investor helping startups navigate enterprise sales.
In this episode, Matt explains:
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