“Sustainability is at the top of the agenda for businesses, because now they have to demonstrate exactly what their carbon footprint is and demonstrate with complete credibility and transparency exactly what they’re doing.” - Melanie Blackmore, Founder & CEO Blackmores (UK) Ltd and Carbonology Ltd
When Melanie Blackmore, Founder & CEO Blackmores (UK) Ltd and Carbonology Ltd, says that she is deeply passionate and “in love with” standards, she readily admits not everyone will be able to relate to her enthusiasm. But, applying ISO (International Organization for Standardization) can give organizations, and specifically procurement teams, the direction they need to ensure quality, safety, efficiency, and even compliance across industries and for both goods and services.
The stakes can be high, but the benefits of implementing ISO standards are often even higher.
In this episode, Philip Ideson explores the ins and outs of an ISO framework and how it can help a business improve their processes by following a set of internationally recognized best practices.
They discuss:
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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 category management is great fun because you have the freedom to do things. It’s not following a rote process. It’s using structure to be creative. I think that’s the great benefit of it.” - Mark Webb, Managing Director at Future Purchasing
For many in procurement, category management is “old hat.” Some even assume that widespread adoption and integration of category management structures and processes within the business are non-issues in 2024. They see category management as a mountain that has been scaled, and now procurement just needs to sit back and enjoy the view.
When we look more closely, however, there is still significant room for improvement in category management strategy and for expanded scope of implementation throughout the business.
In this episode, Philip Ideson welcomes back Mark Webb, Managing Director at Future Purchasing, for a deep dive into the current state of category management, including where we’ve been and how far we have left to go. Mark also shares the results of the 2024 Global Category Management Report, a large, comprehensive study Future Purchasing conducts in partnership with Henley Business School.
They discuss the importance of stakeholder involvement, the need for more consistency and effective communication, the distinctions between category management and strategic sourcing, and the delicate balance between internal expertise versus external resources in implementation.
Philip and Mark also explore:
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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 incumbent upon all of us to be change ready, to be curious, to always be learning because this overestimated technology today will truly be delivering huge results tomorrow.” - Alan Veeck, CEO & Founder at Summit Procurement
There are very few voices in procurement right now – or businesses in general, for that matter – who are raising the flag that all of the fear, enthusiasm, and hand-wringing over AI’s growing influence might be one big, collective overreaction.
Alan Veeck, CEO & Founder at Summit Procurement, is one such voice. In this episode, he shares with Philip Ideson why his contrarian attitude toward AI has little to do with his belief that AI will indeed revolutionize the space.
Alan explains how decades of seeing other technology hype cycles come and go have given him a more measured outlook for innovative or emerging digital breakthroughs (including generative AI) and why he thinks other procurement leaders should dial down the frenzy around AI that likely isn’t doing their teams, or the business, any favors.
In this conversation, Alan also talks about:
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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 speed of business is accelerating dramatically. Procurement can change how they address challenges and support stakeholders, or they can remain slow to adapt and miss out on key opportunities.
In this week’s podcast, Eric Dulin, Director of Procurement, Digital & Technology at Yum! Brands, shares how he has shifted his mindset throughout his career to focus more on building relationships and approaching procurement with a service-first attitude. He and Philip also discuss Eric’s book, Win-Win-Win: Collaborative Approach to Procurement in the Era of Digital Metamorphosis, pulling out a few quotes that can help procurement professionals reshape the way they work within their roles.
Throughout the episode, Eric uses first-hand lessons to offer transformative truths, including:
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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.
“Longer term, I think people haven’t fully understood the power of generative AI beyond their own personal use cases. But now, the central theme is really testing out where it can go.” - Nick Heinzmann, Head of Research at Zip
AI has been in the mainstream long enough now that it’s time for procurement to get specific and systematic about where, when, and how to apply it to the tech stack in order to generate the most value for the business.
In this episode, Philip Ideson and Kelly Barner speak with Lance Younger, CEO of ProcureTech, and Nick Heinzmann, Head of Research at Zip, about current best practices for positioning AI in the tech stack and how procurement can navigate the inherent risks that may accompany digital transformation. They also discuss the value and benefits AI can bring to procurement, like optimizing the S2P workflow, data management, compliance, and process efficiency.
Listen in to discover:
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.
Procurement teams within private equity firms manage hundreds of portfolio teams worldwide. They must prove the value they create with each program at any given moment. With precise, robust data not always available, these teams are left to determine supplemental ways to demonstrate cost savings, capex reductions, and cost avoidance to C-suite stakeholders.
In this episode, Philip sits down with Paul Dhaliwal, Director of the U.S. Capstone Team at KKR, at the 2024 CoreTrust Conference in Tampa to discuss how GPOs play a key role in driving value and change across private equity portfolios. They also dive into how Paul and his team use GPO relationships to tell a clearer story with the data they have.
Paul shares his insight on leveraging GPOs within private equity, including:
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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.
“A contract lifecycle management platform drives processes for you. That drives your price down, your risk down, and you get the best of all worlds like procurement wants." - Paul Bagley, Director of Commercial Contracting at Acosta
Historically, procurement viewed contracts as a legal formality, something only to be referred to when things go wrong with a supplier.
This outdated approach leaves a goldmine of untapped value and insight on the table, and it’s time for procurement to have a mindset shift when it comes to the way they use, store, value, and leverage digital contracts.
In this episode, Philip Ideson and Kelly Barner talk with Paul Bagley, Director of Commercial Contracting at Acosta, and Toby Laforest, Director of Product Marketing at Ironclad, about how procurement can leverage the full potential of digital contracts and the technology required to make it happen.
They’ll explain:
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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.
“You have to make investments in your supplier network if you want to be successful. The old days of ‘I have to win, and you have to lose’ are gone. We are so transparent. We are using technology. Relationships are key.” - Frank McKay, Chief Supply Chain & Procurement Officer, Jabil
In 2023, Jabil conducted a 2023 Supply Chain Survey in collaboration with SIS International Research. In this episode, Philip Ideson sits down with Frank McKay, Chief Supply Chain & Procurement Officer at Jabil to discuss the results, which pinpointed things like cost reduction, customer satisfaction, communication, and visibility as some of procurement’s top-of-mind challenges.
In addition to sharing his own experiences as a practitioner for over 25 years, Frank also discusses his perspective on the evolving role of procurement and how they can better reduce supply chain operational costs, as well as how Chief Supply Chain Officers should be adjusting their strategies in response to rapidly shifting global supply chain dynamics and volatility.
In the episode, they also explore:
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.
“At the end of the day, we exist to try and help the procurement profession be more impactful. That’s the lens through which we look at everything.” - Philip Ideson, Founder and Managing Director of Art of Procurement
In this milestone 700th episode, Art of Procurement Founder and Managing Director Philip Ideson has the tables turned on him as he’s interviewed by longtime friend and colleague Mark Holyoake, Owner and Managing Director of Holyoake Search.
In this special conversation, recorded face-to-face, Philip gets personal about his journey from an early career in automotive procurement to the motivations behind his decision to launch the Art of Procurement and how AOP’s evolution into a successful media and advisory company has challenged and strengthened Philip’s own leadership skills along the way.
Philip shares his insights with Mark on what it takes to succeed as an entrepreneur and how resilience, continuous learning, and embracing change are essential to that success.
Highlights from the episode include:
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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.
“In some weird sense, as we see the power of technology, the more apprehensive we get about how much information it should have.” - Baber Farooq, Senior Vice President, Market Strategy, Procurement Solutions at SAP
Procurement leaders face a number of challenges in optimizing their source-to-pay processes, and they are increasingly relying on AI tools to address those challenges.
In this episode, Philip speaks talks with Baber Farooq, Senior Vice President, Market Strategy, Procurement Solutions at SAP, about the positive and negative trends he is seeing across source-to-pay, including in spend analytics, data management and governance, category management, risk management, scenario planning, and AI integration.
Baber shares his insights on evolving trends in source-to-pay, including:
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.
“There is one thing you can do that really creates a positive ROI for an RFP respondent even if they lose. One thing that will increase the chances that you receive the best RFP responses possible… That one thing is feedback.” - Philip Ideson, Founder and Managing Director at Art of Procurement
In this special solo episode, Art of Procurement Founder and Managing Director Philip Ideson explains why it’s so important for procurement to give meaningful feedback to unsuccessful bidders.
This feedback is an often-ignored part of the RFP process, but taking the time to give substantive, detailed feedback can lead to better RFP responses in the future, increased goodwill with suppliers, and stronger long-term relationships that benefit everyone.
In this episode, Philip shares practical tips on how procurement can efficiently incorporate better feedback and responses to losing bidders as well as the benefits this can lead to.
He will discuss:
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.
“Only when we stop accepting the fact that procurement is being made to make decisions that are not the best for the future but the best for business today will we really start to take action.” - Alex Jennings, Former CPO DS Smith, Independent Consultant at APSL Consulting Ltd
Alex Jennings is a procurement powerhouse with decades of leadership experience working for well-known brands like GE and Toyota and occupying multiple senior roles before his retirement from corporate life in 2023. But, Alex is still leading procurement into the future, even after retiring as CPO of DS Smith. Most recently, he has launched The Alchemie Network, a new platform for collaborative learning around ESG and sustainability for procurement.
In this episode, Alex talks with host Philip Ideson about how The Alchemie Network can help procurement make better strides towards a more sustainable supply chain and how they can turn their organization’s vision for sustainability into tangible outcomes for the business.
They’ll discuss:
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.
“If you think of it simplistically, orchestration is a whole art form. You have to learn what it all means. But in so many words, it is nothing else than acting as if it is your own company. How cool is that?” - Elisabeth Schlag-Lawrence, SVP, Head of Procurement Governance and Enabling, Bayer
When procurement is decentralized, it is difficult to achieve the visibility they need to proactively manage risk and compliance, identify savings, and create value and opportunity for the business.
In this episode, Philip Ideson welcomes a heavy-hitting panel of Fortune 500 procurement leaders to discuss how procurement orchestration can help create optimal digital experiences across the organization and level-up procurement’s tech stack.
He is joined by Elisabeth Schlag-Lawrence, SVP, Head of Procurement Governance and Enabling at Bayer; Chris Vessey, Executive Director, Global Product Strategy & Transformation at Goldman Sachs; Shachi Rai Gupta, Global Head of Strategy, Intelligence and Digital Transformation at Bristol Myers Squibb; and Lance Younger, CEO of ProcureTech.
They discuss:
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