Effective today, Art of Procurement has a new brand: an uploaded logo, look, and feel that align with our vision for procurement and the expanded content and events that are available to the AOP community.

This rebrand comes after eight years of gradual shifts. Starting with the launch of the podcast in 2015, Art of Procurement has grown to become the leading source of trusted, actionable insights for forward-thinking procurement leaders.

In this bonus episode, Partners Philip Ideson and Kelly Barner explain the intent and process behind this change:

• How our rebrand goes beyond just sporting a ‘new look’
• The need for procurement advocacy across the executive suite
• How this brand update aligns with our larger mission to 10X the impact of procurement

Supplier.io recently analyzed $1.4 trillion in spend looking for supplier diversity benchmarks that can be used to identify top performers and aid the advance of these programs regardless of maturity, size, or industry.

In this episode, drawn from an AOP Live session, Philip Ideson and Kelly Barner are joined by Aylin Basom, CEO of Supplier.io, and Lois Eichacker, their Vice President of Customer Success. They share the findings of the 2023 Supplier Diversity Benchmarking Report and discuss the importance of having an accurate, reliable, and consistent way to measure supplier diversity program results. 

Listen to this interview to discover:

• Why actionable data and benchmarks are critical to advancing the mission of the supplier diversity movement
• What the data reveals when small supplier spend and diverse supplier spend are studied separately
• The role industry plays in determining relevant supplier diversity benchmarks

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.

Despite the efforts that have been made to eradicate slavery, the practice has adapted. People all over the world are being held against their will and forced to provide labor, endure inhuman treatment, and are even subject to forcible organ harvesting.  

Tim Nelson is the CEO of the charities Hope for Justice and Slave Free Alliance. He was working in the banking industry when he met a ‘slave hunter’ through a friend - a chance encounter that started his mission to expose and address the slavery and human trafficking that exist within today’s supply chains. Today he is fighting both worldwide through an ever-expanding network of team members and partners.

In this episode, Tim shares his knowledge and and advice with Philip Ideson about:

• Some of the products, services, and supply chains that are at high risk of involving modern slavery 
• Internal and external drivers of change that are starting to move the needle on modern-day slavery
• The role that procurement professionals can - and must - play in working to protect human rights and protect companies from reputational risk

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 combined challenges of the global economy and digital competition are very real for most executive leadership teams. While many of the decisions they must make are focused on short term agility and operational resilience, they can’t allow themselves to lose sight of the investments required to fuel longer term growth.

In this episode, based on an AOP Live session, Kelly Barner and Philip Ideson are joined by Yatin Anand, Principal and Procurement Leader at KPMG, and Michael van Keulen (“MVK”), Chief Procurement Officer at Coupa. They address how procurement can increase overall business resilience for the sake of short term agility and long term growth.

Yatin and MVK answer questions about:

• How CEOs and leadership teams are approaching the challenges and opportunities they face today and the steps they are taking to prepare for the future
• Ways to enable companies to make better decisions across a range of strategic objectives by achieving better control over their spend 
• Where ESG targets fit into supply chain programs that are constantly being forced to emphasize risk and cost

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 sooner procurement is engaged in a business need, sourcing project, or contract process, the better the outcome will be for the business. This principle is widely accepted within procurement as truth, but has it ever been proven? If procurement could provide data to support earlier engagement and stronger upstream relationships with the business, the entire value equation would change.

Brian Peters is the Senior Director of Global Procurement Services & Delivery at Gilead Sciences, and he has a theory. He believes that if procurement has better upstream relationships, he will be able to measure the benefits in terms of:

• Higher savings
• Improved business outcomes
• Increased stakeholder satisfaction
• Shorter cycle times
• Improved supplier experience

In this conversation with host Philip Ideson, Brian talks about his theory regarding the ROI of procurement’s upstream relationships and the process he and his team are going through to prove it is true.

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.

Many leading procurement professionals started out in completely different fields. And while they manage spend and suppliers today, those past practices, skills, and perspectives are still available to them. That diversity of perspective is part of what makes procurement teams so creative and resilient.

In this episode, Philip Ideson is joined by Fadi El Mouallem, a global procurement executive and digital transformation advocate. Fadi has experience working at companies like Salesforce and Apple, but his original field was architecture… something that has come in particularly helpful in a field that is constantly balancing art and science.

When it comes to building and enabling amazing teams, Fadi has plenty of advice to share:

• The importance of being able to step back and take in the big picture while also keeping an eye on the details
• Purposefully pursuing a broad range of talent and backgrounds when introducing someone new the team
• The many forms that organizational influence can take, and why it always starts with human connection

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 this four-part special series, host Philip Ideson speaks with members of the Sievo team. In each episode, we discover a unique way that differentiated decision making can help procurement 10X their impact: procurement as an information hub, ESG analytics, investments in talent, and crossing the data to action gap.

In the fourth and final episode in this series, he is joined by Sammeli Sammalkorpi, CEO and Co-Founder of Sievo, to bring the whole series together by looking at how procurement can cross the data to action gap.

They take this opportunity to discuss: 

• What the next frontier in procurement analytics may look like 
• Whether automated decision making will replace procurement professionals 
• How procurement decision makers should think about procurement data assets

In this four-part special series, host Philip Ideson speaks with members of the Sievo team. In each episode, we discover a unique way that differentiated decision making can help procurement 10X their impact: procurement as an information hub, ESG analytics, investments in talent, and crossing the data to action gap.

 In the third episode, he is joined by Deep Singh, a Presales Manager at Sievo, to talk about the current state of human decision making and the tools available to drive decisions into actions.

 They take this opportunity to discuss: 

• How procurement can connect global sources of spend data with existing decision making processes
• What the decision making process looks like today with regards to managing risk
• Whether companies spend sufficient time cleaning and interpreting their data so they can improve their decisions

In this four-part special series, host Philip Ideson speaks with members of the Sievo team. In each episode, we discover a unique way that differentiated decision making can help procurement 10X their impact: procurement as an information hub, ESG analytics, investments in talent, and crossing the data to action gap.

 In the second episode, he is joined by Heta Pirttijärvi, a Product Manager at Sievo, to talk about ESG analytics.

 They take this opportunity to discuss: 

• Why ESG topics are becoming more important and receiving more attention 
• The main obstacles companies struggle with as they try to translate their ESG vision into an actionable strategy 
• Procurement’s likely future role in ESG initiatives

In this four-part special series, host Philip Ideson speaks with members of the Sievo team. In each episode, we discover a unique way that differentiated decision making can help procurement 10X their impact: procurement as an information hub, ESG analytics, investments in talent, and crossing the data to action gap.

In this first episode, he is joined by Heta Ruikka, VP of Product Management at Sievo, to talk about how procurement’s role has adjusted in response to differentiated decision making.

They take this opportunity to discuss: 

• How the last few years have altered procurement’s role
• The new challenges that are increasing procurement’s visibility and responsibility
• Examples of how increased complexity affects procurement’s analytical and sourcing work

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.

Art of Procurement recently passed a major milestone for any podcast - but one that is particularly exciting for a niche business podcast… our one-millionth download!

Philip Ideson recorded the first episode of the podcast back in 2015 (he and Kelly Barner connected for the very first time to record episode 6!). Over time, the podcast has evolved and matured just as much as the procurement community has, and today it is the #1 downloaded procurement podcast in the world. 

But if you thought that was our whole story, you would be missing out on a lot…

To mark this occasion, Philip Ideson and Kelly Barner recorded a special episode to share behind-the-scenes stories and answer listener Q&A. Here are just a few of the things they cover in this unprecedented and unfiltered episode:

• The master plan (or lack thereof) that motivated Phil to give up a perfectly good job to host a podcast
• Some of the low points on the journey, and what the team learned from them
• Episodes that were surprisingly well received… or didn’t resonate at all.
• Why the secret to this podcast’s success may actually be another unrelated podcast

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 often talks about visibility and transparency. Data turns abstract goals into actionable insight. Having greater visibility makes it possible for procurement to negotiate maximum savings while making sure the company has what it needs to operate competitively in a digital world. 

In categories where it is easy for distributed buyers to act independently - like cloud software for instance - visibility also provides procurement with opportunities for improved savings leverage and the centralized oversight required to stop ‘shadow spend’ in its tracks.

In this episode, based on an AOP Live session, Philip Ideson is joined by Emily Campbell, Director of Product Design & Research at Vendr, and Nick Pinkman, Sr. Cloud Manager at Vendr. 

Emily and Nick share their perspectives about:

• The importance of centralizing workflows for managing spend and headcount
• The different types of cloud savings procurement should pursue during contract negotiations
• What data procurement should have in hand before entering a cloud software negotiation

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.

So much of what procurement does is about change management. Whether it is adopting new technologies, ensuring that soft skills continue to evolve, or understanding how procurement can best align with the business given their changing needs… something is always changing.

Paras Sood has broad senior-level experience across the entire procurement value chain. He has worked as a practitioner, at a procurement tech company, and in procurement consulting. Most recently, Paras was the Global Head of Strategic Procurement Transformation for Deutsche Bank, until he made the move back into consulting at Future Purchasing. 

In this episode, Philip Ideson taps into Paras’ experience in driving transformation to better understand his approach and how it has evolved to meet changing C-suite expectations. 

• How procurement can take a broad range of experiential and functional perspectives when planning a transformation journey
• Changes he has seen companies make to the business case required for both short and longer term funding for transformations
• Why successful transformation efforts require segmentation of transformational phases, stakeholder interests and enthusiasm, and technology implementation

Procurement 6 is a new short podcast from Art of Procurement that will be published 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 will have 6 short segments that summarize this week in procurement.  

Segments will range from procurement tips to podcast summaries, from details of events to news or overviews of blog posts that have captured our attention this week.

To support this need for balance, the Art of Procurement team brought together a broad range of experts to speak at Digital Outcomes 2023: one of our largest virtual events of the year. We heard about technical challenges and human growing pains… in addition to technical triumphs and human evolution.

In this episode of the pod, Philip Ideson and Kelly Barner share their combined takeaways from this fast-paced two day event:

• How to take new ideas from a relatively safe incubation phase to full scale corporate programs
• The risks that exist for procurement teams that are not able to successfully leave the status quo behind and embrace new ways of working and thinking
• The opportunity that exists for procurement organizations that use digital platforms as impact multipliers, delivering expanded forms of ROI

Procurement 6 is a new short podcast from Art of Procurement that will be published 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 will have 6 short segments that summarize this week in procurement.  

Segments will range from procurement tips to podcast summaries, from details of events to news or overviews of blog posts that have captured our attention this week.

Like most other companies, manufacturing companies have a problem with data. Many of them don't centralize much of the data they produce through regular transactions, and even when they do, they struggle to contextualize that information so that it becomes actionable. When procurement professionals in these companies sit down with engineers and supply chain planners, they need to be able to harness that data as the ‘common language’ for value.

Keith Hartley is the CEO of LevaData - and a passionate surfer, a brand new combination for the Art of Procurement podcast. Keith joined the LevaData team in 2022, but he isn’t new to procurement - and he has deep experience helping manufacturing companies drive better decision making through the use of data. 

In this episode, Philip Ideson and Keith discussed:

• The current state of direct material sourcing 
• How procurement and engineering teams can foster greater collaboration to everyone’s benefit
• How leading companies are using increased data visibility to differentiate their decision making - even in chaotic times