“For anybody getting into the CPO role, whether internal or external, you ultimately have to start with your own assessment of the organization and quickly come up with what your priorities are.” – Darshan Deshmukh, President at ProcureAbility The role of Chief Procurement Officer has changed significantly over the last decade, with the focus shifting primarily from cost savings to value generation. In this Art of Procurement podcast episode, Philip Ideson talks with Darshan Deshmukh, President ...
Mar 17, 2025•43 min
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.
Mar 14, 2025•9 min
“For anybody in procurement that’s ever uttered the phrase ‘seat at the table,’ it’s not always a comfy seat. This is one of those moments where, if we want to be a part of the leadership discussion on the directional momentum of the company, we have to find the way, find the person, and find the time to have this conversation about supplier diversity.” - Kelly Barner, Co-founder and Head of Operations at Art of Procurement Is this the end of supplier diversity as we’ve known it? As the politica...
Mar 10, 2025•33 min
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.
Mar 07, 2025•10 min
The stakes are always high for procurement, but at mission-driven non-profits like the American Cancer Society, procurement is working to – quite literally – help save lives. In this powerful fourth episode of “Buy: The Way…To Purposeful Procurement,” co-hosts Philip Ideson, Founder of Art of Procurement, and Rich Ham, CEO of Fine Tune, speak with Brian Kyle, Vice President of Supply Chain and Accounts Payable at the American Cancer Society, to explore what enterprise procurement can learn from ...
Mar 05, 2025•29 min
“ When we start thinking about and putting the end customer at the center of everything we do, it changes our perception of what’s important and therefore what we measure in the outputs from our contracts. ” Gordon Donovan, Vice President Research - Procurement & External Workforce, SAP Services spend makes up a large, strategic part of the value procurement provides to the business. But, it’s also an area that’s ripe for improvement. Building off of services spend management research we started...
Mar 03, 2025•42 min
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.
Feb 28, 2025•10 min
“It’s still on us, as procurement professionals, to invest the right amount of time in building relationships and building our narrative.” - Ashish Dhongde, Associate Director Procurement Beauty and Wellbeing North America, Unilever Unilever has built a notoriously well-integrated procurement program, and they are widely recognized for the strong partnership between procurement and the rest of the business. In this episode, Philip Ideson explores what procurement excellence looks like in practic...
Feb 24, 2025•29 min
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.
Feb 21, 2025•11 min
Building off the previous discussion about “purposeful procurement,” Philip Ideson, Kelly Barner, and Fine Tune CEO Rich Ham are back to take a bold, honest look at the systemic flaws that have all too often shaped procurement’s behaviors and limited their impact. In this candid conversation, we share and discuss real-world examples about how current incentive structures elevate short-term thinking and less-than-exceptional outcomes, ignoring the huge potential procurement has to generate value....
Feb 19, 2025•37 min
“Show me the incentive, and I will show you the outcome.” Warren Buffet’s vice chairman Charlie Munger’s succinct and insightful take reminds us of the power of incentives—and provides a backdrop for this project. In this first episode of the “Buy: The Way…To Purposeful Procurement” podcast, produced collaboratively by the teams at Art of Procurement and Fine Tune, Fine Tune CEO Rich Ham, Philip Ideson, and Kelly Barner lay the groundwork for this year-long series of bi-weekly episodes featuring...
Feb 19, 2025•22 min
As Albert Einstein said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” After taking an honest look at some of procurement’s most pressing challenges and flaws in episodes 1 and 2, Philip Ideson and Fine Tune CEO Rich Ham shift their focus from problem-spotting to solution-seeking with special guest, Oliver Hurrey, one of the world’s foremost experts on purposeful procurement. Through his work on sustainability and decarbonization in the supply chain with the...
Feb 19, 2025•42 min
“ I look at building a business case in terms of storytelling, and the story that you have to be able to tell in procurement is around better, faster, and cheaper .” – Pratik Patel, Director - Category Management - Labor/North America Technology Spend, Mastercard Understanding how to address skeptics, overcome objections, and communicate procurement’s value will ultimately determine how much buy-in (and resources) procurement receives. This holds true whether you are building a business case to ...
Feb 17, 2025•42 min
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.
Feb 14, 2025•10 min
“ Instead of taking an inward look at your sourcing and procurement models, consider the easiest, simplest experience that you can provide to your internal customers .” – Ryan Bradford Procurement is in the midst of a transformative period, but at the heart of all this change is one thing that is always relevant: the customer experience. Procurement has traditionally done itself a disservice by approaching the source-to-pay process with their own goals, needs, or processes in mind. But, by takin...
Feb 10, 2025•34 min
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.
Feb 07, 2025•8 min
“Procurement is going to make a transformative leap. It may be in a year. It may be in three years. But it’s going to happen. So start experimenting.” – Remko Van Hoek, Full Professor of Practice SCM, Executive Director CSCMP Supply Chain Hall of Fame, hosted by Walton, University of Arkansas - Sam M. Walton College of Business It’s time to make procurement fun again. That’s what Remko Van Hoek, Full Professor of Practice SCM, Executive Director CSCMP Supply Chain Hall of Fame, hosted by Walton...
Feb 03, 2025•27 min
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.
Jan 31, 2025•10 min
“We’re in a new world where we’re trying to converge all these different areas, not only to fix problems, but to drive different kinds of capabilities for procurement, ones that are not theoretically possible with the old approach.” – Nick Heinzmann , Head of Research at Zip Procurement is continuously improving and maturing, but over the past few years, a series of distinct trends has gathered momentum. 2025 is looking more and more like the pivotal year when all of these trends will converge, ...
Jan 27, 2025•42 min
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.
Jan 24, 2025•9 min
“One of the markers of a leading procurement function is when you see suppliers as more than just a source of supply but also as a source of value and innovation.” - Samir Khushalani , Partner at McKinsey & Company Procurement is in a unique position right now. They have to balance immediate priorities and meet the needs of the business today while also navigating new realities and an uncertain future shaped by generative AI, geopolitical turmoil, shifting macroeconomic pressures, and an increas...
Jan 20, 2025•39 min
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.
Jan 17, 2025•9 min
“The industry is evolving faster than our willingness to accept it.” - John Ward , Portfolio Director, ProcureCon North America, Worldwide Business Research For 25 years, ProcureCon has served as a cornerstone for procurement education and community-building with their well-known annual conference series. In this episode, Philip Ideson talks about the evolution of ProcureCon (and procurement in general) with Frank Musero, Divisional Director, Content and Strategy, ProcureCon, B2B and Finance Eve...
Jan 13, 2025•37 min
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.
Jan 10, 2025•10 min
“As we stand here at the start of 2025, it's clear that this moment isn't about minor tweaks or incremental gains. It's about embracing fundamental shifts that challenge our long-held assumptions.” - Philip Ideson , Founder and Managing Director of Art of Procurement As we head into 2025, which also marks the 10th anniversary of Art of Procurement, Founder and Managing Director Philip Ideson pauses for his annual look at the state of procurement. This year, he examines five critical trends that ...
Jan 06, 2025•20 min
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.
Jan 03, 2025•9 min
“I think there is an element of mastering your own destiny, a sense of showing up and being engaged in the conversation about what the change should be and the nature and how you do it.” - Aaron Addicoat, Director at AlixPartners In a session at Mastermind Live 2024, Kelly Barner spoke with Aaron Addicoat, Director at AlixPartners, to examine the ways procurement can adapt their operating model to achieve business objectives - and do so with the right attitude. Aaron’s passion for procurement an...
Dec 30, 2024•31 min
“I think there's this dichotomy of two things that we always have to keep in mind in procurement. We don't want to create friction. We want frictionless procurement. At the same time, we want to be seen as the people who have ideas, who could come up with something that could be innovative and have influence in the business.” - Constantine Limberakis , CEO and Owner of Liberis Consulting LLC In a session at AOP Mastermind Live 2024, Kelly Barner sat down with Constantine Limberakis, CEO and Owne...
Dec 23, 2024•33 min
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.
Dec 20, 2024•9 min
"Procurement organizations that are able to master knowledge around their workflows and categories, and bring that intelligence on demand into their processes and tech, are going to really be able to get that 5x, 10x, 20x kind of performance advantage. It’s a game-changer.” - Pierre Mitchell , Chief Research Officer and Managing Director, Spend Matters Procurement technology is a fast moving target, and well-known industry analyst Pierre Mitchell is one of a handful of highly experienced people ...
Dec 16, 2024•49 min
