Tania Seary is passionate about raising the profile of procurement, and is a master connector, and networker. She is the Founding Chairman of Procurious, The Faculty and The Source, and in 2016 was named "Influencer of the Year" by Supply Chain Dive magazine. I was delighted to invite Tania back onto the show for what is now her third appearance. I wanted to dig deeper into her success as a networker – with a focus on how to balance our online and in-person networking in an age where "connecting...
Jan 15, 2018•40 min•Ep. 167
I was inspired to cover today's topic based on a question from a listener who has resolved to make a career move in 2018… I know from personal experience that at this time of year, we are often making decisions on our career strategies for the year ahead. When I made the decision to pursue setting up my own business, I made the decision over the holiday period, and I'm sure many listeners may have done the same this year – whether it is to pursue a new role internally, or externally. So what I t...
Jan 08, 2018•22 min•Ep. 166
My guest today is Chandar Pattabhiram, the new Chief Marketing Officer at Coupa. We sat down and recorded this podcast during the SIG Fall Summit in Carlsbad, California, which explains all of the interesting background noises you may hear. I took that opportunity to get his fresh perspective on how procurement can elevate its role in the organization.
Dec 18, 2017•15 min•Ep. 165
My guest today is Lawrence Kane, a Fortune 50 strategic sourcing and functional excellence lead. Lawrence and I sat down to talk at the SIG Fall Summit in Carlsbad, California, where our conversation focused on what he has learned during his three-decade career.
Dec 11, 2017•39 min•Ep. 164
Hi there everyone, and welcome to this week's Art of Procurement interview, which is powered by SIG. My guest today is Kate Vitasek, a member of the graduate faculty in executive education at the University of Tennessee, and the creator of the Vested model. Kate and I have recorded several podcasts together, but in this case we connected in person at the SIG Fall Summit in Carlsbad, California. We took that opportunity to discuss the Vested model and how procurement (after long delay) is embraci...
Dec 04, 2017•32 min•Ep. 163
Hi there everyone, and welcome to this week's Art of Procurement interview, which is powered by SIG. My guest today is Chris Camejo, the Director of Product Management and Threat Intelligence at NTT Security - probably the scariest sounding title I've ever had here on Art of Procurement. Chris and I connected in person at the SIG Fall Summit in Carlsbad, California, where we had an opportunity to talk about what threat intelligence means and what role procurement can play in strengthening a comp...
Nov 27, 2017•28 min•Ep. 162
Welcome to today's Art of Procurement interview powered by SIG. Today's show is part of a mini-series of six different episodes that I recorded live at the recent SIG Fall Summit in Carlsbad, California. Being a live recording, you'll hear background noises like baristas making coffee, venue employees taping wire to the carpet, and lots of other little sounds in between. We actually had a booth set up in the main corridor of the conference venue, so you're sure to get the atmosphere from the eve...
Nov 20, 2017•32 min•Ep. 161
My guest this week on the pod is Tim Cronin, the CPO of GuideWell, a not-for-profit mutual holding company in the healthcare industry. Tim and I connected live at the SIG Fall Summit in Carlsbad, California, where we had an opportunity to talk about his journey with Sourcing Business Models in a presentation with Kate Vitasek, founder and lead researcher for the Vested business methodology. What I really enjoyed about our conversation is that Tim shared putting the theory of Sourcing Business ...
Nov 13, 2017•31 min•Ep. 160
You will notice from the title, that this is not an ordinary Art of Procurement podcast. In fact, it is not an AOP podcast at all. As regular listeners will know, I have been working very closely with Kelly Barner – we partnered on The Procurement Revolution, co-founded Palambridge, and Kelly helps me behind the scenes to keep the wheels on here at Art of Procurement. Kelly has been hosting a procurement and supply chain podcast for over six years, and in fact it was one of my inspirations behin...
Nov 09, 2017•29 min
Hi there everyone, and welcome to this week's Art of Procurement interview, powered by SIG. My guest today is Christian Lanng, the co-founder, Chairman, and CEO of Tradeshift. I'm really happy to welcome Christian back to the show. He first joined me in August of 2016, all the way back in episode 80! It was one of my most enjoyable interviews because Christian has strong views on the future of procurement, and the intersection of technology and supply chains. In today's conversation, I wanted to...
Nov 06, 2017•41 min•Ep. 159
Today, I am joined by Gene Zaino, the founder and CEO of MBO Partners. MBO Partners are at the forefront of the gig or the project economy. I was delighted to welcome Gene onto the show to discuss a little bit more about the gig economy - particularly in the context of knowledge-based workers. We discussed how organizations can start thinking about taking advantage of an on-demand workforce. And if they already are, what are some of the things that they can do to take it to the next level? So, m...
Oct 30, 2017•45 min•Ep. 158
I am joined today by Antonio Humphreys, the Senior Manager of Global Procurement at Adobe Systems based in California. I've actually seen Antonio speak before, and he has always been high on my list of practitioners that I wanted to interview and so I'm delighted we were able to make it happen. We were connected by the team at ProcureCon, as Antonio will be speaking at the upcoming ProcureCon Marketing conference in New Orleans at the end of November. Antonio has enjoyed a career that, after an ...
Oct 23, 2017•35 min•Ep. 157
I am joined today by Julienne Ryan, Principal of J Ryan Partners. Julienne is a former Executive Director of ISM-New York but the majority of her career has been in the world of HR, recruitment, and organizational development. Her keynote was focused on effective communications, and so I invited Julienne on the show to talk about the art of storytelling and how we can use that technique in our careers and to influence our stakeholders.
Oct 16, 2017•29 min•Ep. 156
I am joined today by a repeat guest and friend of the show David Hearn. David is a long time procurement executive for companies such as Juniper Networks, Kaiser Permanente and Sun Microsystems. Today, he is the CEO and Founder of advisory firm CPO Advisement Services. I caught up with David at the recent ProcureCon Indirect West conference in Scottsdale where he was talking about Machine Learning and its impact on procurement. Our chance to talk came in the midst of the hotel's garden, surround...
Oct 09, 2017•27 min•Ep. 155
I am joined today by two guests, Jen Warner and Eric Martin. Jen Warner is the Vice President of Compliance and Chief Development Officer of Ashe Legal Group (a member of the Palambridge ecosystem). Prior to joining Ashe, Jen served as the Chief Compliance Officer of a Fortune 500 multinational company and, in that role, oversaw the company's global data privacy compliance program. Eric Martin is the Associate General Counsel and Global Privacy Officer for JELD-WEN in Charlotte, North Carolina. ...
Oct 02, 2017•35 min•Ep. 154
Today I am joined by Fraz Baig, a long time listener and friend of the show who is a Senior Manager at Ace Hardware, managing all of Ace's corporate spend including IT, Marketing and Supply Chain. As Fraz and I have got to know each other, I learned about the successes that he and his team have had at Ace in build strong partnerships with their stakeholders. One of the fundamental pillars to that success is a Collaboration Model that explicitly lays out the roles and responsibilities of both the...
Sep 25, 2017•42 min•Ep. 153
Software has always been one of those categories where on the surface, cost savings appear hard to find. Often the vast majority of spend is with software industry giants over whom the majority of procurement teams have little negotiating leverage. In today's show, I focus on how to identify savings opportunities across your entire portfolio of software suppliers. And when I say cost savings, I don't mean relying on getting a better rate, but partnering with IT to look more holistically across y...
Sep 18, 2017•49 min•Ep. 152
After a week hiatus for Labor Day here in the US, we are back with another great interview (and I mean great!) Joining me today is my good friend Naseem Malik, Managing Partner of MRA Global Sourcing. If you are attempting to retain or hire procurement talent, and you are in a location where the market is tight, then this show is for you! Our conversation is split broadly up in to three parts. First, I hit Naseem with a number of questions related to the procurement job market today – what is th...
Sep 11, 2017•52 min•Ep. 151
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 ...
Aug 28, 2017•19 min•Ep. 150
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 w...
Aug 21, 2017•39 min•Ep. 149
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 inn...
Aug 14, 2017•35 min•Ep. 148
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 sess...
Aug 07, 2017•37 min•Ep. 147
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 ...
Jul 31, 2017•36 min•Ep. 146
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 suppli...
Jul 24, 2017•36 min•Ep. 145
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...
Jul 17, 2017•53 min•Ep. 144
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 visib...
Jul 10, 2017•39 min•Ep. 143
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.
Jul 03, 2017•13 min•Ep. 142
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 ...
Jun 19, 2017•49 min•Ep. 140
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 ...
Jun 12, 2017•46 min•Ep. 139
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 qu...
Jun 05, 2017•18 min•Ep. 138
