Today's podcast is part of a special two-week series, our second annual sponsored StartUp and Growth Series, where we aim to shine a light on the early stage and growth companies who are changing the way that leading procurement teams are driving outcomes that truly align with corporate objectives. We will ask an entrepreneur from seven different companies questions about what gap in the market their solution addresses, how they differentiate their technology and what their tools look like in ac...
Mar 15, 2021•16 min
Good negotiation skills are fundamental to procurement. They allow us to maximize value while simultaneously building resilient, low-cost supply chains. But now that procurement is moving towards collaborative partnerships with our suppliers, many are concerned that reducing direct competitive pressure will inadvertently allow higher pricing. Cost transparency allows procurement to balance collaboration and negotiation. By focusing on the primary material and service cost drivers of what is bein...
Mar 08, 2021•58 min
If you are relatively new to the field of procurement, there is a good chance you've never experienced an auction first-hand. With all of procurement's focus on moving towards value and away from cost-only decision making, that's understandable. Unfortunately, however, auctions are a valid tool in procurement's vast toolbox, and in many cases we may be dismissing them - and their potential in a negotiation - without sufficient evaluation of the opportunity. Jacob Gorm Larsen is the Head of Digit...
Mar 01, 2021•48 min
Traditionally, procurement has been focused on driving corporate profitability by putting pressure on suppliers, rationalizing specifications, and managing demand. While these strategies have delivered some benefits to the business, their diminishing returns came at the cost of procurement's internal reputation. As procurement's focus turns to top-line growth, they will have to change more than just their strategies and tactics before they can be successful. This podcast is the last in a 4-part ...
Feb 25, 2021•16 min
The pandemic has caused a rethink of many past assumptions, from just in time inventory to offshored supply chains. Moving forward, leaders need to avoid jumping from one extreme to the other. Traditionally accepted priorities such as efficiency and cost containment suddenly must be assessed against the risk involved. Success will increasingly depend on how well organizations strike the optimal balance among such priorities. This podcast is the third in a 4-part series focused on how procurement...
Feb 24, 2021•16 min
As organizations look beyond Covid-19, restoring growth is top of mind for many. Specific strategies vary by industry and company, but suppliers often play an integral role. This is especially true as organizations have become more dependent on the supply chain than ever before and their innovation is increasingly key to growth and success. This podcast is the second in a 4-part series focused on how procurement can contribute to efforts to restore corporate growth. In this episode we welcome Vi...
Feb 23, 2021•15 min
Procurement's stature has grown during the COVID-19 crisis as costs, cash flow and supply continuity quickly became top priorities and homepage news. To maintain its slot on the boardroom agenda going forward, procurement leaders must show that they can contribute to restoring growth beyond the pandemic and support a longer list of objectives. There are ample opportunities for procurement to contribute to this broad enterprise growth, but unfortunately, few procurement teams have experience doin...
Feb 22, 2021•22 min
Risk management may not always be a formal part of procurement's scope, but it is a natural extension of our current work. As a result, the difference between procurement's ability to effectively manage risk may be as simple as officially declaring that it is in scope and embracing all of the activities and metrics that come with it. Canda Rozier is a multiple-time CPO with experience working across a number of leading global organizations and the President and founder of Collabra Consulting. Sh...
Feb 15, 2021•37 min
Marketing is just one of the functions that procurement has a somewhat 'rocky' history of past relationships with. When you extend that existing internal friction into the relationship with creative agencies, the problems and disconnects seem to compound. Leah Power is the EVP, Strategic Operations Consultant at the Institute of Communication Agencies. Prior to this, she served as the COO at Grey Canada and the Finance Director at DDB Canada. Her primary focus is helping agency executives resolv...
Feb 08, 2021•47 min
Despite the fact that the need to manage tail spend is hardly a new idea in procurement, it continues to be one of the greatest challenges we face. Tail spend is messy, risky, hard to analyze, and - if you take the wrong approach - very costly to address. Merck was faced with a huge, global tail spend management problem, but they refused to let it fester or get the best of them. Starting with a U.S.-based pilot in their life science division, they partnered with WNS Denali to get a grip on their...
Feb 02, 2021•57 min
All companies have been affected by the pandemic over the last year, but companies in the healthcare industry - like Kaiser Permanente - have felt the pressure and the change to their operating procedures more than most. Mary Beth Lang is the Chief Supply Chain and Procurement Officer at Kaiser Permanente, an integrated managed care consortium, based in Oakland, California. In this conversation, Mary Beth tells Host Philip Ideson: The importance of understanding your suppliers' supply chains: ho...
Jan 25, 2021•32 min
In the spring and summer of 2020, there were plenty of stories about professionals and teams rallying to get their jobs done while working remotely, in some cases even going above and beyond to achieve levels of performance that no one would have thought possible. As the pandemic stretches on, and reaches a second wave or additional shutdowns, widespread fatigue is starting to set in. In this conversation, Tom tells Host Philip Ideson: How to be an effective leader while moving from an operation...
Jan 18, 2021•30 min
Casey's General Stores is the 5th largest convenience store chain in the United States and owns one of the largest pizza brands in the nation. With 2,200 locations in 16 midwestern states, they have $10 Billion in revenue and a double-digit growth rate. What wasn't going well for Casey's? They had no procurement team. When a new CEO came in, one of the first things he did was to bring in Jaime Robles as his Vice President of Procurement and Sourcing. With a career of successes in procurement tea...
Jan 11, 2021•37 min
Despite the fact that Jan Griffiths has had a successful career as a tier-1 CPO and entrepreneur, she still wasn't prepared for the personal and professional impact of the pandemic. After indulging in a full day of Netflix, she decided to push herself out of her comfort zone and into a non-judgemental accountability project with a pop-up group of peers. What started as a 'therapeutic' accountability clinic evolved over time to become the accountability lab: a group of people that connect daily f...
Jan 04, 2021•37 min
We are all customers in our personal lives, and most of us can easily distinguish between a good customer experience and a poor one. But can procurement create a positive customer experience in a B2B setting for all of our different stakeholder groups consistently and at scale? Absolutely - but we have to set the right expectations and priorities first. This interview, based on one of the most popular sessions from AOP Mastermind LIVE 2020, features Stephanie Thum, CCXP, Founding Principal of Pr...
Dec 28, 2020•26 min
After years of investment in talent and technology, procurement has become a catalyst for enterprise transformation. No other function is in a better position to lead disruptive change and reinvention than procurement. But if we want to thrive in the 'next normal,' we must be able to go let go of the past, be bold, and embrace intelligent risks. This interview, based on one of the most popular sessions from AOP Mastermind LIVE 2020, features Chris Sawchuk, Principal and Global Procurement Adviso...
Dec 21, 2020•40 min
To meet today's challenges in supply chain spend management, we must embrace automation. Gone are the days of being able to throw bodies at a problem. Systemic inefficiency not only creates unsustainable processes, it creates enormous waste and revenue risk. Now is the time for procurement to lead through change. Procurement teams are uniquely positioned to lead supply chain resilience initiatives. That's because procurement brings together the right suppliers, products, and materials needed to ...
Dec 14, 2020•1 hr 1 min
For all the stories of stress and struggle we heard in 2020, there have also been some amazing examples of heroism and success. Procurement teams worked long hours with little information to go on to keep their operations running, often partnering with suppliers and colleagues to find creative solutions on the fly. Art of Procurement recently partnered with Ivalua to interview several CPOs about what they learned in 2020 and how that will change their approach going forward. In today's bonus pod...
Dec 09, 2020•8 min
Financial services spend has never been what you might consider 'low hanging fruit,' but many procurement organizations are getting to the point where they are not only ready to manage it, the organization needs them to bring consistency and transparency to these critical supplier relationships and operational requirements. Diego De la Garza, Senior Director Global Services & Delivery at Corcentric, brings over a decade of industry experience to the table to address this complex spend catego...
Dec 07, 2020•39 min
In the current moment, companies are finding themselves at the intersection of digital transformation and the varied but extreme pressures of the pandemic. And who is positioned to address the opportunities and challenges of this intersection? Procurement. Tony Uphoff is the President & CEO at Thomas - formerly ThomasNet. He has enjoyed a successful career leading and growing media and information businesses such as The Hollywood Reporter, UBM TechWeb, and business.com. In this conversation,...
Nov 30, 2020•54 min
On November 4, 2015, the Art of Procurement podcast officially launched . In 5 years, we've released 345 episodes and surpassed 500,000 listens. We've gone from being a new, unproven idea to being a trusted voice in the community and the #1 weekly podcast in all of procurement. To celebrate this occasion, we are running a special series that will extend through the rest of November. For the next three weeks, there will be a daily 5-minute show that answers one of the most interesting and frequen...
Nov 27, 2020•6 min
On November 4, 2015, the Art of Procurement podcast officially launched . In 5 years, we've released 345 episodes and surpassed 500,000 listens. We've gone from being a new, unproven idea to being a trusted voice in the community and the #1 weekly podcast in all of procurement. To celebrate this occasion, we are running a special series that will extend through the rest of November. For the next three weeks, there will be a daily 5-minute show that answers one of the most interesting and frequen...
Nov 26, 2020•6 min
On November 4, 2015, the Art of Procurement podcast officially launched . In 5 years, we've released 345 episodes and surpassed 500,000 listens. We've gone from being a new, unproven idea to being a trusted voice in the community and the #1 weekly podcast in all of procurement. To celebrate this occasion, we are running a special series that will extend through the rest of November. For the next three weeks, there will be a daily 5-minute show that answers one of the most interesting and frequen...
Nov 25, 2020•5 min
On November 4, 2015, the Art of Procurement podcast officially launched . In 5 years, we've released 345 episodes and surpassed 500,000 listens. We've gone from being a new, unproven idea to being a trusted voice in the community and the #1 weekly podcast in all of procurement. To celebrate this occasion, we are running a special series that will extend through the rest of November. For the next three weeks, there will be a daily 5-minute show that answers one of the most interesting and frequen...
Nov 24, 2020•6 min
On November 4, 2015, the Art of Procurement podcast officially launched . In 5 years, we've released 345 episodes and surpassed 500,000 listens. We've gone from being a new, unproven idea to being a trusted voice in the community and the #1 weekly podcast in all of procurement. To celebrate this occasion, we are running a special series that will extend through the rest of November. For the next three weeks, there will be a daily 5-minute show that answers one of the most interesting and frequen...
Nov 23, 2020•5 min
On November 4, 2015, the Art of Procurement podcast officially launched . In 5 years, we've released 345 episodes and surpassed 500,000 listens. We've gone from being a new, unproven idea to being a trusted voice in the community and the #1 weekly podcast in all of procurement. To celebrate this occasion, we are running a special series that will extend through the rest of November. For the next three weeks, there will be a daily 5-minute show that answers one of the most interesting and frequen...
Nov 20, 2020•7 min
On November 4, 2015, the Art of Procurement podcast officially launched . In 5 years, we've released 345 episodes and surpassed 500,000 listens. We've gone from being a new, unproven idea to being a trusted voice in the community and the #1 weekly podcast in all of procurement. To celebrate this occasion, we are running a special series that will extend through the rest of November. For the next three weeks, there will be a daily 5-minute show that answers one of the most interesting and frequen...
Nov 19, 2020•3 min
On November 4, 2015, the Art of Procurement podcast officially launched . In 5 years, we've released 345 episodes and surpassed 500,000 listens. We've gone from being a new, unproven idea to being a trusted voice in the community and the #1 weekly podcast in all of procurement. To celebrate this occasion, we are running a special series that will extend through the rest of November. For the next three weeks, there will be a daily 5-minute show that answers one of the most interesting and frequen...
Nov 18, 2020•6 min
On November 4, 2015, the Art of Procurement podcast officially launched . In 5 years, we've released 345 episodes and surpassed 500,000 listens. We've gone from being a new, unproven idea to being a trusted voice in the community and the #1 weekly podcast in all of procurement. To celebrate this occasion, we are running a special series that will extend through the rest of November. For the next three weeks, there will be a daily 5-minute show that answers one of the most interesting and frequen...
Nov 17, 2020•4 min
On November 4, 2015, the Art of Procurement podcast officially launched . In 5 years, we've released 345 episodes and surpassed 500,000 listens. We've gone from being a new, unproven idea to being a trusted voice in the community and the #1 weekly podcast in all of procurement. To celebrate this occasion, we are running a special series that will extend through the rest of November. For the next three weeks, there will be a daily 5-minute show that answers one of the most interesting and frequen...
Nov 16, 2020•7 min
