As we run this podcast, the entire world is consumed with the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. Procurement teams have been hit directly in the form of uncertain supply chains and unstable suppliers. While we are naturally consumed with short term risk mitigation, at some point, we will emerge from this crisis. What will our companies face then? Christian Heinrich is one of the industry professionals splitting his time between the short term and the longer-term view. He is the Co-Founder of sc...
Mar 30, 2020•29 min
Now that procurement professionals and organizations have absorbed the initial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are stable enough footing to start to serve others - including our suppliers. Many of the programs procurement has put in place in recent years have incentives partnering with small, diverse businesses. Those disruptive companies are now at high risk of being disrupted by the pandemic, in some cases permanently. Amanda Prochaska is a long time procurement leader, working for compani...
Mar 25, 2020•16 min
There are some categories of indirect spend - think pest control, waste & recycling, industrial gasses and equipment rental - that cost more to source than they offer in savings. Rich Ham, CEO of Fine Tune, calls those ‘nuisance expenses.’ For a combination of reasons, they take so much time to manage, and result in so little savings (once they have been sourced for the first time), that they serve as little more than a distraction for procurement teams trying to function more strategically. The...
Mar 23, 2020•35 min
It is safe to say that we currently find ourselves in unprecedented times. Some of us will be impacted by the spread of the coronavirus more than others, but the likelihood is that it will affect all of us in some way. At Art of Procurement, we are going to be at your side for the duration, helping you prepare for the ‘unknown unknowns’ with practical advice on how you can mitigate the worst of the impact and turn your response into a competitive advantage. To that end, we arranged for a short-t...
Mar 16, 2020•39 min
Everyone wants to have a positive social impact on their community or industry, but doing so also has to be a sound business decision. That is something that Paul Polizzotto instinctively understands. It has fueled and inspired his 30+ years as a social entrepreneur. As the Founder and CEO of Givewith, Paul is combining his desire to have social impact with his knowledge of marketing and advertising to create value for buyers, suppliers, and the world. Rather than being a soft, ‘feel good’ type ...
Mar 09, 2020•37 min
In this episode, AOP Host Philip Ideson and Kelly Barner (General Manager of AOP and Owner of Buyers Meeting Point) discuss their major take-aways from February’s podcast interviews and share their point of view on a new topic. This month they discuss how to manage a healthy ‘breakup’, managing relationships, responsibilities, and results at the end of a project
Mar 02, 2020•28 min
According to the Cimpress corporate website, “We manage our businesses in a decentralized, autonomous manner so as to ensure we remain close to our customers, focused and entrepreneurial.” Now go back and read that statement again – this time as a member of the procurement team supporting such a collection of businesses. Evert Karsen is the Vice President of Global Procurement at Cimpress. From his office in Switzerland, he leads a team of procurement professionals that support Cimpress’ multipl...
Feb 24, 2020•31 min
You are probably familiar with some of these terms if you have ever participated in a complex contractual arrangement: arbitrator, mediator, certified deal architect, even the “wise persons committee.” All of these titles refer to objective third parties that are brought in to help resolve high-stakes situations. Kate Vitasek, a member of the graduate faculty in executive education at the University of Tennessee, and the creator of the Vested model, has recently co-authored a whitepaper that tak...
Feb 17, 2020•28 min
Procurement can no longer turn a blind eye to bad data. If we are going to leverage our data for advanced applications such as AI, machine learning, RPA, etc. we have to address data quality now - without spending more time or allowing it to become more fragmented. Joe Yacura is a former CPO of organizations such as Fannie Mae, Bank of America and American Express, and is the co-author of the 3rd Annual Data Quality and Governance Study in partnership with Dr Rob Handfield and the Supply Chain R...
Feb 10, 2020•49 min
In this episode, AOP Host Philip Ideson and Kelly Barner (General Manager of AOP and Owner of Buyers Meeting Point) discuss their major take-aways from January’s podcast interviews and announce the official launch of Procurement, Inc., the new Art of Procurement framework for repositioning procurement as a strategic services business.
Feb 03, 2020•27 min
Procurement has always been fertile ground for tech entrepreneurs. We have pulled together some of the most compelling – and potentially disruptive – procurement solutions for a Special Startup Series. We will ask each entrepreneur questions about what gap in the market their solution addresses, how they differentiate their technology and what their tools look like in action. In this podcast, we interview Rowena Ludwig, Chief Marketing Officer of TraDove, a social networking platform built to ma...
Jan 31, 2020•10 min
Procurement has always been fertile ground for tech entrepreneurs. We have pulled together some of the most compelling – and potentially disruptive – procurement solutions for a Special Startup Series. We will ask each entrepreneur questions about what gap in the market their solution addresses, how they differentiate their technology and what their tools look like in action. In this podcast, we interview Pierre Laprée, Founder of Per Angusta, a procurement project pipeline and performance track...
Jan 30, 2020•15 min
Procurement has always been fertile ground for tech entrepreneurs. We have pulled together some of the most compelling – and potentially disruptive – procurement solutions for a Special Startup Series. We will ask each entrepreneur questions about what gap in the market their solution addresses, how they differentiate their technology and what their tools look like in action. In this podcast, we interview Tarmo Saidla, Co-Founder and CEO of ProcurementFlow, a collaboration and work management pl...
Jan 29, 2020•18 min
Procurement has always been fertile ground for tech entrepreneurs. We have pulled together some of the most compelling – and potentially disruptive – procurement solutions for a Special Startup Series. We will ask each entrepreneur questions about what gap in the market their solution addresses, how they differentiate their technology and what their tools look like in action. In this podcast, we interview Stephany Lapierre, CEO of Tealbook, a master supplier data management platform founded in 2...
Jan 28, 2020•18 min
Procurement has always been fertile ground for tech entrepreneurs. We have pulled together some of the most compelling – and potentially disruptive – procurement solutions for a Special Startup Series. We will ask each entrepreneur questions about what gap in the market their solution addresses, how they differentiate their technology and what their tools look like in action. In this podcast, we interview Edmund Zagorin, the Founder of Bid Ops. Bid Ops is a sourcing enablement platform founded i...
Jan 27, 2020•19 min
Procurement has always been fertile ground for tech entrepreneurs. We have pulled together some of the most compelling – and potentially disruptive – procurement solutions for a Special Startup Series. We will ask each entrepreneur questions about what gap in the market their solution addresses, how they differentiate their technology and what their tools look like in action. In this podcast, we interview Arvid Fredin and Nils Lundgren, the team behind Spendency, the self-proclaimed “easy to use...
Jan 23, 2020•16 min
Procurement has always been fertile ground for tech entrepreneurs. We have pulled together some of the most compelling – and potentially disruptive – procurement solutions for a Special Startup Series. We will ask each entrepreneur questions about what gap in the market their solution addresses, how they differentiate their technology and what their tools look like in action. In this podcast, we interview Alan Holland, the Founder and CEO of Keelvar. Founded in 2012, Keelvar provides the automat...
Jan 22, 2020•17 min
Procurement has always been fertile ground for tech entrepreneurs. We have pulled together some of the most compelling – and potentially disruptive – procurement solutions for a Special Startup Series. We will ask each entrepreneur questions about what gap in the market their solution addresses, how they differentiate their technology and what their tools look like in action. In this podcast, we interview Paul Gurr, Managing Director at Provalido, an online platform for tracking savings that was...
Jan 21, 2020•12 min
Procurement has always been fertile ground for tech entrepreneurs. We have pulled together some of the most compelling – and potentially disruptive – procurement solutions for a Special Startup Series. We will ask each entrepreneur questions about what gap in the market their solution addresses, how they differentiate their technology and what their tools look like in action. In this podcast, we interview Sam Jenks, Chief Marketing Officer at Kodiak Hub, a supplier relationship management platfo...
Jan 20, 2020•16 min
Despite their reliance upon legacy systems, manufacturers are all about efficiency. This, combined with the pain caused by those same legacy systems, is finally starting to build momentum for procurement digitalization – especially among larger manufacturers. Sundar Kamak is the Global Head of Manufacturing Solutions at Ivalua, and his background in manufacturing is largely concentrated in the aerospace and automotive industries. In this podcast, he shares his perspective on the move towards dig...
Jan 13, 2020•44 min
If 2019 was the year of emerging technology hype, then 2020 holds the potential to be the year that we turn our attention to the work that needs to be done to derive concrete value from that technology: blockchains included. In late 2019, Remko Van Hoek, Clinical Full Professor of Supply Chain Management at the University of Arkansas – Sam M. Walton College of Business and a Member of the CSCMP Board of Directors, co-authored a book titled Integrating Blockchain into Supply Chain Management: A T...
Jan 06, 2020•27 min
As we begin to wind down for 2019, Art of Procurement host Philip Ideson shares the three themes that are at the forefront of his mind when considering the health of the procurement function and the opportunities that await in 2020.
Dec 23, 2019•11 min
This week’s podcast is based on our recent AOP Live session with Pierre Lapree and Jason Treida. They joined us last month to take live audience questions about how procurement can maximize the value potential of automation while ensuring that performance management is not lost in the ‘noise’ of technology. Most of today’s technology focuses on either the transactional aspects of procurement (P2P) or shiny new toys (RPA/AI/Blockchain). It does not necessarily provide a holistic view our activity...
Dec 16, 2019•56 min
Whether you call it supplier performance management or supplier relationship management, procurement has always understood that we need supply partners at their best for us to realize the maximum ROI from each contract. Usually, however, that boils down to a meeting where we point out where they could be doing better or ask a bunch of questions that imply the same thing and send them on their way to figure out how they should improve. It basically amounts to procurement making a wish list and th...
Dec 09, 2019•44 min
Having the opportunity to reflect back on a successful career in its entirety is a gift, and in “A Procurement Compendium”, Peter Smith shares that gift with the whole procurement community. From being found by procurement (either because he could play tennis or because he was lousy at sales), to his time as a consultant and then 8+ years with Spend Matters, he’s experienced nearly everything. Peter shares stories from his career that capture the things he’d done differently. He wishes he’d insi...
Dec 02, 2019•47 min
In this episode, AOP Host Philip Ideson and Kelly Barner (General Manager of AOP and Owner of Buyers Meeting Point) discuss their major take-aways from November’s news, industry topics and podcast interviews. Note: This is a special - early and shortened - version of our This Month in Procurement podcast due to the Thanksgiving holiday in the US. We would like to thank you, our listeners and followers, for sharing your time and energy with us during the year. The procurement community is amazing...
Nov 25, 2019•21 min
In this week’s podcast, Philip Ideson is joined by two members of the Procurement Leaders team, David Rae, their Chief Product Officer, and Geraldine Craven, Head of Research. They recently completed a study in cooperation with Bain Consulting to understand what is changing in advance of the arrival of 2020 and what remains the same. In this conversation, David and Geri talk about the key recommendations in Procurement Leaders’ 2020 CPO Planning Guide, including: • The need for procurement to co...
Nov 18, 2019•37 min
“A good procurement person has two qualities: One is they're curious. They want to know how things are made. How did we get it here? Why is the supplier doing that? What is the price? What is the cost? So, curiosity is the number one thing and the number two thing is emotional intelligence. Do they have the capability to build relationships inside and outside the business?” In this week’s podcast, Philip Ideson is joined by Bill Michels, Vice President of Operations Americas at CIPS. They discus...
Nov 11, 2019•22 min
In this episode, AOP Host Philip Ideson and Kelly Barner (General Manager of AOP and Owner of Buyers Meeting Point) discuss their major take-aways from October’s news, industry topics and podcast interviews. In October, we heard a total of seven podcasts: A solo show from Philip Ideson on Getting Executive Buy-in for a Procurement Change Initiative A five-part series with leadership team from Efficio, titled “A CPO’s First 100 Days” An interview with Ryan Flynn, a Principal at Deloitte Consultin...
Nov 04, 2019•45 min
“The ‘complexity masters’ have taken the transactional side of procurement and turned it into a well-oiled machine, a combination of operating models and digital strategies, so that they can focus on those areas where they can drive the most value.” The annual Deloitte Global CPO survey is one of the most anticipated reports of the year. In this year’s report, the 11th annual, the authors took a different approach than they have in the past, calling out a single word of focus: complexity. Ryan F...
Oct 28, 2019•47 min
