In 1918, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone, and naturalist writer John Burroughs took one of many long distance road trips together. The combination of their unique forms of genius, especially when viewed against the backdrop of WWI and the Influenza pandemic, makes it possible to see just how critical their curiosity was to every form of success they achieved. In this episode of The Sourcing Hero podcast, Host Kelly Barner welcomes Wes Davis. Wes has a Ph.D. in English Literature from...
Sep 13, 2023•33 min•Ep. 133
Generative AI like ChatGPT has taken the world by storm. Imaginations have been seized, and people have responded with every emotion from excitement to fear to confusion. But procurement has seen the world respond to new technology like this before - remember Blockchain? Will this time be different? In this episode of The Sourcing Hero podcast, Host Kelly Barner welcomes Kevin Frechette. Kevin is the Co-Founder and CEO of Fairmarkit. One of the things he focuses on in his conversations with proc...
Sep 06, 2023•24 min•Ep. 131
New research from MIT shows that trusting employees are 260% more motivated to work, have 41% lower rates of absenteeism, and are 50% less likely to look for another job. But… one in four workers do not trust their employer. Trust is the easiest thing in the world to lose and the hardest to get back - and it plays an important role in every type of relationship. In this episode of The Sourcing Hero podcast, Host Kelly Barner welcomes back Kris Lance, Senior Director at Una, for a recurring month...
Aug 30, 2023•23 min•Ep. 132
All companies (and procurement organizations for that matter) have a customer experience. Investing in frictionless processes, digital technologies, and value delivery is critical - but before any of that happens, it is essential to get to know the customer better, to understand what they want and what they need. In this episode of The Sourcing Hero podcast, Host Kelly Barner welcomes Jay Dettling. Jay is the CEO of Hero Digital, a customer experience company. His background is in building and g...
Aug 23, 2023•22 min•Ep. 130
Most of us have attended a concert or sporting event at a large venue at some point in our lives. Maybe you saw a hockey game, or a Billy Joel Concert, or a comedian. Regardless, you probably didn’t stop to think about the procurement effort required to bring that event to life and create an exceptional audience experience. In this episode of The Sourcing Hero podcast, Host Kelly Barner welcomes Matt Mehler. Matt is a procurement professional with 20 years of experience in some pretty unique cat...
Aug 16, 2023•26 min•Ep. 129
It takes a wide range of skills, experiences, and backgrounds to put a company in a leadership position, and yet most professionals feel most comfortable talking to their peers - people from the same function who share their perspectives, motivations and language. If we can keep our minds open to new ideas and possibilities, however, there is no limit to what we can achieve. In this episode of The Sourcing Hero podcast, Host Kelly Barner welcomes Danelle M. Brown. Danelle has over two decades wo...
Aug 09, 2023•31 min•Ep. 128
According to CAPS Research, two thirds of Chief Procurement Officers and Chief Supply Chain Officers - the top spend management executive in a company - sit two levels below the CEO. This limits procurement’s potential impact, but it also prevents companies from realizing a key source of competitive advantage. In this episode of The Sourcing Hero podcast, Host Kelly Barner welcomes Denis Wolowiecki. Denis is the Executive Managing Director at CAPS Research. CAPS stands for Center for Advanced Pr...
Aug 02, 2023•29 min•Ep. 125
Elon musk is the founder of Tesla and SpaceX and the owner of Twitter. He is as eccentric as he is wealthy. He also happens to be one of the founders of Neuralink, a neurotechnology company that recently received FDA approval to implant chips into human brains. The stated use case is restoring autonomy to people with physical impairments, but the potential applications are as broad as the ethical questions raised by this new capability. In this episode of The Sourcing Hero podcast, Host Kelly Ba...
Jul 26, 2023•24 min•Ep. 126
Contingent workforce is certainly not a new category of spend for procurement to manage, but it is a category that has gone through substantial changes over the last few years. Every major trend in talent, from The Great Resignation to layoffs and hiring freezes to quiet quitting, affects how companies balance and blend their sources of talent. In this episode of The Sourcing Hero podcast, Host Kelly Barner welcomes Julia Braun. Julia has over 25 years of experience across all indirect spend cat...
Jul 19, 2023•19 min•Ep. 127
Many supply chains deal with pain points. Unlike other industries, however, healthcare deals with sourcing and procurement pain points that bring actual pain. In an industry where securing lower costs does not offer the same incentive as it does for others, it takes a different approach to help decision makers see the risks and rewards before them. In this episode of The Sourcing Hero podcast, Host Kelly Barner welcomes Luká Yancopoulos. During the pandemic, Luká and William Danon started Pandem...
Jul 12, 2023•27 min•Ep. 124
