Art of Procurement

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.

“Given all the things procurement is doing, it does seem that a lot of their work tends to go unnoticed or be undervalued or is boiled down to that one bottom-line savings number. The truth is that procurement is involved with a lot.” - Vishal Patel, VP Product Marketing, Ivalua Even though big events like the pandemic, inflation, global supply chain disruptions, and geopolitical conflict have reminded everyone how relevant procurement is to the organization, the full value procurement offers is still often misunderstood and underestimated.  Why is procurement so frequently undervalued when their impact can be felt across the business, not just to cost or risk management but also sustainability, product innovation, supply continuity, and business strategy?  To understand how shifting mindsets around procurement’s value contribution are redefining their role in the business, Philip Ideson and Kelly Barner spoke with Chris Sawchuk, Principal and Global Procurement Advisory Practice Leader at The Hackett Group, and Vishal Patel, Vice President of Product Marketing at Ivalua.  In the episode, Chris and Vishal discuss:  New opportunities and approaches to performance measurement for procurement’s value contribution beyond cost The deepening value of risk management and the need for nuanced approaches to risk beyond traditional metrics The evolving role of generative AI and emerging technologies as procurement’s “co-pilots” in delivering value   Links: Subscribe to This Week in Procurement Chris Sawchuk on LinkedIn Vishal Patel on LinkedIn Watch Again: Redefining Procurement’s Value and Shifting Mindsets Read: Generative AI and the Future of Procurement Value Creation

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.

“We have to incentivize the supplier to collaborate with us in a way that creates a different way of doing something – it might take us all out of our comfort zones, but it’s going to deliver a better outcome.” - Gordon Donovan, Vice President Research - Procurement & External Research at SAP Services procurement makes up a large percentage of most organizations’ spend and it is a key driver of enterprise growth and performance. At the same time, a recent global study conducted by Art of Procurement and SAP revealed that this category presents serious challenges for procurement leaders and is primed for improvement. To better understand these challenges and opportunities, Philip Ideson speaks with Gordon Donovan, Vice President Research - Procurement & External Research at SAP, about the research findings.  In this episode, they discuss key findings from the study and one-on-one follow-up interviews: Why ‘services procurement’ is a slippery term for some, and how it should ultimately be defined How procurement can leverage services spend to move from a tactical or administrative role to one where they strategically partner with the business The most egregious mistakes global procurement leaders are currently making when it comes to services spend (and how to correct them) Links: Gordon Donovan on LinkedIn From C-Suite Priority to Procurement Strategy: Managing Risk at Scale w/ Gordon Donovan and Matthew Montgomery Subscribe to This Week in Procurement  

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.

“I think a large part of the ESG model is about bringing each other up together – capacity building – and learning from each other.” - Adam Hunt, Global SVP Procurement & Subcontracting, Exyte While ESG is becoming a top-line priority for the C-suite, the regulations, laws, expectations, and concepts underlying ESG are still relatively new – new to procurement and to the business as a whole. They can be challenging to pin down.  ESG is broad and complex, with each region, industry, or organization defining and measuring success in different ways.   Philip Ideson recently had the opportunity to speak with Adam Hunt, Global SVP Procurement and Subcontracting at Exyte, about the most important issues driving the current conversation around ESG and how procurement can evolve and elevate their ESG programs to meet the increasing interest coming from company leadership.  Along with a discussion of AI’s role in all this, they also discussed:  How to build a globally successful ESG program by understanding regional and cultural differences and regulations How to use data to power your ESG program The art of setting ESG targets that balance the attainable with the aspirational Links: Adam Hunt on LinkedIn Subscribe to This Week in Procurement  

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.

“There is this misconception that procurement pros are paper-pushers – that we are not strategic, or we are not business partners – and we are just there to move things from one place to another.” - KR Barron, Principal Product Marketing Manager at Productiv Sourcing and purchasing software, especially SaaS solutions, is often a source of major friction for procurement. Tight timelines, complex stakeholder networks, difficult collaborations, and entrenched misconceptions can lead to missed opportunities not only for procurement but for the business as a whole. Fortunately, many of the challenges associated with software purchasing are rooted in commonly held myths that, when looked at more closely, are easily busted, paving the way for procurement to elevate their role in the process.  In this episode, based on an AOP Live Session, Philip Ideson and Kelly Barner engage in some much-needed myth-busting with Aubrey Zimmerman, Procurement Analyst at Lattice, and KR Barron, Principal Product Marketing Manager at Productiv. They also share insights from recent research on software procurement that explores how procurement can simplify software decisioning and better align with the business.  In this episode, they discuss: Common myths surrounding procurement’s role in software purchasing and how these myths can negatively impact the business as a whole How procurement can build a single source of truth for software decisioning and utilization How procurement can start to change negative perceptions about the role they play in software purchasing and demonstrate their full value Links: Subscribe to This Week in Procurement KR Barron on LinkedIn Aubrey Zimmerman on LinkedIn Watch again: Busted! Demystifying Software Procurement

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.

“In procurement, we have a perception of the world we’re in, and we put boundaries around ourselves. But we have to explore beyond those boundaries and think about what we can do that will be different and better.” - Stephen Ashcroft A seismic shift is underway in procurement. Teams are adapting to a rapidly changing global business landscape and new technological realities. The best procurement leaders will take advantage of this transformational period to develop new strategies, tactics, and tools that will elevate their impact and position procurement as an invaluable partner for the business. In this episode, Philip Ideson goes one-on-one for a second time with global procurement thought leader, entrepreneur, and influencer Stephen Ashcroft, founder of the innovative new procurement professional development program Map & Territory. Steve, the former Head of Procurement for the African Development Bank, shares the greatest lessons he learned from his procurement experience in over 40 countries. They discuss:  The 3 most valuable skills every procurement leader needs to succeed today Where procurement is most underrated, and how to turn that around How a different approach to professional development and community building, like Map & Territory, can help procurement rise and adapt to new global realities  Links: Subscribe to This Week in Procurement Stephen Ashcroft on LinkedIn Setting the Standard for Procurement Across Africa w/ Steve Ashcroft Map & Territory: A Procurement Leadership Program