Art of Procurement

Many leading procurement professionals started out in completely different fields. And while they manage spend and suppliers today, those past practices, skills, and perspectives are still available to them. That diversity of perspective is part of what makes procurement teams so creative and resilient. In this episode, Philip Ideson is joined by Fadi El Mouallem, a global procurement executive and digital transformation advocate. Fadi has experience working at companies like Salesforce and Apple, but his original field was architecture… something that has come in particularly helpful in a field that is constantly balancing art and science. When it comes to building and enabling amazing teams, Fadi has plenty of advice to share: The importance of being able to step back and take in the big picture while also keeping an eye on the details Purposefully pursuing a broad range of talent and backgrounds when introducing someone new the team The many forms that organizational influence can take, and why it always starts with human connection  

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 this four-part special series, host Philip Ideson speaks with members of the Sievo team. In each episode, we discover a unique way that differentiated decision making can help procurement 10X their impact: procurement as an information hub, ESG analytics, investments in talent, and crossing the data to action gap. In the fourth and final episode in this series, he is joined by Sammeli Sammalkorpi, CEO and Co-Founder of Sievo, to bring the whole series together by looking at how procurement can cross the data to action gap. They take this opportunity to discuss:  What the next frontier in procurement analytics may look like  Whether automated decision making will replace procurement professionals  How procurement decision makers should think about procurement data assets  

In this four-part special series, host Philip Ideson speaks with members of the Sievo team. In each episode, we discover a unique way that differentiated decision making can help procurement 10X their impact: procurement as an information hub, ESG analytics, investments in talent, and crossing the data to action gap.  In the third episode, he is joined by Deep Singh, a Presales Manager at Sievo, to talk about the current state of human decision making and the tools available to drive decisions into actions.  They take this opportunity to discuss:  How procurement can connect global sources of spend data with existing decision making processes What the decision making process looks like today with regards to managing risk Whether companies spend sufficient time cleaning and interpreting their data so they can improve their decisions

In this four-part special series, host Philip Ideson speaks with members of the Sievo team. In each episode, we discover a unique way that differentiated decision making can help procurement 10X their impact: procurement as an information hub, ESG analytics, investments in talent, and crossing the data to action gap.  In the second episode, he is joined by Heta Pirttijärvi, a Product Manager at Sievo, to talk about ESG analytics.  They take this opportunity to discuss:  Why ESG topics are becoming more important and receiving more attention  The main obstacles companies struggle with as they try to translate their ESG vision into an actionable strategy  Procurement’s likely future role in ESG initiatives  

In this four-part special series, host Philip Ideson speaks with members of the Sievo team. In each episode, we discover a unique way that differentiated decision making can help procurement 10X their impact: procurement as an information hub, ESG analytics, investments in talent, and crossing the data to action gap. In this first episode, he is joined by Heta Ruikka, VP of Product Management at Sievo, to talk about how procurement’s role has adjusted in response to differentiated decision making. They take this opportunity to discuss:  How the last few years have altered procurement’s role The new challenges that are increasing procurement’s visibility and responsibility Examples of how increased complexity affects procurement’s analytical and sourcing work  

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.

Art of Procurement recently passed a major milestone for any podcast - but one that is particularly exciting for a niche business podcast… our one-millionth download! Philip Ideson recorded the first episode of the podcast back in 2015 (he and Kelly Barner connected for the very first time to record episode 6!). Over time, the podcast has evolved and matured just as much as the procurement community has, and today it is the #1 downloaded procurement podcast in the world.  But if you thought that was our whole story, you would be missing out on a lot… To mark this occasion, Philip Ideson and Kelly Barner recorded a special episode to share behind-the-scenes stories and answer listener Q&A. Here are just a few of the things they cover in this unprecedented and unfiltered episode: The master plan (or lack thereof) that motivated Phil to give up a perfectly good job to host a podcast Some of the low points on the journey, and what the team learned from them Episodes that were surprisingly well received… or didn’t resonate at all. Why the secret to this podcast’s success may actually be another unrelated podcast  

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.

Procurement often talks about visibility and transparency. Data turns abstract goals into actionable insight. Having greater visibility makes it possible for procurement to negotiate maximum savings while making sure the company has what it needs to operate competitively in a digital world.  In categories where it is easy for distributed buyers to act independently - like cloud software for instance - visibility also provides procurement with opportunities for improved savings leverage and the centralized oversight required to stop ‘shadow spend’ in its tracks. In this episode, based on an AOP Live session, Philip Ideson is joined by Emily Campbell, Director of Product Design & Research at Vendr, and Nick Pinkman, Sr. Cloud Manager at Vendr.  Emily and Nick share their perspectives about: The importance of centralizing workflows for managing spend and headcount The different types of cloud savings procurement should pursue during contract negotiations What data procurement should have in hand before entering a cloud software negotiation