Art of Procurement

Many highly-praised books are written every year. And yet, this week’s guest quotes one that we’ve never had come up in an Art of Procurement podcast before: The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson. Even at 635 words, there are five characters, heroes and villains, danger, hope, an escape, and a happy feel, good ending. Not a word is wasted. And that’s when you realize this is not a typical episode of AOP. Philip Ideson is joined for this unique conversation by Simon Geale, Executive Vice President at Proxima. They recently had the opportunity to sit down - face to face - and have a wide ranging exchange about some of the bigger picture dynamics at play in our professional lives. The discussion opened with a focus on the art of storytelling, something Simon knows a great deal about. He has been telling stories to influence executives for years, making appearances on media outlets like the BBC, CNBC, Wall Street Journal, and many more. But their conversation went a lot deeper than that. They also discussed The health of the procurement profession: what is exciting and where frustration persists  The vulnerability associated with being an introvert or speaking publicly, and potential ways to overcome those fears Why it is so important to try and see a story through our audience’s eyes - long before we tell it

Procurement 6 is a new short podcast from Art of Procurement that will be published 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 will have 6 short segments that summarize this week in procurement.   Segments will range from procurement tips to podcast summaries, from details of events to news or overviews of blog posts that have captured our attention this week.

It’s easy to think that in this world of access to information, being able to forecast, anticipate and (most importantly) RESPOND to changes is a straightforward task. Just Google search the category or read articles from credible news sources and off you go. Right? If the last few years have taught procurement anything it is that casual, high level research is not enough.  We need to understand what changes are coming and develop the insight required to help the company prepare for that change. Because of the importance of market intelligence to procurement’s work, we kicked off Categorypalooza 2022 by talking about how it can be used to generate insight that offers actionable value to the business. In this session, Host Philip Ideson speaks with ProcurementIQ’s Embry Davis and Ben Kempenich about how all of us can be prepared for the uncertainty and disruptions to come: How to know which data is the most reliable How the speed of business is impacting the shelf life of intelligence Which stakeholders and suppliers procurement should turn to as potential sources of category insights

Procurement 6 is a new short podcast from Art of Procurement that will be published 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 will have 6 short segments that summarize this week in procurement.   Segments will range from procurement tips to podcast summaries, from details of events to news or overviews of blog posts that have captured our attention this week.

This week we are featuring a special crossover episode from The Sourcing Hero podcast, a collaboration with our partners at Una. Hosted by our own Kelly Barner, The Sourcing Hero brings together professionals from a broad range of roles to share their stories of  business heroism and optimism. In this episode, Kelly welcomed Ashley Sieb, a creative, energetic marketing and communications specialist who knows her way around procurement. She also knows how to get - and keep - people’s attention… and then (to use her personal mantra) “find a way forward” that works for everyone. Listen in as Ashley shares her tips and perspective on how anyone can drive higher levels of engagement from different types of audiences: The components of her personal model for driving engagement: the REAL model Whether all personality types are equally effective at doing what needs to be done to drive engagement When and how engagement and communication are the same, and when communication is a channel for driving others’ engagement

Procurement 6 is a new short podcast from Art of Procurement that will be published 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 will have 6 short segments that summarize this week in procurement.   Segments will range from procurement tips to podcast summaries, from details of events to news or overviews of blog posts that have captured our attention this week.

Procurement teams often struggle to connect their business case for S2P and the systems-related work and change required to deliver ROI. Platforms are chosen for the wrong reasons, system administrators turn over, catalog setup work becomes a secondary priority, and hastily made configuration choices add friction over time. This episode is based on an AOP Live webinar titled “Digital Procurement Is Not Easy: Don’t Go It Alone.” Host Philip Ideson was joined by Anthony Mignogna and Claire Sexton from Corcentric who shared their advice for getting the most out of a source to pay technology investment.  Anthony and Claire answered questions on implementation-related topics such as: How to strengthen the connection between your S2P business case and your S2P business benefits Why post go-live maintenance and configuration will either enable or prevent continuous improvement How managed services can help procurement seize the upside potential of digitization by driving adoption and utilization

In this Art of Procurement special series, host Philip Ideson asks members of the WNS Denali team: How do you design an end-to-end ecosystem based procurement operating model? Throughout the four parts of this series, they provide their insight about the basics of an ecosystem approach, and then each set of guests digs into specifics across category management, source to contract, and procure to pay processes. In the fourth and final episode in this series, he is joined by Sushant Adhikari, Director, and Sanjeev Singh, Director of Capabilities and Solutions, both at WNS Denali.  In this interview, Sushant and Sanjeev focus on the procure to pay process: Why it is a mistake (and a lost opportunity) to think of procure to pay as a tactical process The critical role that data quality plays for organizations that are trying to maximize the ROI of their procure to pay capabilities The most important challenges that leading procurement organizations are overcoming through mature procure to pay

In this Art of Procurement special series, host Philip Ideson asks members of the WNS Denali team: How do you design an end-to-end ecosystem based procurement operating model? Throughout the four parts of this series, they provide their insight about the basics of an ecosystem approach, and then each set of guests digs into specifics across category management, source to contract, and procure to pay processes. In the second episode, he is joined by Lynn Rideout, Vice President of Global Category Advisory, and Sanjeev Singh, Director - Solutions both at WNS Denali.  They focus on taking an ecosystem approach to the category management process: What does true category management entail and how does it benefit when procurement takes an ecosystem approach? What are the common pain points companies work to overcome?  What role do digital transformation, investments in talent, and business alignment play in category management success?

In this Art of Procurement special series, host Philip Ideson asks members of the WNS Denali team: How do you design an end-to-end ecosystem based procurement operating model? Throughout the four parts of this series, they provide their insight about the basics of an ecosystem approach, and then each set of guests digs into specifics across category management, source to contract, and procure to pay processes. In this first episode, he is joined by Satyen Pathak, Vice President Solution and Capabilities, and Lynn Rideout, Vice President of Global Category Advisory, both at WNS Denali.  They take this opportunity to discuss how to start the planning process for taking an ecosystem approach to procurement:  What do we mean when we talk about an “ecosystem approach to procurement?” Should procurement organizations start with a process similar to baselining? How can decision makers determine what should be changed, especially to ensure ‘fit’ over time? What factors determine a ‘best fit’ solution?