Art of Procurement

On November 4, 2015, the Art of Procurement podcast officially launched. In 5 years, we’ve released 345 episodes and surpassed 500,000 listens. We’ve gone from being a new, unproven idea to being a trusted voice in the community and the #1 weekly podcast in all of procurement. To celebrate this occasion, we are running a special series that will extend through the rest of November. For the next three weeks, there will be a daily 5-minute show that answers one of the most interesting and frequently-asked questions we have received from listeners. The questions will be answered alternately by AOP Founder and Host Philip Ideson and AOP General Manager Kelly Barner. (Fun fact: Kelly was AOP podcast guest #6.) Thank you for joining us for this series and for being part of the AOP community - whether you have been with us since episode #1 or not!

On November 4, 2015, the Art of Procurement podcast officially launched. In 5 years, we’ve released 345 episodes and surpassed 500,000 listens. We’ve gone from being a new, unproven idea to being a trusted voice in the community and the #1 weekly podcast in all of procurement. To celebrate this occasion, we are running a special series that will extend through the rest of November. For the next three weeks, there will be a daily 5-minute show that answers one of the most interesting and frequently-asked questions we have received from listeners. The questions will be answered alternately by AOP Founder and Host Philip Ideson and AOP General Manager Kelly Barner. (Fun fact: Kelly was AOP podcast guest #6.) Thank you for joining us for this series and for being part of the AOP community - whether you have been with us since episode #1 or not!

MRO - or Maintenance, Repair, and Operations spend - is one of those categories that procurement has managed, and managed, and managed again… but don’t make the mistake of thinking there is no value left to realize. Mike Croasdale has been focused on helping companies manage their MRO spend for years. If you listen to him describe the opportunities in this category, you’re very likely to walk away thinking it is one of the most nuanced and interesting spend categories in the company. MRO presents opportunities for complex analytics, operational understanding, and competitive advantage - if procurement knows where to look. In this interview, Mike shares his point of view with Philip Ideson and Kelly Barner on: How procurement can combine and leverage many models for managing MRO spend, including GPOs, specialized providers, and large dominant players The status of the ‘customer experience’ enjoyed by procurement’s internal MRO customers What he has observed and expects to see going forward in the PPE subcategory of MRO spend

Regardless of how you might choose to describe your journey through 2020, it is finally coming to an end. And while some of its effects will be with us for a long time, we have reached the point where it is not just appropriate to start thinking forward to 2021, it is absolutely necessary. Christopher Sawchuk, Principal and Global Procurement Advisory Practice Leader at The Hackett Group, and Vishal Patel, VP of Product Marketing at Ivalua, joined us for an AOP Live session on September 15th. As they pointed out during the live event, the preparations procurement originations make now will determine their readiness to succeed in the ‘next normal.’ Making good decisions now about digital transformation, agility, and supply chain risk will pay dividends later on. In a podcast based on the AOP Live session, Christopher and VIshal answer audience questions about: How they think procurement actually performed during the spring and summer of 2020, now that we’ve had an opportunity to gain some perspective Making the transition from mid-crisis to post-crisis, including the changes that are likely to remain a part of procurement’s priorities for the foreseeable future The actions we can start taking today to position procurement for success in 2021 and beyond

After months of planning, weeks of preparation, and days of sleepless nights, Mastermind LIVE 2020 is officially in the books. We had set an extremely high bar for ourselves: to run the most unique and meaningful event in procurement. From the session engagement and participant feedback, we believe we achieved our goal. Our speakers spanned a number of industries and disciplines, and our attendees joined us from around the globe. Everyone walked away with a new idea, and we laughed together more than once as well. In this podcast, Host Philip Ideson shares his primary take-aways from the two-day event, and shares what is to come next!

For many years, Peter Smith wanted to write a book that was fundamentally about procurement but would appeal to a wider business audience, One that would peel back the onion on the role of procurement, with tales of what happens when good buying practices are not followed.  Following a career as a practitioner, and most latterly leading Spend Matters in the UK, Peter got to work.  The result: Bad Buying – how organizations waste billions through failures, frauds, and fk-ups.  In this interview, Peter discusses: Examples of bad buying from across both the public and private sectors Whether the growth of the procurement function has become a double-edged sword Learnings that procurement professionals can apply to turn “bad” buying into “good buying”

Telecom has been on an interesting and unique journey as a spend category. Gone are the days when all that was needed to deliver significant savings was a professionally conducted third-party audit or service rationalization/optimization. Today, most organizations are several years post audit, looking for new efficiencies in a category that is not only evolving, it is also encroaching on other categories of spend. Dave Pastore is a Senior Director of Sourcing Operations at Corcentric where he specializes in telecom spend. It was his analytical background that led him to specialize in this category, plus a noticeable gap in procurement ownership over telecom, a traditionally siloed category.   In this interview, Dave shares his point of view with Philip Ideson and Kelly Barner on: How the line between IT and telecom has blurred over time, and why this is likely to continue Why telecom is simultaneously like the ‘Wild West’ from a new entrant perspective and also a rapidly consolidating industry The opportunities that exist to nurture collaboration between team members and between companies and third parties, and the value procurement can deliver by supporting these opportunities

AOP Host Philip Ideson starts each interview with a question about what brought that particular guest to procurement. With this week’s guest, business consultant and coach Juergen Scherer, it might have been better to ask what brought him THROUGH procurement, because he has held influential roles across procurement, supply chain, sales, and operations. While he isn’t in procurement today, Juergen’s doctoral thesis on Procurement Marketing received the Scientific Award of the German Industry Association for Purchasing and Supply Management. His knowledge of the function has unquestionably improved his ability to excel in each of his other roles, as well as in his current coaching practice. Today, Juegen splits his time between Germany and the US West Coast as a business consultant and coach, leading his business called BXB-Exchange. He reached out to Art of Procurement in response to our podcasts about the flywheel effect and its applicability to procurement. We took that opportunity to probe deeper into his thoughts about how procurement can better align with the business as a whole. In this conversation, Juergen shares examples from his extensive background that illustrate the key part of his business philosophy: How procurement can push suppliers to deliver more value while investing in them so that their capabilities are developed at the same time. Why, despite the fact that every buyer/seller relationship is unique, there are common success factors that have to be consistently present: trust, open communications, and mutual respect, to name a few. How procurement can develop and effectively communicate a “USP,” or unique selling proposition, to both suppliers and internal stakeholders.

Although procurement professionals don’t usually think of ourselves as making ‘cold calls,’ we do it all the time. If you’ve ever sat down with a stakeholder for the first time and immediately realized they either don’t understand procurement’s role or don’t particularly care for our processes, you’ve survived a cold call.   In that moment, you can either explain or listen, and although listening is the better way to build understanding and rapport, most procurement professionals aren’t prepared to structure this kind of conversation.   In this week’s podcast, Host Philip Ideson discusses how to master this type of first meeting using an approach that sales professionals use - and have no doubt used on you - called the discovery call. He explains: Why discovery calls are important and how they set the tone for the long term success of the relationship The three components of a typical discovery call: the planning, the call itself, and then the follow up How to prepare in advance to ensure your discovery calls are productive for procurement and for your stakeholder(s)

One year ago, all procurement could talk about was digital transformation. Enter the COVID-19 pandemic, and many of those plans were thrown overboard.  We may not be doing what we expected to be working on as we approach the final quarter of 2020, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t still a strong appetite for procurement change, both at the executive level and within the procurement community. The difference is that we are now trying to lead transformation in the midst of a disrupted landscape without the benefit of any forward-looking certainty. Christopher Eyerman is the Head of Procurement Innovation at Denali - A WNS Company and David Clevenger is their Director of Procurement and Operational Excellence. They are focused on the factors that influence digital maturity and readiness for change in the context of the entire procurement ecosystem. In this podcast, which is based on an AOP Live session made possible by Denali, Christopher and David share their point of view on: How procurement can get the digital journey started - in reality, not just in theory The types of change management investments procurement will need to make in order to ensure that transformation is successful and sustainable What additional trends we should be preparing for as we close out 2020 and attempt to ready ourselves for the new year