Art of Procurement

208: #TakeAction: What Do They Really Want? I do not have an interview for you today. In fact, for the month of October, we are going to do something completely different. I ask practitioners about their challenges where ever I go, and the single piece of feedback I get is that for all the great ideas they read and hear about, it is hard to put them into practice First, I know many of you listen to the pod while commuting or working out - and it is hard to stop in the middle of a podcast and takes notes on what actions you want to take. And second, there is always a challenge for people between wanting to invest in their own personal development, and the time pressures of a hectic job. We have crowned October as #TakeActionOctober - because no phrase is complete these days without a hashtag! October will be all about taking the actions you need to elevate the influence and impact of you AND your team. Every day this month, you will hear a micro-sized pod - no more than 5 minutes per day - that I selected to inspire you to act. We’ve curated Content from the back catalog of over 200 Art of Procurement episodes, and more than 1,000 articles featured in our weekly newsletter This Week in Procurement. I’ll also throw in some of my own experiences for good measure. The commitment I ask of you is to take one action to put into practice - or to coach or mentor a team member or peer - your key takeaway from each episode.

207: #TakeAction: Serve Your Platinum Stakeholders feat. Tim Jones I do not have an interview for you today. In fact, for the month of October, we are going to do something completely different. I ask practitioners about their challenges where ever I go, and the single piece of feedback I get is that for all the great ideas they read and hear about, it is hard to put them into practice First, I know many of you listen to the pod while commuting or working out - and it is hard to stop in the middle of a podcast and takes notes on what actions you want to take. And second, there is always a challenge for people between wanting to invest in their own personal development, and the time pressures of a hectic job. We have crowned October as #TakeActionOctober - because no phrase is complete these days without a hashtag! October will be all about taking the actions you need to elevate the influence and impact of you AND your team. Every day this month, you will hear a micro-sized pod - no more than 5 minutes per day - that I selected to inspire you to act. We’ve curated Content from the back catalog of over 200 Art of Procurement episodes, and more than 1,000 articles featured in our weekly newsletter This Week in Procurement. I’ll also throw in some of my own experiences for good measure. The commitment I ask of you is to take one action to put into practice - or to coach or mentor a team member or peer - your key takeaway from each episode.

206: #TakeAction: Build Your Brand the Apple Way feat. Steve Wozniak I do not have an interview for you today. In fact, for the month of October, we are going to do something completely different. I ask practitioners about their challenges where ever I go, and the single piece of feedback I get is that for all the great ideas they read and hear about, it is hard to put them into practice First, I know many of you listen to the pod while commuting or working out - and it is hard to stop in the middle of a podcast and takes notes on what actions you want to take. And second, there is always a challenge for people between wanting to invest in their own personal development, and the time pressures of a hectic job. We have crowned October as #TakeActionOctober - because no phrase is complete these days without a hashtag! October will be all about taking the actions you need to elevate the influence and impact of you AND your team. Every day this month, you will hear a micro-sized pod - no more than 5 minutes per day - that I selected to inspire you to act. We’ve curated Content from the back catalog of over 200 Art of Procurement episodes, and more than 1,000 articles featured in our weekly newsletter This Week in Procurement. I’ll also throw in some of my own experiences for good measure. The commitment I ask of you is to take one action to put into practice - or to coach or mentor a team member or peer - your key takeaway from each episode.

205: #TakeAction: Run a Request for Partner feat. Kate Vitasek I do not have an interview for you today. In fact, for the month of October, we are going to do something completely different. I ask practitioners about their challenges where ever I go, and the single piece of feedback I get is that for all the great ideas they read and hear about, it is hard to put them into practice First, I know many of you listen to the pod while commuting or working out - and it is hard to stop in the middle of a podcast and takes notes on what actions you want to take. And second, there is always a challenge for people between wanting to invest in their own personal development, and the time pressures of a hectic job. We have crowned October as #TakeActionOctober - because no phrase is complete these days without a hashtag! October will be all about taking the actions you need to elevate the influence and impact of you AND your team. Every day this month, you will hear a micro-sized pod - no more than 5 minutes per day - that I selected to inspire you to act. We’ve curated Content from the back catalog of over 200 Art of Procurement episodes, and more than 1,000 articles featured in our weekly newsletter This Week in Procurement. I’ll also throw in some of my own experiences for good measure. The commitment I ask of you is to take one action to put into practice - or to coach or mentor a team member or peer - your key takeaway from each episode.

I do not have an interview for you today. In fact, for the month of October, we are going to do something completely different. I ask practitioners about their challenges where ever I go, and the single piece of feedback I get is that for all the great ideas they read and hear about, it is hard to put them into practice First, I know many of you listen to the pod while commuting or working out - and it is hard to stop in the middle of a podcast and takes notes on what actions you want to take. And second, there is always a challenge for people between wanting to invest in their own personal development, and the time pressures of a hectic job. We have crowned October as #TakeActionOctober - because no phrase is complete these days without a hashtag! October will be all about taking the actions you need to elevate the influence and impact of you AND your team. Every day this month, you will hear a micro-sized pod - no more than 5 minutes per day - that I selected to inspire you to act. We’ve curated Content from the back catalog of over 200 Art of Procurement episodes, and more than 1,000 articles featured in our weekly newsletter This Week in Procurement. I’ll also throw in some of my own experiences for good measure. The commitment I ask of you is to take one action to put into practice - or to coach or mentor a team member or peer - your key takeaway from each episode.

Cryptography, tokenization, tokenomics, initial coin offerings, security, utility and payment tokens, crypto wallets, and blockchain. If some or all of those sound like a mish-mash of buzzwords, then today’s episode is for you! I’m joined to explore these topics and their applicability to procurement by Charlotte de Brabandt and Henry Fudge. Charlotte is the current ISM 30 Under 30 Megawatt Winner. Henry is the Founding Partner and CEO of Cryptonox - an initial coin offering consulting firm, and Founding Partner of the Young Blockchain Professionals Network. We start by digging deep into cryptography and tokenization, as I explore how I could leverage an initial coin offering for my company, CatalystCo. We then talk in more detail about different use cases for blockchain, with a particular focus on procurement and supply chain. For more information, visit https://artofprocurement.com/crypto

How to Buy a Gorilla? The good news is that it is a figurative question rather than a literal one!  In fact, it is the title of the book written by today’s guest, David Meikle. David has a deep background in advertising, including work with some of the world’s most iconic brands, for agencies such as Ogilvy and Mather, where most latterly he was the Managing Director of their Russian business.   The gorilla in question was an award-winning 2007 TV advert in the UK created to advertise Cadbury’s chocolate.  The advert in question was a 90-second shot of an actor dressed up in a gorilla costume, playing the drums, to the Phil Collins song “In the Air Tonight”.  The ad was considered a runaway success. In short, How to Buy a Gorilla is all about buying creative services - using advertising as the example - with a focus on creating productive relationships between procurement, internal marketing, and advertising agencies.   While our conversation is based on the advertising business, the principals we discuss can be applied to any people-based creative services where success may be difficult to define, but that requires an alchemy that goes way beyond the contract to create an environment that enables creative individuals and teams to do their best work.  

Today’s guest is Oliver Gall, the Head of Global Sourcing at S&P Global. Oliver has responsibility for the strategic vision, operational planning and the execution of Procurement strategy and he leads a team of direct reports and outsourced functions located in multiple locations across the world. In our conversation, we focused on the future of the procurement operating model - we consider what this is likely to look like, how we all can adapt to thrive in this new environment, and what are some of the unknowns that we need to keep a look out for. We also talked about our own development, and that of our teams, as Oliver provides some great advice on how to manage the panic that often sets in when faced with change, or new challenges! I left the conversation inspired both by the opportunities available to us, and the power of our own individual choices in taking advantage of those opportunities.

How do you create a podcast? What is the production process? How do you select guests? How do I get on the show? What is the “business” of Art of Procurement and what are your revenue streams? These are all questions that I am often asked, whether it be at a conference, when talking to potential guests and partners, or just during my day to day conversations with procurement professionals around the world. And so today we go behind the scenes of Art of Procurement as I attempt to answer as many of these questions as possible and give you the inside information on what goes into creating and producing a weekly procurement podcast.

What can we do to protect ourselves against tariffs, and what options do we have when tariffs are levied on the products or materials that I buy? These are two questions that I have received regularly from listeners over the past couple of months, against the backdrop both of increasing trade tensions, and the ongoing uncertainty around Brexit. And so to help answer those questions, I reached out to Bill Michels. Bill is a recognized expert in Purchasing and Supply Chain Management and has worked in procurement across a wide spectrum of industries and countries transforming Procurement and the Supply Chain. Until recently, Bill was the CEO and founder of Aripart Consulting after more than 23 years at ADR North America. Under his leadership, ADR North America became a leading niche specialty consulting firm and has won several recognitions and awards. Bill recently joined CIPS as Vice President of Operations - Americas, and so I also took the opportunity to ask Bill to share some of CIPS' plans for the US market.