Art of Procurement

There was a time, not long ago, when the only procurement professionals who bought software had responsibility for IT sourcing. Today, with the explosion of SaaS, and the use to SaaS technology to deliver tradition labor based services, buyers across many categories must now negotiate software licenses, either directly or with the help of their peers in IT.  At the same time, IT sourcing professionals are faced with the increasing supplier requests to move from on-premise to cloud based solutions. My guest on this episode of Art of Procurement is Randy Roth, the President of Seprio.  Randy helps me unpack the world of software licensing, while providing tips to help procurement build stronger relationships with IT, navigate the move to the cloud, and negotiate with the big boys.

As a procurement leader, how do you balance the needs of your stakeholders with your responsibility to be guardians of third party spend? That is the challenge being addressed head on by today’s guests on the Art of Procurement.  I’m delighted to be joined by David Natoff, the Head of Procure to Pay at Google, and Dr Bernd Huber, the Head of Google’s Sourcing Center of Excellence. We focus our conversation on how Google Procurement continues on their journey to become a trusted business partner in a complex and agile organization, while ensuring that they remain strong corporate guardians.  Balancing these two objectives that are often in conflict with each other is Google Procurement’s greatest challenge – one that they are solving through their journey to move their sphere of influence.

I am joined today by Shaz Khan, the co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Vroozi, a leading cloud-based business purchasing platform. Shaz has a deep background in procurement technology, with a particular focus on SAP. As long time listeners will know, I learn more and more every day about the nuts and bolts of procurement technology, while tending to spend more time looking for trends that I think will impact our profession. One of those trends is self-service sourcing – empowering the organization to buy directly the vast majority of products and services they need, one the frameworks and governance structures are in place to support it. And so, the main topic for today’s conversation is that of self-service sourcing.  Is it a threat, or an opportunity for procurement?

Joining me on the show today is Dave Quillin, the manager of procurement for Alliant Credit Union, the seventh largest credit union in the United States. Dave has specialized in technology procurement with organizations such as Orbitz and Groupon before taking on a new opportunity at Alliant to build a procurement and vendor management office from the ground up. In today’s Art of Procurement, Dave shares his journey at Alliant.  What I really like is that Dave built his organization by first listening to the needs of the business, and by focusing more broadly on value rather than cost savings alone. Dave shares the importance of balancing process with agility, particularly in regulated industries such as financial services, along with lessons learned along the way. For his work at Alliant, Dave was recognized by Supply & Demand Chain Executive as a member of their 2017 Pros to Know.

Today, I'm joined by Tim Meester. Tim is the Senior Director of Procurement and Sustainability for Best Buy, an almost forty billion dollar revenue provider of technology products, services, and solutions. As I got to know Tim in our pre-interview, I was very impressed by his and his team’s efforts to deliver value beyond savings at Best Buy. We connected to discuss CSR and sustainability, but that is only the start for his team. In today’s discussion, Tim shares the actions that Best Buy procurement is taking to expand the procurement value proposition and importantly, how Best Buy actually incentivizes their teams to enable them to focus on more than just cost savings alone.

Back in my days in the automotive industry, supplier led innovation played - and still plays - a key role in the development of new innovative products. Procurement organizations have been set up for a long time to facilitate this process. However, on the Indirect side of things, we still struggle to integrate supplier innovation - certainly at scale. If you are a long time listener, you will have heard me share my thoughts about the importance of innovation as a key component of the new procurement value proposition. But, where do we start, and how can we enable innovation at scale? Today’s guest answers those question. I am joined by Jon Washington, founder of The Innovation Garage. Jon help clients increase their profitability through innovation design encompassing products, processes and delivery models.

I think it is fair to say that you can’t move for reading Blockchain related articles today. But to be honest, I have always been a little confused by them in terms of understanding what Blockchain actually is. In today’s show, I attempt to demystify Blockchain, and its impact on procurement. Helping me understand the potential of Blockchain is Jack Shaw. Jack is a business technology futurist who has spent his career leading companies in numerous industries to lever technology to find better, more efficient ways of conducting and operating their businesses. Jack has authored three critically acclaimed books and numerous articles and is a prolific keynote speaker, including the recent ProcureCon Indirect East. He also is the co-founder of the Blockchain Executive and American Blockchain Council. In today’s show we go down to the very basics to understand what Blockchain actually is, so that we can then begin to understand what are some of the technologies that can be built upon it. We then discuss usage cases and their impact within procurement and supply chain.

My guest on the Art of Procurement this week is Lara Nichols. Lara is the Head of Procurement for insurance company NFP Corp, and is also leading the conference organizing committee for ISM2017, the largest procurement related conference of the year. Prior to NFP, Lara enjoyed roles of increasing responsibility across Fortune 100 organizations such as Wachovia (now Wells Fargo), Tyco and Merck. Our conversation today is broadly split into three different parts. Lara shares her experiences switching the comfortable surroundings of a Fortune 100 procurement organization for a mid-market firm in procurement start-up mode. We then discuss the impact that the current anti-globalization political environment is impacting her procurement strategies, with an increased focus on risk mitigation. Finally, we talk conferences. What does it take to plan a conference with the depth and breadth of ISM2017, and what, as an attendee, can you do to maximize your experience.

Today I am joined on the Art of Procurement by Jim Butler, the Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) for my home State of California Prior to joining the State of California, Jim enjoyed a successful career as the CPO for Levi Strauss, and held a number of senior procurement leadership positions with Dell Computer. In today’s conversation, I wanted to learn about the leadership role that the State of California is taking in building sustainability into its supply chain, and in providing opportunities for small and local businesses. Sustainability is often a topic we talk about in procurement, but I think it is fair to say that best practices are not widely implemented. Jim shares some of his experiences in California, along with the added dimensions – which create both opportunities and challenges – of doing so within a public body.

Brian Bancroft, the Vice President of Direct Procurement at The Coca-Cola Company joins me today as my guest on the Art of Procurement. The diversity of our conversation today matches the depth and breadth of Brian’s career. Brian has enjoyed multiple VP of Procurement and CPO roles at companies such as Kellogg's and Coca-Cola covering both Direct and Indirect spend, while also having P&L and operational responsibility for other business segments. Listen in to hear Brian’s perspective on a wide range of topics, from how to be successful moving between Indirect and Direct procurement, why global sourcing strategies are often setting buyers up for failure, and how working with procurement as a stakeholder shaped Brian’s approach as a CPO.