Art of Procurement

Unless you are new to the show, you will have heard me talk all about The Procurement Revolution event that I co-organized with Kelly Barner of Buyers Meeting Point.  We were thrilled with how the event panned out. We had 40 revolutionaries, over 50 pieces of content and five live Q&A interviews throughout the week.  We learned a ton from the things that went well, and the things that didn’t.  One of my regrets was that I wasn’t able to dedicate as much time as I would have liked to pull together all the disparate submissions into some key call’s to action.  So, what I thought I would do today is to share four different takeaways that I took from all the great submissions that we received.  For more information, visit: http://artofprocurement.com/TPRtakeaways  

Carlson Rezidor - one of the largest hotel groups in the world with brands such as Radisson and Park Place – embarked on a path to identify, build and deploy a global source to pay platform in mid-2015. I am joined on the Art of Procurement today by Scott Deibert, the SVP of Procurement, and Bart Baetens, Director of E-Procurement for Carlson Residor. In today’s show, we chronicle their journey. I ask Scott and Bart to share the key decision points and lessons learned, as the sought to transform their global procurement technology stack.  Topics that we discussed include: Why did Carlson Rezidor decide to pivot from their existing technology stack to a new solution. Why did they decide to source an end to end suite rather than a series of point solutions. What was their key criteria for selecting the platform that they ultimately chose? What were some of their key challenges as they deployed and rolled out the platform? What would they do differently? What is the once area that they still continue to struggle with. How are they planning to continue to leverage procurement tech post roll-out – what is the #1 technology capability that is on the horizon that they want to take advantage of. If you are interested in the practical side of procurement technology – and the realities of embarking on a S2P transformation, you will not want to miss today’s show! For more information, visit: http://artofprocurement.com/techtransformation

Today’s episode is the second in a two-part series considering Category Management: what we can do not only to implement Category Management, but also do so in a way that is sustainable over the long term. The reason why I think this is important is that often I have seen Category Management implemented for the right reasons, but after the initial burst of energy and picking the low hanging fruit, it becomes difficult to keep the momentum going and provide value in other ways. Today’s guests on the show are Lynn Rideout, Senior Manager of Category Management, and Chris Eyerman, Senior Director of Program Management, both at Denali Sourcing Services.  In part two of this two-part series, we discuss three key imperatives for a Category Manager that are required to become a trusted advisor: 1. Know Your Stakeholders 2. Understand Your Categories 3. Deliver Results    For more information, visit http://artofprocurement.com/categorymanagement  

Today’s episode is the first in a two-part series considering Category Management: what we can do not only to implement Category Management, but also do so in a way that is sustainable over the long term. The reason why I think this is important is that often I have seen Category Management implemented for the right reasons, but after the initial burst of energy and picking the low hanging fruit, it becomes difficult to keep the momentum going and provide value in other ways. Today’s guests on the show are Lynn Rideout, Senior Manager of Category Management, and Chris Eyerman, Senior Director of Program Management, both at Denali Sourcing Services.  In part one of this two-part series, we discuss the building blocks that are required to build a strategic and sustainable Category Management capability. Specifically, we will discuss: Why Lynn and Chris believe that Category Management is a fundamental shift in the way an organization approaches procurement rather than an extension of the sourcing process. The journey to building a sustainable category management program and the failure modes that impact an organizations ability to launch, sustain and scale. A deep dive into the building blocks of strategic category management, covering vision process, governance and capabilities.  If you are interested in hearing how you can use Category Management to make a difference to your stakeholders, today’s show is for you.   For more information, visit http://artofprocurement.com/CMpart1

Back in early September, the Art of Procurement left the recording studio and went live for the first time with a webinar that I hosted with a friend of the show, RFP365.  The theme of the webinar was Weighted Scoring.  Specifically, how you can use weighted scoring as part of your sourcing process, to help make decisions based on facts, rather than feelings. The webinar was broadly split into a couple of different parts – I was asking the questions of RFP365 in terms of technology – how can you set up your RFP’s to enable weighted scoring – and then my co-presenters turned the tables and asked a number of questions of my in terms of the practicalities. Today I am sharing the part of the webinar where I was asked the questions.  You will hear Anna Spady and Dave Hulsen – both Art of Procurement alumni – asking me a number of questions such as my thoughts on how to avoid biased questions, scoring mistakes, when is weighted scoring not appropriate and what to do when the top scoring supplier is not selected. For more information, visit: http://artofprocurement.com/RFPscoring  

Corporate Social Responsibility – or CSR – is a key value lever that procurement can pull to differentiate ourselves from the perceptions of the past, and that can enable us to play a role in revenue generation, not just cost reduction.  Indeed, how companies approach their CSR commitments will play an ever increasing role in the way that they are perceived by their target customers, impacting brand value and ultimately pricing power. In today’s Art of Procurement, I am joined by Jason Pearson, the President & CEO of the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council (SPLC). From my experience, influencing and managing supply chain sustainability – covering both Direct and Indirect spend categories - is something that as a procurement community we have not yet tackled head on.  Examples of success are limited to a few leading edge procurement teams. So in today’s episode, I wanted to explore what we – as procurement professionals and leaders – could do to integrate sustainable thinking into the way that our organizations buy. In my conversation with Jason, we discuss: Why is supply chain sustainability so important? What can procurement leaders do to make sustainability a prioritization for their organizations (Jason recommends a number of case studies for further reading). How can we initiate cross-sector collaboration to address sustainability issues that impact all the players in our industry but that require an industry wide response? How can procurement leaders prioritize sustainability initiatives – for example, by supplier or by category? The eight Direct and Indirect spend categories that lend themselves to sustainability initiatives, particularly when you are looking to start a program and are seeking early wins. The impact that legislation is having – and will continue to have – on how we building sustainability into our scoping and sourcing activities. For more information, visit http://artofprocurement.com/SPLC

Today is the last day that content will be published in support of The Procurement Revolution event. We have had 40 revolutionaries share their perspective on such as wide variety of topics – tactical, strategic and a little bit of crystal ball gazing too! There was a particular submission from the event that I think embodies my thoughts on what the role of procurement really is - and why change must come from within.  It was recorded by Pierre Lapree, the Founder of a procurement performance management SaaS business called Per Angusta. When I received Pierre’s submission I could not help but be inspired.  Listen in, and I hope you are inspired too! For more information, visit: http://artofprocurement.com/EP93  

Back in 2012, Sylvain Mansotte received the call from the newly appointed CPO of a large Australian based construction company to assist in the building a new procurement function.  He jumped at the chance, and one of his first priorities was to understand his new employers’ third party spend profile. Within 2 months, Sylvain had uncovered a $20M fraud that spanned 12 years and led to the perpetrator – a finance executive with 30 years of experience in the company – admitting to the crime, and ultimately being sentenced to 15 years in prison. Today’s Art of Procurement is Sylvain’s story.  Sylvain discusses how he uncovered the fraud, and the decisions he had to make in blowing the whistle. We then talk more specifically about procurement fraud.  Sylvain shares a number of fraud red flags, and provides tips on how you can ensure you have an environment where a whistleblower feels safe in coming forward if they have information to share. The experience inspired Sylvain to found Whispli, a two-way platform that enables the anonymous communication of sensitive information.  Originally designed as a tool to help whistleblowers report potential frauds without fear of recriminations, the platform is now being used across many industries, including helping students anonymously report bullying or harassment at school. Sylvain’s story is absorbing, and also a wakeup call to realize that procurement fraud is real, and that any one of us in the profession may find ourselves in the same position as Sylvain at any time, given the nature of our roles.  For more information, visit: http://artofprocurement.com/fraud 

It has been all hands on deck this week preparing for The Procurement Revolution. In the course of recording content, there was a piece that I just couldn’t wait for next week to publish.  So, I thought I would hand over the reins of the Art of Procurement Friday Show today to Kate Vitasek.   Kate is a faculty member in the University of Tennessee’s Graduate and Executive Education programs, and founder and lead researcher for the Vested business methodology. I asked Kate to provide her perspective on an area that she believes we need to think differently about to help us to continue to mature as a profession.  Listen in to hear Kate explain the concept of sourcing business models, and why different sourcing approaches are needed based on the nature of the relationship you are trying to build with the selected supplier. For more information, visit http://theprocurementrevolution.com