Art of Procurement

According to the Procurement 2021 Pulse Check by WNS Denali and ProcureCon Europe, only 9% of CPOs are satisfied with the current level of stakeholder alignment in their organization.  9%. In 2021. I was so surprised by that number that I decided to dedicate this episode of the podcast to it. In this podcast, we'll explore the differences between what the alignment journey and the corresponding op...

In today's fast-paced world, imagery is just as important for communicating meaning as the words we use. That is why the Mastermind LIVE Spring logo includes a clock with its hands set at 5 minutes until midnight.  This is a moment for urgency - but not panic. The business world needs leaders, and the AOP team firmly believes that those leaders are currently in the ranks of the procurement profess...

Profitability is more important than ever — and procurement leaders are more strategic than ever. Procurement is no longer just a cost center, a spender of money made by others in the enterprise. With the right tools and methodology, procurement can maximize every dollar of profit and discover every dollar of cost savings, positioning them to be critical drivers of the bottom line today - and into...

Today's podcast is part of a special two-week series, our second annual sponsored StartUp and Growth Series, where we aim to shine a light on the early stage and growth companies who are changing the way that leading procurement teams are driving outcomes that truly align with corporate objectives. We will ask an entrepreneur from seven different companies questions about what gap in the market th...

Today's podcast is part of a special two-week series, our second annual sponsored StartUp and Growth Series, where we aim to shine a light on the early stage and growth companies who are changing the way that leading procurement teams are driving outcomes that truly align with corporate objectives. We will ask an entrepreneur from seven different companies questions about what gap in the market th...

Today's podcast is part of a special two-week series, our second annual sponsored StartUp and Growth Series, where we aim to shine a light on the early stage and growth companies who are changing the way that leading procurement teams are driving outcomes that truly align with corporate objectives. We will ask an entrepreneur from seven different companies questions about what gap in the market th...

Today's podcast is part of a special two-week series, our second annual sponsored StartUp and Growth Series, where we aim to shine a light on the early stage and growth companies who are changing the way that leading procurement teams are driving outcomes that truly align with corporate objectives. We will ask an entrepreneur from seven different companies questions about what gap in the market th...

Today's podcast is part of a special two-week series, our second annual sponsored StartUp and Growth Series, where we aim to shine a light on the early stage and growth companies who are changing the way that leading procurement teams are driving outcomes that truly align with corporate objectives. We will ask an entrepreneur from seven different companies questions about what gap in the market th...

Today's podcast is part of a special two-week series, our second annual sponsored StartUp and Growth Series, where we aim to shine a light on the early stage and growth companies who are changing the way that leading procurement teams are driving outcomes that truly align with corporate objectives. We will ask an entrepreneur from seven different companies questions about what gap in the market th...

Today's podcast is part of a special two-week series, our second annual sponsored StartUp and Growth Series, where we aim to shine a light on the early stage and growth companies who are changing the way that leading procurement teams are driving outcomes that truly align with corporate objectives. We will ask an entrepreneur from seven different companies questions about what gap in the market th...

Good negotiation skills are fundamental to procurement. They allow us to maximize value while simultaneously building resilient, low-cost supply chains. But now that procurement is moving towards collaborative partnerships with our suppliers, many are concerned that reducing direct competitive pressure will inadvertently allow higher pricing. Cost transparency allows procurement to balance collabo...

If you are relatively new to the field of procurement, there is a good chance you've never experienced an auction first-hand. With all of procurement's focus on moving towards value and away from cost-only decision making, that's understandable. Unfortunately, however, auctions are a valid tool in procurement's vast toolbox, and in many cases we may be dismissing them - and their potential in a ne...

Traditionally, procurement has been focused on driving corporate profitability by putting pressure on suppliers, rationalizing specifications, and managing demand. While these strategies have delivered some benefits to the business, their diminishing returns came at the cost of procurement's internal reputation. As procurement's focus turns to top-line growth, they will have to change more than ju...

The pandemic has caused a rethink of many past assumptions, from just in time inventory to offshored supply chains. Moving forward, leaders need to avoid jumping from one extreme to the other. Traditionally accepted priorities such as efficiency and cost containment suddenly must be assessed against the risk involved. Success will increasingly depend on how well organizations strike the optimal ba...

As organizations look beyond Covid-19, restoring growth is top of mind for many. Specific strategies vary by industry and company, but suppliers often play an integral role. This is especially true as organizations have become more dependent on the supply chain than ever before and their innovation is increasingly key to growth and success. This podcast is the second in a 4-part series focused on...

Procurement's stature has grown during the COVID-19 crisis as costs, cash flow and supply continuity quickly became top priorities and homepage news. To maintain its slot on the boardroom agenda going forward, procurement leaders must show that they can contribute to restoring growth beyond the pandemic and support a longer list of objectives. There are ample opportunities for procurement to contr...

Risk management may not always be a formal part of procurement's scope, but it is a natural extension of our current work. As a result, the difference between procurement's ability to effectively manage risk may be as simple as officially declaring that it is in scope and embracing all of the activities and metrics that come with it. Canda Rozier is a multiple-time CPO with experience working acro...

Marketing is just one of the functions that procurement has a somewhat 'rocky' history of past relationships with. When you extend that existing internal friction into the relationship with creative agencies, the problems and disconnects seem to compound. Leah Power is the EVP, Strategic Operations Consultant at the Institute of Communication Agencies. Prior to this, she served as the COO at Grey...

Despite the fact that the need to manage tail spend is hardly a new idea in procurement, it continues to be one of the greatest challenges we face. Tail spend is messy, risky, hard to analyze, and - if you take the wrong approach - very costly to address. Merck was faced with a huge, global tail spend management problem, but they refused to let it fester or get the best of them. Starting with a U....

All companies have been affected by the pandemic over the last year, but companies in the healthcare industry - like Kaiser Permanente - have felt the pressure and the change to their operating procedures more than most. Mary Beth Lang is the Chief Supply Chain and Procurement Officer at Kaiser Permanente, an integrated managed care consortium, based in Oakland, California. In this conversation, M...

In the spring and summer of 2020, there were plenty of stories about professionals and teams rallying to get their jobs done while working remotely, in some cases even going above and beyond to achieve levels of performance that no one would have thought possible. As the pandemic stretches on, and reaches a second wave or additional shutdowns, widespread fatigue is starting to set in. In this conv...

Casey's General Stores is the 5th largest convenience store chain in the United States and owns one of the largest pizza brands in the nation. With 2,200 locations in 16 midwestern states, they have $10 Billion in revenue and a double-digit growth rate. What wasn't going well for Casey's? They had no procurement team. When a new CEO came in, one of the first things he did was to bring in Jaime Rob...

Despite the fact that Jan Griffiths has had a successful career as a tier-1 CPO and entrepreneur, she still wasn't prepared for the personal and professional impact of the pandemic. After indulging in a full day of Netflix, she decided to push herself out of her comfort zone and into a non-judgemental accountability project with a pop-up group of peers. What started as a 'therapeutic' accountabili...

We are all customers in our personal lives, and most of us can easily distinguish between a good customer experience and a poor one. But can procurement create a positive customer experience in a B2B setting for all of our different stakeholder groups consistently and at scale? Absolutely - but we have to set the right expectations and priorities first. This interview, based on one of the most pop...

After years of investment in talent and technology, procurement has become a catalyst for enterprise transformation. No other function is in a better position to lead disruptive change and reinvention than procurement. But if we want to thrive in the 'next normal,' we must be able to go let go of the past, be bold, and embrace intelligent risks.  This interview, based on one of the most popular se...