Art of Procurement

At the Art of Procurement, we get many press releases - usually detailing client wins, technology updates, or company acquisitions.  However, there was one that came across my desk recently announcing the launch of an Indirect Procurement Standard. With my interest piqued, I reached out to the author of the Standard - Sime Curkovic - to learn more. Sime is Professor of Supply Chain Management at W...

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 professio...

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 con...

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...

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...

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 tha...

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...

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...

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. Ou...

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 Ca...

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 oper...

Today, Kelly Barner (Buyers Meeting Point) and I announced that we have founded a new entity to meet the strategic needs of forward-thinking procurement leaders. Palambridge brings procurement experts, technology, and intelligence together and makes them available on demand via a virtual platform. In this bonus podcast, I go beyond the press releases to share more details on the Palambridge journe...

How does the role of procurement differ in a mission driven organization? Today on the Art of Procurement, I explore how procurement can help save lives with Brian Kyle, Managing Director of Strategic Sourcing and Contract Management at the American Cancer Society. Kyle shares his experiences of moving from a profit-driven to mission-driven organization, and the journey that American Cancer Societ...

Today on the Art of Procurement I am joined by Kevin Giblin, Head of Global Sourcing & CPO of data analytics company Dun & Bradstreet. In today's episode, I start by asking Kevin for his perspective on creating value beyond savings, and towards the end of our conversation Kevin gives some great advice to procurement pro's looking to stand out from the crowd. However, the purpose of our conversatio...

Pardon the interruption! It has been a busy couple of weeks here at Art of Procurement Towers, and so I wanted to share details of a couple of new shows that have launched is week.   For more information, visit: http://artofprocurement.com/evenbiggerideas http://thismonthinprocurement  

Today's guest was the first ever interviewee on the Art of Procurement.  All the way back in Episode 2, Tania Seary, the Founder of Procurious, as well as procurement consulting firm The Faculty and recruitment company The Source, joined me to talk about all things related to the importance of creating a personal brand through social media. In today's discussion, we focus on a couple of topics tha...

I have always sought out the Deloitte CPO Survey as a leading indicator on the health of the procurement function and just a couple of days ago, Deloitte published the results of their 2017 Survey.   Today on the Art of Procurement, I am joined by Lance Younger. Lance is the Head of Procurement and Sourcing Consulting in the UK, a Partner of Deloitte's Strategy and Operations Practice, and a co-au...

My guest today is Drew Polin.  Drew is the president of OpDecision, a company that helps organizations reduce their wireless spend, specifically without having to go through the upheaval of switching out their service providers. Our conversation today is split into two parts.  First, we talk about gainsharing. It's a commercial model that I have been very skeptical about in the past, as I think it...

Today's Art of Procurement interview is a real treat.  It is chock full of actionable insights on how we can position our careers, and our organizations, to fully take advantage of digitization and its impact on what, and how, we buy. My guest is Bill Huber.   Bill is an active participant in the procurement community and I have followed his career for some time.  Bill has worked as a practitioner...

"We never put our own priorities first. If I save money and diminish my stakeholders ability to succeed, then I am counter productive and they are not going to use me again." – Greg Antoniono, Anthem Today on the show, I am joined by Greg Antoniono.  Greg is the Sourcing Director for Marketing at Anthem, one of the giants of the US Health Care industry Over the course of the last eight years, Greg...

January 2017 marks the first month of a new collaboration that I am very excited about.  I am co-hosting a new monthly show, imaginatively titled The Month in Procurement, with Mark Perera.  Mark is the CEO and Founder of Old St Labs, the Founder of Procurement Leaders, and as I have got to know him, I see how passionate he is about levering innovation and technology to help businesses really harn...

My guest on today's show is Mark Webb. Mark is the Managing Director of UK based procurement consultancy firm, Future Purchasing. Following experience as a practitioner and then in consulting with PwC and QP Group, Mark co-founded Future Purchasing, and they have grown from strength to strength since their inception back in 2002. Future Purchasing undertakes what I think is the leading piece of in...

Today's guest on the Art of Procurement is Mark Trowbridge, the co-founder and Principal for Strategic Procurement Solutions, and the former Director of Sourcing and Contracts at Bank of America. Mark is a published author, and a regular presenter at procurement and supply chain conferences. In fact, it was at the recent ISM Indirect conference in December that Mark and I met. As I got to know Mar...

Welcome to 2017!  In this first show of the year, I share details of Art of Procurement's publishing schedule in 2017, invite applications to a new AOP Circle of Experts, and share thoughts on facilitating innovation following a recent visit to a startup accelerator program. For more information, visit: http://artofprocurement.com/ep116  

So here we are: The Best of 2016 List. As the year comes to a close, I sat down to consider which episodes have been the most powerful and impactful in 2016.  Some of these have been my personal favorites, others determined by download numbers.  What I did try to do is to make the list as diverse as possible, and it features interviews with CPO's, CEO's, Founders, Educators and Consultants.  There...