Art of Procurement

In my experience, e-auctions are often used and abused for the wrong reasons.  However, if you use them strategically, they can be a very powerful tool in your sourcing tool kit. In today's show, I explore the critical success factors that determine the successful of your next e-auction. Alun Rafique and Anya McKenna of Market Dojo explain the necessary steps you must take at all stages of an auct...

It has been a couple of months since I opened up the curtains and shared with you some updates about the Art of Procurement.  However, I have a couple of announcements to make that I am really excited about, and I cover these in today's Art of Procurement Friday show.

  Business acumen is an often cited skill needed to be successful in the "new" procurement.  But what exactly is it, and how does it apply to procurement? This was the topic of conversation in today's interview with Jim Barnes, the Managing Director of ISM Services.  Jim highlights 10 different traits that he sees - in his experience helping procurement leaders increase the capabilities of their t...

Today's Friday Show is in response to a listener question: how can I get early engagement with my business stakeholders? In this episode, I take a look back at my experiences as a practitioner, and look at the key elements that differentiated the projects where I was able to engage early and those where I was nothing more than a rubber stamp. For more information, go to: http://artofprocurement.co...

We hear a lot about the changing procurement skill set, and the difficulty that CPO's are experiencing in hiring the talent they require. However, what is the reality, and if so, how can procurement leaders adjust? And how can procurement professionals stand out from the crowd? My guest today on the Art of Procurement is Greg Tennyson, the Chief Procurement Officer of VSP Global. Greg explains why...

This week's Friday Show is a little different.  A recurring theme in my discussions with procurement thought leaders is the need to expand the value that we bring to being more than cost savings alone.  With that in mind, I started working with Joanna Martinez (former CPO and Founder of Supply Chain Advisors) and Jordan Early (Head of Research at Old Street Labs) on a series of shows dedicated to...

How organizations use third party procurement services like outsourcing is evolving rapidly.  While only a short time ago, procurement outsourcing was synonymous with job losses, it is now being used as an enabler for growth.  In this episode of the Art of Procurement, Mike Jacobs, Chief Procurement Officer of Staples, explains how Staples uses procurement BPO to enable his internal team to focus...

This week, rather than publish my normal Friday solo show, I am going to share another great interview.  Procurement consulting firm Advanced Purchasing Dynamics (APD) recently surveyed a cross section of President's, CEO's and CFO's across the manufacturing industry to understand how they perceived the role of procurement.  To any procurement professional, regardless of industry, the results were...

Today's guest on the Art of Procurement is Tom Derry, CEO is ISM (Institute for Supply Management).  Tom and I sat down at last week's ISM 2016 Conference to discuss his key takeaways from the event, and how ISM is evolving to meet the changing needs of its members. Tom then answered a number of quick fire questions, including a question asking if we are facing a talent deficit in procurement.  Li...

Alan Mulally led arguably the greatest turnaround in corporate history. He saved Ford Motor Company from bankruptcy amid the chaos of the 2008 recession, and architected and led the transformation of Ford's product line, brand reputation and financial performance. I had the opportunity this week to sit in on a keynote with Alan at the ISM2016 conference in Indianapolis.  In today's Friday show, I...

My guest on the Art of Procurement today is John P. (Jack) Miles.  There are few, if any, leaders in the procurement profession with the depth and breadth of experience as Jack.  Jack has enjoyed multiple CPO roles at some of North America's largest companies and has served as Secretary of the Florida Department of Managed Services.  He is currently at advisory board member at Coupa. In today's sh...

How can we make procurement less boring?  That is the question I recently posed based on the perception that we hear that procurement is a boring profession.  As you can imagine, it led to a lively debate within the procurement profession! In this episode I explore why others may feel that procurement is boring, when practitioners believe it is anything but.  I share three listener voicemails, and...

I was fortunate to the be in the audience recently to listen to today's guest, Dr Robert Handfield, give a talk on the future of procurement analytics, and the impact that access to real-time and predictive analytics will have on the procurement function.  I was delighted when Rob agreed to share his thoughts with me on the Art of Procurement. Rob talks passionately about how procurement is at in...

Time has flown by - we have now passed a half century of shows!  I have learned a TON from the thought leaders who have graciously shared their time with us to help us all collectively elevate the role of procurement. In today's show, I take a look back at five key themes that I have taken away from the first fifty episodes.  Listen to the show and you will also hear how to get my 20 page report w...

The legal category of spend is often the final frontier in terms of procurement engagement.  It is too complex, too nuanced and isn't understood by anyone from outside the legal space.  When we do get involved, it is often to help manage low value and commoditized services. So how do we crack the code and become a trusted partner to the legal team.  There is arguably no-one in the world more quali...

Ugh, governance I hear you say!  When we think of procurement governance, we think of it as a way to control our end users - as something to measure compliance against.  However, it doesn't have to be like that! I was invited to speak at a conference recently on the topic of procurement governance.  My experience is that governance - if used strategically - can be the cornerstone of a strategy tha...

I strongly feel that we can learn as much from people who are outside procurement as inside procurement, and that is definitely the case in today's show. My guest today is Anna Spady, the Marketing Manager and Inbound Strategist for RFP365. In today's episode, I explore how procurement can learn from Marketing best practices in terms of how you can build strong relationships, and advocates, from p...

After a flurry of activity over the past couple of weeks – with the site redesign and then the Big Idea Week series, it is nice to get back into a normal routine this week! And in fact, I don't intend for today's show to be very long at all. Rather than diving in to another subject, I would encourage you to go back and pick out a show from the Big Idea week that may not yet have already listened t...

This week is Big Idea Week on the Art of Procurement - a mini series of shorter interviews with procurement thought leaders ahead of their participation in the Procurious Big Idea Summit. Today, I welcomed Martin Chilcott, Founder and CEO of 2degrees, onto the show.  Martin is a serial entrepreneur and a sought after speaker who is passionate about solving our greatest supply chain sustainability...

This week is Big Idea Week on the Art of Procurement - a mini series of shorter interviews with procurement thought leaders ahead of their participation in the Procurious Big Idea Summit. Today's guest is Barry Ward, Senior Procurement Brand Manager at IBM.  Barry and I discuss how cognitive technologies have the potential to transform procurement delivery models. Barry shares how IBM is using tec...

This week is Big Idea Week on the Art of Procurement - a mini series of shorter interviews with procurement thought leaders ahead of their participation in the Procurious Big Idea Summit. Today's guest is Chris Browne, Chief Procurement Officer of The World Bank.  The World Bank has arguably one of the most complex procurement scope's in the world, covering $44B in project spend across 173 countri...

This week is Big Idea Week on the Art of Procurement - a mini series of shorter interviews with procurement thought leaders ahead of their participation in the Procurious Big Idea Summit. In today's interview, I talked with Chris Sawchuk.  Chris is a Principal, and the Global Procurement Advisory Practice Leader at The Hackett Group.  Chris and I focused on the findings of Hackett's 2016 CPO Key I...

This week is Big Idea Week on the Art of Procurement - a mini series of shorter interviews with procurement thought leaders ahead of their participation in the Procurious Big Idea Summit. Today, I sat down with Gabe Perez, the Vice President of Strategy and Market Development at Coupa.  Gape shares his thoughts on a number of procurement technology issues, including the potential for cognitive com...

This week is Big Idea Week on the Art of Procurement - a mini series of shorter interviews with procurement thought leaders ahead of their participation in the Procurious Big Idea Summit. We start the week with a wide ranging conversation with Tom Derry, CEO of the Institute of Supply Management (ISM).  Tom shares his thoughts on CPO priorities, the talent profile necessary to be successful in the...

In this episode of The Art Of Procurement, it's a little bit of a different show. I want to discuss a couple of items related to the show itself, and then I have some exciting news about some shows that, allbeing well, will be coming out over the next week or so. Full show notes can be found at artofprocurement.com/rebranding