Art of Procurement

Sustainable expense management programs should be managed to align outcomes with company objectives. Doing so amplifies their impact, strengthens stakeholder and supplier relationships, and provides real savings that can be reinvested as necessary. In this 5-part special series, Art of Procurement Host Philip Ideson will take you through the keys to running a successful expense management program, pitfalls to look out for, and tactics to cover incumbent supplier management, strategic sourcing, and demand and category management.

Sustainable expense management programs should be managed to align outcomes with company objectives. Doing so amplifies their impact, strengthens stakeholder and supplier relationships, and provides real savings that can be reinvested as necessary. In this 5-part special series, Art of Procurement Host Philip Ideson will take you through the keys to running a successful expense management program, pitfalls to look out for, and tactics to cover incumbent supplier management, strategic sourcing, and demand and category management.

Sustainable expense management programs should be managed to align outcomes with company objectives. Doing so amplifies their impact, strengthens stakeholder and supplier relationships, and provides real savings that can be reinvested as necessary. In this 5-part special series, Art of Procurement Host Philip Ideson will take you through the keys to running a successful expense management program, pitfalls to look out for, and tactics to cover incumbent supplier management, strategic sourcing, and demand and category management.

Despite the procurement mindshare dedicated to technology, it hasn't changed things as much as we all would have liked. Most of procurement's sourcing activities happen the same way they always have, albeit with much improved user interfaces. This is especially true for complex service categories that have always defied our processes and templates. Keith Hausmann is the Chief Revenue Office at Globality. He also has the unique distinction of being both a former client - and a former boss - of Art of Procurement Host Philip Ideson. His enthusiasm for a worthy business challenge and the agile nature of innovative start-ups recently led him to join this AI-powered services sourcing platform provider. In this interview, Keith provides his point of view about several of the strategic challenges that procurement still faces 'after all these years' and the role that procurement technology can play in resolving them: Technology as an enabler for procurement teams that feel pressure to reduce indirect costs but want to do incredibly challenging and interesting work Why it is never a good idea to let a supplier - even an incumbent - define the scope or demand for a stakeholder (and why it keeps happening) The unique requirements procurement teams have when sourcing complex services categories

The team at Art of Procurement has worked with Joe Payne for years. We collaborated when he was at Source One Management Services, and now that they have been acquired by Corcentric, our joint efforts continue under that banner - which has also extended to include the Determine team. Joe is now the Senior Vice President of Source to Pay at Corcentric, where he continues to apply his years of procurement consulting and services experience. Given the fact that we spoke to Joe in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, we obviously talked about risk and uncertainty, but we also asked his advice about managing procurement in times of recession. What have we learned in the past that we can apply to the economic conditions we will face as the economic shutdown comes to a close?

Tim Crawford is a former CIO who now advises CEOs and business executives on strategic IT transformation initiatives. He is also the host of the "CIO in the Know" podcast. We had originally invited Tim to join Art of Procurement for a conversation about how procurement professionals can most effectively support our IT colleagues in the long term, but as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to dominate headlines and agendas worldwide, we decided to pivot and take this opportunity to discuss some of the IT challenges that are top of mind under the current circumstances. We asked Tim about the challenges most CIOs are facing on a day-to-day basis, and how procurement can help.

As we run this podcast, the entire world is consumed with the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. Procurement teams have been hit directly in the form of uncertain supply chains and unstable suppliers. While we are naturally consumed with short term risk mitigation, at some point, we will emerge from this crisis. What will our companies face then? Christian Heinrich is one of the industry professionals splitting his time between the short term and the longer-term view. He is the Co-Founder of scoutbee.com and a Professor of Digital Transformation at Quadriga Hochschule Berlin. Christian took some time out to share with us what he is seeing on the ground. What tactics and strategies are they taking and how are they starting to scope and plan out the actions they need to take today to prepare for a return to some kind of normalcy once the pandemic is contained.

Now that procurement professionals and organizations have absorbed the initial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are stable enough footing to start to serve others - including our suppliers. Many of the programs procurement has put in place in recent years have incentives partnering with small, diverse businesses. Those disruptive companies are now at high risk of being disrupted by the pandemic, in some cases permanently. Amanda Prochaska is a long time procurement leader, working for companies like the Kellogg Company, Kraft Heinz, and MGM Resorts International. In 2019, Amanda founded HPP, a company that specializes in helping companies of all sizes achieve operational excellence by supporting the performance of their key suppliers. HPP has set up a Recovery Program to help suppliers take advantage of assistance from the Small Business Administration (SBA): Special steps being taken by the SBA, with backing from the US Treasury, to help small businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic Government eligibility requirements for SBA loans and how the funds need to be used The types of product and service suppliers that procurement may want to share this information with (i.e. facilities maintenance providers for buildings that have been closed down temporarily)

There are some categories of indirect spend - think pest control, waste & recycling, industrial gasses and equipment rental - that cost more to source than they offer in savings. Rich Ham, CEO of Fine Tune, calls those 'nuisance expenses.' For a combination of reasons, they take so much time to manage, and result in so little savings (once they have been sourced for the first time), that they serve as little more than a distraction for procurement teams trying to function more strategically. The uniform industry is valued at $16B annually, and 3 national players account for 55-60% of the revenue in the United States: Cintas, Aramark, and Unifirst. As regional and 'mom and pop' players in this industry are gradually being assimilated into the big three, procurement organizations are going to have to completely overhaul their approach to this category. In this interview, Rich provides insight into the unique approaches and opportunities associated with this specific 'nuisance expense:'

It is safe to say that we currently find ourselves in unprecedented times. Some of us will be impacted by the spread of the coronavirus more than others, but the likelihood is that it will affect all of us in some way. At Art of Procurement, we are going to be at your side for the duration, helping you prepare for the 'unknown unknowns' with practical advice on how you can mitigate the worst of the impact and turn your response into a competitive advantage. To that end, we arranged for a short-turnaround Sunday morning podcast recording with Jan Griffiths. As the former CPO of a tier-1 automotive manufacturer, now the Founder and President of leadership coaching consultancy Gravitas Detroit, Jan has weathered her fair share of crisis and uncertainty. She has come through all of it strengthened and determined to succeed, and she shares her insights with us about how we can do the same.