Art of Procurement

Today I am joined by Fraz Baig, a long time listener and friend of the show who is a Senior Manager at Ace Hardware, managing all of Ace's corporate spend including IT, Marketing and Supply Chain. As Fraz and I have got to know each other, I learned about the successes that he and his team have had at Ace in build strong partnerships with their stakeholders. One of the fundamental pillars to that success is a Collaboration Model that explicitly lays out the roles and responsibilities of both the procurement team and their stakeholders as they engage in category management and sourcing projects. And so I invited Fraz onto the show to explain a little bit more about the model, and his learnings from its implementation and evolution.

Software has always been one of those categories where on the surface, cost savings appear hard to find. Often the vast majority of spend is with software industry giants over whom the majority of procurement teams have little negotiating leverage. In today's show, I focus on how to identify savings opportunities across your entire portfolio of software suppliers. And when I say cost savings, I don't mean relying on getting a better rate, but partnering with IT to look more holistically across your entire software category spend. My guest to take us on this journey is Mohammed Faridy, the CEO of OneView, a contract management tool. I met Mohammed through a mutual acquaintance, and Mohammed is also an experienced technology sourcing consultant and practitioner.

After a week hiatus for Labor Day here in the US, we are back with another great interview (and I mean great!) Joining me today is my good friend Naseem Malik, Managing Partner of MRA Global Sourcing. If you are attempting to retain or hire procurement talent, and you are in a location where the market is tight, then this show is for you! Our conversation is split broadly up in to three parts. First, I hit Naseem with a number of questions related to the procurement job market today – what is the current state, what signals would suggest the market is changing, and what are the most in demand skill sets. Naseem then shares his perspective on what a procurement leader can do to not only retain the A-level talent that they have in their team today, but also how to attract the professionals needed to take their organizations to the next level.

Today I am joined on the Art of Procurement by Peter de Heer, a partner at Expense Reduction Analysts. Before joining Expense Reduction Analysts, Peter enjoyed a successful career with the leading consumer goods company Henkel. Peter started outside of procurement leading marketing teams, and as a COO of their Mexico operations, before moving over into procurement executive roles. I invited Peter to join me having read a white paper that he authored discussing the CFO and CPO relationship – and particularly the areas where Finance and Procurement should align, but often do not! I explore how we can build better relationships with our peers in Finance, and begin by asking: what keeps a CPO up at night.

Today, we are doing something a little bit different, and today's show is for independent procurement consultants or for those considering making the switch to self-employment. It is a topic that I am asked about frequently by listeners, either through email or in person at industry events – and is one that I believe we will become increasingly relevant as the nature of work continues to shift. I'm joined by Anthony English, a business coach focusing on helping consultants and small businesses win new business. Anthony and I focus on some of the mindset shifts necessary to increase your chances, as an independent procurement consultant or small business owner, of maximizing the value of your time.

My guest today is Nick Seiersen, a Director with the International Association for Contract and Commercial Management, or IACCM for short. Nick is an contracting expert, and it is a topic that I haven't covered on the show in as much detail as I think it deserves! In our conversation, I wanted to explore a couple of topics – firstly, what are some of the contracting pitfalls that Nick sees Buyer's make time and time again that we should be aware of, and then secondly is there such a think as innovation in contracting. Nick shares innovations taking place both in terms of commercial models, but also contract design and shares one particular example in which a fully illustrated contract was used in lieu of a standard employment contract. I'm not sure that lawyers will soon be replaced by artists, but it was really interesting to hear what is possible if we think outside of our traditional assumptions of how a contract must be written.

I am joined on the virtual couch this week by two returning guests and friends of the pod, Greg Tennyson, the CPO of VSP, and Stephany Lapierre, CEO and founder of supplier intelligence platform, tealbook. You may recall earlier in the summer, I mentioned that I had facilitated a number of roundtables around the US on the topic of supplier intelligence. The roundtables were titled "Exploring the Upside of Accessible Intelligence" Steph accompanied me at all roundtables, and Greg chaired our session in San Francisco, so I thought I would invite them both on to the show to share some of the key insights that they walked away with - and actions that procurement executives can take - based on the collective input of over 60 procurement leaders.

Joining me today on the show is Pierre Lapree. Pierre founded Per Angusta, a procurement project pipeline and performance tracking tool, over four years ago following a career within IT, and then procurement, at staffing firm Adecco. For regular listeners, you may recall that Pierre was previously one of our revolutionaries at The Procurement Revolution event that I co-founded with Kelly Barner last September. Today, we talk all about the savings process. Specifically, what are the actions that we can take to bring trust, transparency and consistency to the savings tracking process. It is widely reported that CFO's neither trust our reported numbers, nor see the majority of our claimed savings dropping to the bottom line. So, what can we do to bridge the gap. Listen in as Pierre and I discuss the best practices that we have observed and implemented throughout our careers – both as practitioners and service providers.

Today I am joined by Michael Shaw. Michael is well known through the Sourcing industry, particularly here in the US, he is currently chairperson of the American Council of Sourcing and Procurement Executives. The heart of today's conversation revolves around a concept called 3SI – Supplier Specific Sourcing Intelligence. The premise is that a number of companies struggle to access the supplier market intelligence that they need to really enable them to build win-win relationships with key suppliers. We tend to focus on win-lose, or leverage when it comes to using market intelligence. Following the principles of 3SI provides the ability to craft deals with key partners – and Michael provides an example of a Microsoft licensing deal – that provide better results than a typical negotiation would achieve.

Today I have a really insightful interview to share with Jonathan Grant and Ben Szostek, two senior leaders within the procurement group at Newell Brands. Jonathan and Ben have been on a journey to bring advanced analytics capabilities to Newell Brands, delivered through a center of excellence model. In today's discussion, we talk about some of the tactics they use, from clean sheet costing and cost modelling to negotiation fact packs which is a concept I really like. You will also hear examples of different sources of data used, the skill sets necessary to build out a team like this, and how advanced analytics are being applied to both Direct and Indirect areas of spend. If you have an interest in understanding how you can build an advanced analytics capability, this is a must listen!