Art of Procurement

Last week I joined almost 300 procurement peers from around the world at the first Spend Matters ISM Global Procurement Tech Summit in Baltimore, Maryland. As the event came to a close, I spent 15 minutes catching up with Jason Busch – Founder and Head of Strategy at Azul Partners and Spend Matters – discussing what it took to put together an event of this size, and the key takeaways that Jason took from from the conference.

You may have seen during the last week or so that procurement networking site Procurious has issued a call for procurement professionals to record and submit a “Big Idea” in support of their Big Idea 2016 event. A “Big Idea” being something that has the potential to transform procurement. I got into the spirit and recorded my own “Big Idea”. I submitted a 60 second teaser to Procurious, but here is my “Big Idea” in more detail.

Welcome to a Bonus Episode of the Art of Procurement. In Episode 32, published earlier today, I interviewed Kelly Barner and Jon Hansen, the authors of a new book called Procurement at a Crossroads. After my interview with Kelly and Jon, I recorded an audio review. To hear my thoughts on the book, and my key takeaways, listen to this bonus episode.

In this episode of the Art of Procurement, I am joined by Jon Hansen and Kelly Barner, authors of a new book called Procurement At A Crossroads - and we discuss (debate?) what is in the tea leaves for procurement’s future, and what is likely to happen to the winners - and losers. Listen in to three people deeply passionate about our profession consider the question: what’s next? Full show notes are available at: http://artofprocurement.com/crossroads

In todays Episode of The Art of Procurement Friday Show, I discuss 4 Procurement Activities You Should Outsource Today. The first three activities can be applied to both Indirect and Direct procurement. The fourth is specifically related to Direct Materials Procurement in a manufacturing environment. For full show notes can be found at artofprocurement.com/31

On this weeks episode of The Art Of Procurement, my guest is Brian Umbenhauer. I have read the Deloitte CPO Survey with interest every year to understand the priorities and challenges that CPO's are facing, and how those priorities change each year. However, the results often left me with as many questions as answers. I am excited today to share an interview with Brian Umbenhauer, a Principal of Deloitte Consulting, the Head of Deloitte's Sourcing & Procurement practice, and a co-author of the report that accompanies the survey reports. In this wide ranging discussion we go behind the numbers and discuss what Brian is experiencing in the field in terms of how CPO's are reacting to the issues raised in the survey. Full show notes can be found at artofprocurement.com/deloitte2016

In todays Episode of The Art of Procurement Friday Show, I want to talk about procurement and risk management. It's a topic that I want to cover in some considerable depth on the Art of Procurement over the course of 2016 but today I am going to keep things relatively high level. For full show notes can be found at artofprocurement.com/29

Today's guest is Eliot Knudsen. Eliot's background is in Data Science, Statistics, Mathematics and Machine Learning. As you will hear in the show, Eliot is currently a Field Engineer for Tamr, a leader in procurement data analytics. I invited Eliot on the show to talk in more detail about data, and how procurement organizations can access and consolidate primary sources of data to allow strategies and decisions to be made with data, rather than a hunch. Full show notes can be found at artofprocurement.com/data

In today's Art of Procurement Friday Show, I wanted to follow up on the discussion from the last episode with Stan Litow, President of the IBM Foundation and Vice President of Corporate Affairs at IBM. I explore CSR a little further, and the role that procurement can play, over and above what was discussed in episode 26 which was mainly focused on how procurement can help spur small business growth by giving small, local, businesses the opportunity to win business. What was interesting to me was that the outside view was that the key role we play is related to growth, where as the internal procurement view is to protect our organizations against harm. I explore this further in today's show. Full show notes can be found at artofprocurement.com/27

On this weeks episode of The Art Of Procurement, my guests are Stan Litow and Tim Coates. Stan is the Vice President of Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Affairs at IBM, and the President of the IBM Foundation. Tim is an executive within the IBM Foundation, with the responsibility of managing their Supplier Connection program. Today's discussion talks about corporate philanthropy and corporate social responsibility – or CSR – and what large private enterprises can do to help spur small business growth, and the impact that has on local economies. We talk about why this is important, the challenges that big businesses face in working with small companies, and some of the benefits including increased access to innovative products and services. Full show notes can be found at artofprocurement.com/csr