World of Procurement
By Daniel Barnes
We are going to deep dive into the current state of affairs, best practice, building a personal brand and provide real case studies and examples for you to implement within your own Business.
We speak with the most Senior and the most Junior people within Business, as everyone has a perspective and fresh ideas that can really help you operate within your business.
World of ProcurementMay 29, 2020
What is the impact of Climate Change on Procurement
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Welcome to the World of Procurement podcast! In today's episode, we will discuss the impact of climate change on procurement and the role that procurement can play in supporting sustainability efforts. As procurement professionals, it's our responsibility to consider the environmental impact of our activities and find ways to reduce our carbon footprint and support sustainability efforts. So, let's take a look at how we can do that.
The Good and the Bad on Elon Musk
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#procurement #career #elonmusk
Interest Rate Rises and Financial Health Checks of your Suppliers
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Procurement Pros need to know about the Modern Procurement Tech Stack
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#digitalprocurement #procurement
This is what makes the Best Procurement Professional (Career Talk Part 1 With Tom Mills)
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Read the article here - https://worldofprocurement.co.uk/blog/what-the-best-procurement-pros-do (this differs to the content discussed today but is still relevant)
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#procurement #career #supplychain
Creating Procurement Content on LinkedIn and the rise of the Procurement Dinosaur - With Tom Mills
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Follow Tom Mill's on LinkedIn here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-mills-procurement/
Tom Mills and I have been talking a lot recently about the state of Procurement Content on LinkedIn and the insidious nature of the Procurement Dinosaur. An ideology among Procurement Professionals that hides behind the way we've done things in the profession for years and fights change.
These people are blocking progress in the profession and we've had some brilliant, hilarious and almost comical exchanges with them on LinkedIn. In this episode of the World of Procurement Podcast, we talk about: - Creating Procurement Content - Dinosaurs of Prourement Enjoy my friends
#procurement #supplychain #contentcreator
New Procurement Courses incoming from World C&C?
Join our World of Procurement Discord Community here.
Take our Contract Management for Beginners Course here.
View this over on World of Procurement.
World Commerce & Contracting announced on LinkedIn here that they are going to be focussing on Procurement Programs (or courses).
I'm genuinely intrigued to see what they focus on and how this compares with the offering from CIPS.
Can Legal Ops help Procurement be better?
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Take our Contract Management for Beginners Course here.
View this over on World of Procurement.
- Legal Ops is a ever growing profession which is usually led by non-qualified legal pros who manage and operate the legal capability within a business.
- Legal is often, like procurement, left a bit in the dark ages when it comes to process improvements, efficieny and tech. This might be due to lawyers who work in firms charging by the hour who then go in-house and don’t shift their way of thinking.
- Legal Ops will look at analytics, managing external legal suppliers, processes etc.
- There could be big benefits of having Legal Ops support the Procurement team and their contract review.
How to Crush your Procurement Interview
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Take our Contract Management for Beginners Course here.
View this over on World of Procurement.
I’ve spent a couple of weeks interviewing candidates for both legal and procurement roles and I wanted to share with you some ways in which I think you can crush your upcoming procurement interviews.
- Make sure you’ve genuinely understood the JD and research your responses.
- Procurement is fundamentally moving on from cost reduction to risk management and other value adding activities.
- Be confident - easier said than done but this should come naturally if you’ve prepared
- Preparation - think of what questions might come up and prep for them. There’s usually 3 types of questions: personal (getting to know you), technical (understanding your commercial skills and if you understand how to procure, risk manage, contract manage) and situational (scenarios that you’ve been in that highlight your technical skills).
- Have questions about the company
- Take your time - don’t waffle and get in a fluff.
Procurement Tech in the News March edition: Contingent Raised $8m
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View this over on World of Procurement.
I’m always on the look out for good news stories when it comes to Procurement Tech.
You might wonder - why?
Because Procurement Tech, I believe, is going to enhance the way we manage our supply chains and contracts.
Contingent.ai, a company that provides risk insights on your Suppliers, just raised $8.2 million.
I pulled this directly from their website for you to see:
“The ProcureTech company has announced a funding round led by Octopus Ventures
- Cloud-based platform helps companies procure more strategically, and better manage supply chain risk and compliance
- The funding will be used to develop a suite of SaaS applications and to enable international expansion
- Contingent’s global customer base has been growing at 10x p.a. and includes companies such as Monzo, Seagate, Huel, Barratt Developments plc and HM Government”
Contingent is a company I’m genuinely happy to talk openly about in that I believe they are going to be the number one platform out there for managing risks and insights in your supply chain over the next 3-4 years.
Check them out.
Top Procurement Trends of 2022 that you need to know
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Check out our article on The Top Procurement Trends of 2022 here.
Over Christmas, I started thinking about the top Procurement trends for 2022. Essentially, I believe that we will build on the trends that emerged in 2021 as we navigated our way through a new way of living, travelling and existing.
I think the last two years have made a lot of Procurement Pros aware of the fragilities in their processes, their "tools" to do the job and within their supply chain.
In this Podcast Episode, we're going to talk about:
Understanding your Supply Chain through Data
Sustainability and Ethical Sourcing
Digital Procurement
Data Protection
Procurement Tech
Risk
Lean Process
I might share some views that are a bit different, a bit out there but they're views that I preach and act on every day in my role as a Procurement and Contract Management Pro.
Contract Management Trends for 2022 that you need to know
Join our World of Procurement Discord Community here.
Take our Contract Management for Beginners Course here.
Check out our article on Contract Management Trends 2022 here.
Over Christmas, I started thinking about the top Contract Management trends for 2022. Essentially, I believe that we will build on the trends that emerged in 2021 as we navigated our way through a new way of living, travelling and existing.
One general observation I have of us Contract Managers is that there is a fantastic opportunity to become more closely aligned with our Legal colleagues.
There is talk of a rise in Legal Operations and Legal Design type roles throughout 2022. If you look at what the generic job description of these Legal type roles are (and these aren’t usually qualified lawyers hence the comparison to us), we are doing many of the activities they are.
My additional point here is that I think you, as a Contract Manager, should be working closely with Legal.
Why?
To make massive improvements to how your business operates from a contracts perspective.
This year will be incredible if you make the most of the available opportunities.
Here's what I think will happen with Contract Management:
- The rise of the Contract Management Lifecycle tool/Legal Tech - Building resilience into Supplier Contracts - RISK, RISK, RISK - Simplification of ContractsHow Acada is improving Procurement productivity with Rich Sains
Make sure you check out our Contract Management for Beginners Course here.
Come join us for free over on Discord in the World of Procurement Community where we talk all things Procurement, Supply Chain and Contract Management.
Check out the full transcript over on World of Procurement.
Rich Sains is the Founder of Acada, a Procurement Tech company that looks to remove the mundane admin based work and gives real time insights as to what teams are working on. The awesome part about this solution is that it doesn’t require loads of “admin” to input the data. It gives a central view to Procurement Leaders as to what their team is working on.
We like that a lot.
Whilst talking, Rich started to go into detail around the design principles they follow at Acada. I was blown away by the attention to detail in the user experience. I’m sure all of you reading this right now have encountered a Procurement tool that promises the world but when you use it, it looks awful. There is nothing worse that a piece of software that is clunky and is stuck in the 90s.
With everything being tracked, it gives you insights into how much time is required to complete tasks. This could be an RFP exercise, a contract review or consolidation of your supply chain. This in invaluable data as a procurement leader and let’s you utilise your available resource in the best way possible.
If we want to get even nerdier here, this is great for any audits that you may have that look into your organisational control measures such as ISO or SOC2.
In this episode we talk about Acada, why Rich started it and when we met a while back in London for a drink.
You can connect with Rich here on Linkedin.
How Paid is automating Procurement with Natasha Foster
Hey Procurement Legends, I had an awesome chat with Natasha, the COO of Paid which is a Procurement automation platform. I’ve pulled a technical extract from their website, which you can see here, so that you can get an idea of what the platform is.
I do encourage you to check out their product and think about how it may help you in your day-to-day procurement work.
Natasha is incredible, she gets it and it’s clear that she is in the business of solving business problems first and foremost. It just happens that these sit within the realms of procurement.
You’re going to love this one.
Check out the transcript over on our website.
Join the Word of Procurement Community on Discord
We're live on Discord with our new Community Server on Discord. Click here to join right now as we start growing the Community in a place of our own, away from social media algorithms and the endless scroll.
In this episode, I talk about my vision for the World of Procurement Community, why I set it up and why it's going o be an awesome place for you to be.
For more awesome content in Procurement, Supply Chain and Contract Management, visit www.worldofprocurement.co.uk.
The Heart of Procurement with Tom Mills
WE'VE GOT A SLIGHT GLITCH BETWEEN 10:00 - 11:30 MINS OF THE PODCAST. IT WILL COME BACK ON :D
We had Tom Mills on the World of Procurement Podcast to talk about his views and ideas around what Procurement truly is. At one point in the episode, Tom referred to The Heart of Procurement and I instantly knew that would be the title for this episode.
We cover an incredible amount of conversation pieces as summarised below.
Show Notes:
- Introduction into Tom’s career
- Procurement versus Purchasing, key differences and what Tom loves about Procurement
- Why Procurement having a seat at the table is the wrong question and the wrong angle to come from
- The Role of Procurement Pros moving forwards
- Managing conflict and “office” politics as a Procurement Professional
- Integrity as a Supply Chain/Procurement Professional
What's going on in the Procurement Job Market with Martin Smith
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Martin Smith is the Founder of Talent Drive, a recruitment company that specialises in Procurement and Supply Chain roles. Martin is perfectly placed to understand what is going on in the Procurement jobs market right now, what skillsets are required and what issues we face in this space as Procurement Professionals.
Martin is also the founder of the Talent Talks Podcast, where he talks with Senior Procurement Pros - give it a listen.
Procurement roles seem to be breaking the norm, with purported salary increases in the UK that are way above the market norm, with, at least from my perspective, more roles than ever before and we, as Procurement Pros should be making the most out of such a rich opportunity to secure improved roles for us.
We covered a lot of different top level topics in this episode and you can skip along to a section that suits you using the timestamps below.
0000 Intro
1:39 generic procurement job descriptions
3:00 work is needed by hiring managers to recruit for the skills gap
3:36 hybrid working for procurement pros
9:40 the skills shortage on procurement
12:15 salary in the job description
13:10 salaries in procurement
13:55 how to make procurement more interesting to new people
16:00 the entry point to the procurement
24:00 procurement and university
27:00 lack of diversity in the profession
How Suppeco Helps YOU to Build Supply Chain Relationships with Sheldon Mydat
Building supplier relationships has grown in significant importance over the last two years.
COVID19 disrupted Supply Chains all across the world.
Businesses scrambled to ensure they still had certainty of supply.
What they didn’t realise was that they were not necessarily the Customer of Choice for that Supplier any longer.
I came across Suppeco a few months ago and I wanted to bring them onto the Podcast to find out, from a tech perspective, how they can help us Supply Chain and Procurement Pros build more collaborative relationships within the Supply Chain.
They way, we can maintain our status as Customer of Choice and have better supply from the Supply Chain.
Check out the timestamps below to the relevant section of the podcast. My advice… listen to all of it.
- 00:00 Background to Sheldon and what he did pre-Suppeco
- 00:50 Difficulty driving value out of relationships
- 01:11 Using Excel/PPT to build out Relationships
- 02:00 The start of Suppeco
- 03:17 The issue of managing Supplier Relationships
- 05:52 Building Suppeco
- 08:15 What Suppeco is
- 10:11 Using live data for insights not reports
- 14:40 How do we create KPIs/SLAs
- -16:14 How to get suppliers to use the platform
- 1930 - Awesome Insights into Suppeco
- 20:55 - User Experience matters with Procurement Tech
Check out Suppeco here
Connect with Sheldon here
Why Sourcing and Why Automation? Talking to Erin about sourcing through Fairmarkit
Fairmarkit is the intelligent sourcing platform and they automate sourcing events for enterprise clients so they can work on more interesting things. I caught up with Erin McFarlane, VP of Services at Fairmarkit to talk to her about her reason for being in the Procurement space and what Fairmarkit offers as a service to people like you and me as Procurement and Supply Chain pros.
Are you a Level 5 Procurement Leader?
Get the book:
UK - Good to Great by Jim Collins
US - Good to Great by Jim Collins
Support me as a content creator over on Patreon for a small amount of money each month. This same, awesome content will always be available to you all but creating content is expensive and I'm looking to expand my ability to make more and better content. This will help by giving you way more access to me, the process and massive influence over the types of content I create for all of you. Check it out here.
Hey Procurement Legends, I've been reading the most incredible book by Jim Collins titled Good to Great. It's all about the concept of level 5 leaders in a hierarchal system have taken companies from...Good to Great.
I started reading it to answer some of my own internal questions here:
- What are these 5 different levels?
- What makes a company great?
- How to become a great leader?
And whilst I've been reading the book, taking notes and processing the content, I started to think about how the hierarchy could be used to attribute procurement people and procurement leaders to each of the hierarchies and why we should all be striving to be at the very top, say a level 4 or even a 5 to elevate this Procurement Profession.
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Bringing supplier events to life with Supplier Day
If you’ve ever tried to run an event, to get your Suppliers in a room to share a vision, a requirement and to breed innovation and collaboration - it can be a nightmare. It requires not just a logistical masterclass but you need to be clear on why you want the Suppliers there, why it’s a good use of their time and what outcomes you want from the event.
Supplier Day is a Service Provider that enables you to create virtual supplier events, or Supplier Days, to enable meaningful collaborations with your supply chain.
In this World of Procurement Podcast Episode, we talk about the issues of creating Supplier events, the perks to having virtual only events, and how to get the most of the events. Supplier Day enables this to become the norm rather than the extraordinary.
Timestamps for the Podcast:
00:00 Introduction to Caitlyn
00:51 Importance of Communication
03:40 What is the Supplier Day Service Offering
08:45 Issues running Supplier Events alone
12:20 The experience with Supplier Day
14:40 Virtual/Digital Supplier Events are here to stay
17:10 Perks of Virtual over Physical events
24:45 Making the decision makers visible
29:00 Where to find Supplier Day
Connect with Caitlyn here on LinkedIn and make sure you check out the Supplier Day LinkedIn page.
The Changing role of Procurement, Traceability-as-a-Service, Sustainability and Blockchain's use case with Douglas Johnson-Poensgen
Doug Johnson-Poensgen is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Circulor. We covered a lot of ground in this 25-minute podcast and this podcast is going to be exceptionally beneficial to you if you are currently looking at your supply chain and wondering how can we improve visibility, how can we reach our sustainability goals using our supply chains and how do we know what is in this product?
I think all of us, regardless of sector, are starting to have more conversations around this. Circulor describes itself as a company that provides Traceability-as-a-Service to verify responsible sourcing, to underpin effective recycling and to improve efficiency. We reach parts of OEM's supply chains that most currently have little real visibility into.
Circulor boasts high profile clients such as Jaguar Landrover, Volvo, Polestar and Boeing. Circulor is built upon traditional databases and distributed ledger technology from Hyperledger, a blockchain company.
Check out the timestamps for this Procurement Podcast Below:
- Intro 00:00
- What Mica is and how it is used in Electric Vehicle Battery Technology 1:11
- Doug’s Business background 2:21Carbon Emissions in the Car Manufacturers supply chains 3:35
- How Procurement Teams can aid net-zero manufacture 4:40
- Insight into Circulor’s customers: Jaguar Landrover, Daimler, Polestar (who have just committed to their first Net Zero Car by 2030) 5:00
- How Doug Came up with the idea to found Circular 5:41
- How Circulor uses databases and Blockchain 8:17 (https://www.hyperledger.org/use/fabric) (https://www.hyperledger.org/learn/publications/tantalum-case-study)
- Doug is a sceptic on blockchain 9:12
- The changing role of the Procurement Profession 12:15
- There are visionary procurement professionals in sustainability 16:35 (Martina is a visionary - https://www.linkedin.com/in/martina-buchhauser/)
- Volvo’s use of traceability in its Procurements 18:23
- What procurement can do to drive sustainability and change the status quo 19:38
- A future vision that Procurement can help build 24:40
- Where to find Doug and Circulor 26:00
Find our more about Circulor here: https://www.circulor.com
Connect with Doug: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dougjohnsonpoensgen/
Find more awesome Procurement content at World of Procurement
What the Best Marketing Procurement Professionals do, how Agencies can respond to Procurement Teams/RFPs, and the value of Lifelong Learning with Stuart Dunk
If you want to learn how to become a Contract Management Pro in the World of Procurement, start here.
I've got one ask of you whilst your listening to this Podcast. Go leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts. Those 5 star reviews and feedback really help me in the rankings and give me a rush of enthusiasm to keep this going. I appreciate you for listening to this episode.
In this Podcast Episode of the World of Procurement Podcast, we are talking to a Marketing Procurement Professional and expert, Stuart Dunk, who has experience working for some massive Companies, such as Nike. We go into detail about Stuart’s background pre-procurement and his extensive Marketing Procurement background at some of the biggest names where he developed true expertise in Marketing.
We cover. Stuart’s company that he set up during COVID, which is a feat in Entrepreneurial spirit, and how he’s been advising agencies on how they should approach procurement, how to price and shape responses to RFPs etc. This is something that just makes sense. Us Procurement Professionals can often forget there is someone at the other side (as illustrated so eloquently by Dr Leda Glyptis here).
We cover why understanding Marketing, as a macro topic and not just Marketing Procurement, is vital if you want to be taken seriously in the world of marketing. People who know marketing and enjoy marketing are the ones who are best at Marketing Procurement.
We talk about the value procurement pros can bring to marketing and how it is more than marketers think as old age perceptions around price still live and worry marketers about procurements intentions. We talk about how the best marketing procurement pros going into marketing enter that world and say what do you need, what are your metrics (this is similar to what Sarah Scudder broke down for us in this Podcast).
Project Spring highlighted other value-added activities that Procurement Pros had for marketers. CPOs have so many conflicting priorities and how savings are now not the number one focus but becoming more efficient is (Deloitte Global 2021 Chief Procurement Officer Survey)
Why CIPS can be great for Marketing Procurement Pros and new entrants into the World of Procurement.
Check out what Stuart is up to at his Company and reach out to him if you need help in the Marketing Procurement space - Don’t Forget to Look.
Resources/Books/Courses discussed throughout the Podcast:
- Blair Enns, The Win Without Pitching Manifesto Book (US)
- Blair Enns, The Win Without Pitching Manifesto Book (UK)
- Project Spring from the World Federation of Advertisers
- Mini MBA in Marketing by Mark Ritson
- The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising
- Blair Enns, Win Without Pitching
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Why are Procurement Job Descriptions rubbish?
How to Hire the Best Procurement Pros has got to be high on your agenda especially as the recruitment market hots up and, based on what we are seeing currently post-covid, shifts to a candidate market.
But what I'm currently seeing are some of the most generic, bland and awful job descriptions that isn't telling me anything other than the hiring manager wants someone who knows a bit of everything or is an expert in everything.
Make sure you leave a 5 STAR review wherever it is you listen to this Podcast.
Is Procurement Moving Away From Category Management? My opinion on Philip Ideson's article
Hey World of Procurement Legends, I'm back with a very different type of 5 minute podcast today and I do hope you are enjoying the experimentation I'm undertaking with this Procurement Podcast at present. I'd almost suggest that before you listen to this Podcast, you head over to Art of Procurement and you read this article - https://artofprocurement.com/is-procurement-moving-away-from-category-management/.
I share my views on why I think there's more value to a Service Provider view of Procurement rather than a Category view.
Would love to hear your thoughts too.
Make sure you connect with Philip on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/philipideson/
What's your approach to Sustainability in the Supply Chain?
Hey Procurement Legends, I thought that this five minute format of the podcast might be a good way to share some questions and some ideas around topics that are out there that we need to do more on as a profession. I thought I'd start off with Sustainability within the Supply Chain in this episode. I've seen it in my LinkedIn feed, I've had conversations about it recently and those two things combined mean we as a profession are getting more serious on this.
Check out this episode I recorded with Marina who is an expert in this area - https://link.chtbl.com/SustainableProcurement
Make sure you consider all the options when looking at new Procurement Tech
Hey Procurement Legends, continuing on with the new non-guest 5 min short form podcast episodes, I wanted to talk about Procurement Tech. There are a crazy number of solutions out there right now and you can check a whole bunch of them out over on Digital Procurement World here - https://conference.dpw.ai/demo/demo-application/.
What's my message in this episode:
We have options
These companies aren't always good at marketing themselves to Procurement Pros
Sweep the marketplace when undertaking RFPs or you might miss out on a gem.
It would make my day if you could head into the review section and leave a 5 start review wherever it is you listen to podcasts! Appreciate you all.
How to use LinkedIn as a Procurement Pro: Finding a good Recruiter that can bring you in work
Ever wondered how you can better use LinkedIn to find Procurement Roles without having to hit apply now on roles? You need to work with a few trusted Recruitment Agencies and more importantly, work with a specific recruiter from that Agency.
This is the best and most impactful way to find work when the economy is good and bad.
I dive into this in a new 5 min format on the podcast.
What the Best Procurement Pros Do!
If you want to learn Contract Management make sure you've checked out this Course - https://www.udemy.com/course/contract-management-for-beginners/?referralCode=F658394D58FA7DD0515A
If you’ve worked in and around Procurement you know there are a few types of Procurement Professionals.
You’ve got the I don’t care Professional. Calling these people Professional is a stretch of the imagination and an insult to the true procurement Professional. These are the type of Procurement people that fell into the job and are bitter about it. There’s no hiding that many people do not grow up wanting to get into Procurement. It just kind of happens. I’m sure many of you reading this right now have a story to tell as to how you got into procurement.
The problem with the crowd that is bitter about it is that they are doing a lot of harm to the Profession. They are typically the argumentative type who fight non-existent battles as everyone plots to bring them down. It’s a fabrication. These people believe that their role is to place POs and send emails and that’s about it. What is worse is when one of these Procurement People are placed into a role of more responsibility and they lead their team into the depths of their bitterness.
All is not lost if you’ve felt like this.
All is not lost if you’re working in a team that operates this.
I’m going to talk to you about what the Best Procurement Pros do and why you should emulate this in your career.
These were the words I wrote for the article I published last summer which has been the most popular read on World of Procurement over the last 12 months. I wanted to bring the article to life in a Podcast and share my extended views and share some stories. I think you’ll like this one.
You don't need Legal to Review all of your Procurement Contracts
Hey Procurement Pros, are you struggling with the speed of your Contract Reviews as Legal is holding you up? If so, you might find some insights here that are going to help you out. You need to simplify the entire process, empower your staff and get a position agreed upon within the Business as to what the Contracts you sign up to entail.
Let's talk about the role that is best described as a "Commercial Contracts Management" that can provide a lot of commercial, procurement and legal knowledge in a single packaged role. These roles, supported by qualifications from World Commerce & Contracting and/or CIPS, with individuals who have a strong commercial and/or legal background from previous roles or degrees can really impact your Contracting process.
Check out the short article I wrote on this - https://worldofprocurement.co.uk/articles/procurement-doesnt-need-legal-for-contract-reviews
Check out the Contract Management for Beginners Course here - https://www.udemy.com/course/contract-management-for-beginners/?referralCode=F658394D58FA7DD0515A
Connect with me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielbarnesgsd/
Procurement Tech with Bid Ops
In this series, I talk with Procurement Tech providers to find out about their product. I want this series to help procurement pros like you and I to know what solutions are out there to better enable our procurement activities.
In this episode of Procurement Tech, I speak with Edmund Zagorin, the founder of Procurement Tech Company Bid Ops. Bid Ops software gives Procurement teams Supplier Management, Sourcing, Supplier Collaboration and much more.
We talk about the following:
- The Origin Story of Bid Ops
- What Bid Ops does
- 3 case studies around how the Bid Ops solution is used in different industries
- A Bid Ops event going live in March
You can find out more about Bid Ops here: https://bidops.com
Procurement Mashup #1 Building a Procurement Brand and Community
Procurement Personal Branding! Procurement Communities! These are the things that the Procurement Pros who go the extra mile deliver. In this episode, I wanted to share the views and viewpoints of three previous guests on the Podcast: Dana Small, Karthik Rama, and Mike Cadieux. These are three people who I look up to and have the utmost respect for.
They have views and perspectives on how to stand out from the crowd and how to build up a network of procurement pros that you can call up on at any time.
Get building out there and having fun whilst you do it.
Connect with them here:
Dana Small - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dana-small/
Karthik Rama - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramakarthik/
Mike Cadieux - https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-cadieux/
Ms Category Management - https://mscategorymanagement.com
Procurement Foundry - https://procurementfoundry.com
The World of Procurement in 2020
What a Year it has been in 2020...in a good way. This episode is a solo episode with Daniel Barnes, as he reflects back on 2020 and the impact of World of Procurement. His kids also make a sneaky appearance with the odd cry of anguish.
World of Procurement was establish in April 2020. Since then, it has gone on to release a Podcast that has hit 9k+ listens, had over 250k views of content on LinkedIn and thousands of views of its written content at www.worldofprocurement.co.uk.
In this episode, Daniel covers off some of the amazing conversations and a provides an insight into his plans for 2021.
Don’t Play it Safe in Procurement with Ashleigh Turner
Ashleigh Turner is the winner of the CIPS Young Talent of the Year 2019 award, domestic violence survivor, mother and a podcast host in her own rights with Empower with Ash.
This was my favourite podcast of the Year and I’d encourage you all to go connect with Ashleigh on LinkedIn.
In this episode, we cover:
- What Ashleigh does in Procurement (Caterpillar Dealership)
- How Ashleigh got into Procurement and why she loves it
- Why working in a Greenfield/new procurement team can be incredible - pros/cons
- How Procurement is perceived by your colleagues
- The daunting task of ripping millions out of the business through Industrial consumables
- Winning the CIPS Young Talent of the Year 2019 award
- The BIG aggregator project with 30+ consumable categories, 300,000 line items down to 60,000, across 23 sites that cover the size of India.
- Experience versus time served in Procurement roles and job adverts
- The issues with leaders who cannot use technology themselves and who do not understand the benefits of technology
- What the future of procurement is going to look like
- Why we should challenge procurement and push forward as millennials
- You need to adapt to change
- What was the impact of the CIPS award on Ashleigh’s career
Connect with Ashleigh here:
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleigh-turner-7b69a876/
Podcast - https://open.spotify.com/show/1TgP5na4zCBCRcsXsLWVOm?si=6qlUmifHSdqsDPM3CfC-ow
Website - https://www.empowerwithash.com/ebooks
Building a Procurement Community from his Sofa with Dave Jones
Dave Jones is an MCIPS Qualified Procurement Professional working in the retail sector in the UK. We dived into so much in a short space of time with this episode, including the effect that COVID has had on the retail sector. The main focus of this episode was to discuss what was Procmeet which has now transformed into the bigger and better Proctopus (ProcMeet is the Procurement Meet up). Dave had a thought one night whilst sat on the sofa. This thought was about having a cuppa with some fellow procurement professionals and he asked his LinkedIn Network if they’d be up for it. They really were up for it.
In this episode we cover:
Dave’s views on the impacts of Covid on Retail
Changes in governance models
Impacts of Working From Home on Procurement Teams
Where is Procurement Going
What Procmeet is (this has now grown into Proctopus)
Connect with Dave here:
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dohjones/
Proctopus/ProcMeet - https://www.proctopus.co.uk
Your organisation sucks at Contract Management with Karthik Rama
Karthik Rama, the Procurement Doctor is a Procurement Professional and knows a thing or two about Contract Management. We dived into so much in this episode. This episode was originally released as a video over on the World of Procurement YouTube Channel but I needed to release it via audio too.
We cover:
How Contract Management Activities could be improved by Blockchain Technology
Why Procurement and Contract Management needs to be easier for people to understand
Pre-Signature Contract Management Activities and why it’s important
Why Contract Management is neglected and why your Organisation sucks at it
Connect with Karthik here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramakarthik/
Practical Steps to Data Management with Susan Walsh
Susan Walsh is the fixer of dirty data, an expert in spend data classification, taxonomies, and data accuracy. In addition to all of this, Susan improves your Procurement Data to create savings both financially and in time. Susan is the Founder of The Classification Guru, an Organisation that takes the pain out of data issues to make your life easier.
In this episode we cover:
- How COVID has affected Corporate Culture
- Changes in behaviours with Managers and Staff
- Why Meeting Culture needs to shift
- Saying No, more
- Our Views on Thinkers 360 as a Platform and how Susan is being recognised an Industry Leader
- The COAT Acronym Origin Story
- Don’t google Dirty Susan
- How to use COAT for your Data
- The Story of 840 spreadsheets that needed to be merged
- Practical Steps to get basic Data Management in place with Excel in Procurement
- Excel horror stories for Data Management
You can find Susan Walsh here:
LinkedIn - Personal - https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanewalsh/
LinkedIn - The Classification Guru - https://www.linkedin.com/company/theclassificationguru/
The Classification Guru - https://www.theclassificationguru.com
The Language of Procurement with Steve Wills
Steve Wills is one of the most incredible and easy to talk to guys I’ve ever come across. He did not disappoint in this episode. We cover a wide range of Procurement topics in this World of Procurement episode.
Steve has worked in Procurement his entire life and has a love for it. That is clear from the passion he has in all he does for our Procurement Profession. Steve has held several high profile Procurement roles in the Insurance Sector and is the Founder of Procurement Central, who provide Procurement Training for the leaders of tomorrow.
In this Episode of the World of Procurement Podcast, we cover:
- Choice of Clothing throughout Lockdown
- A Brief History into Steve’s career to date and his Business, Procurement Central.
- People who fall into Procurement - is this a downside?
- The language of Procurement
- Understanding the wider Supply Chain throughout COVID
- The overlaps of Procurement with other Functions/Departments
- Responses to COVID and Planning for the Future
Connect with Steve here:
Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-wills-fcips-mba/
Procurement Central - https://www.procurementcentral.co.uk
Evolution of Procurement Pros with Ed Cross
Ed Cross is the Executive Director of Odesma, a Procurement Consultancy. Ed has 30+ years of experience in Procurement across a wide range of industries and sectors.
In this Episode of the World of Procurement Podcast, we cover:
A Brief History of his wonderful career
Insights into Odesma, Ed’s Procurement Consultancy based out of the Gig Economy Approach
Starting in Procurement out of want rather than falling into it
How Procurement are responding to COVID19
Amazing stories from the Procurement Teams dealing with COVID
Tales from the Black Death - this was awesome!!!
How can Procurement ready themselves for different/new disruptions in the future
Customer of First Choice and why this is going to be important moving forwards
Why back to basics Procurement is vital
Understanding your Supply Chain
What does a Procurement Professional look like over the next few years
Single Source vs Multi Source/Competitive Procurement
Connect with Ed here:
Ed Cross - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ed-cross-919b0a5/
Odesma - http://www.odesma.co.uk/
Why Procurement needs to embrace Tech with Madison Mobley
Madison Mobley is fairly new to the World of Procurement. Madison is a Senior Account Executive at the Procurement Tech company Fairmarkit. This is Madison’s first ever Podcast and she absolutely crushed it!
We cover so many topics in this episode such as:
- What is Fairmarkit
- Madison’s background in Sales
- Madison’s observation on the Procurement Profession from a sales background
- Tech adoption in Procurement
- Gen Z are going to hate the poor adoption of tech
- All things Tailspend
- Can we save money via Procurement solutions/software
- Self-Education in Procurement
- Re-establishing trust between Buyers and Sellers
Sit back, grab a coffee, go for a run…whatever you do when you listen to a podcast and enjoy.
Connect with Madison here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/madisonmobley/
How to be a Procurement All-Star with Philip Ideson
Philip Ideson is the man behind Art of Procurement, the number one Procurement Podcast in the world. In addition to this, Art of Procurement provides Education and Consultancy Services. Philip recently hit an incredible milestone of 500,000 downloads over five years of running his Podcast.
Philip has a wealth of experience as a Procurement Practitioner and has spoken with over three hundred Procurement Professionals on his Podcast. As you can Imagine, I was keen to get his views on what the Best Procurement Pros do.
We covered a lot in this thirty minute Podcast episode:
Football, Why Running is incredible for mindset, the traits of Procurement All-Stars, Why focussing on Procurement Technical Skills will only get you so far, why we hate the term “seat at the table” and the challenges COVID 19 has posed to Procurement Teams.
Connect with Philip here - www.linkedin.com/in/philipideson
Art of Procurement - https://artofprocurement.com
Talking Negotiation, the future, Content, and Cannabis with Mark Raffan
Mark Raffan is the Host and Founder of Negotiations Ninja and the Head of Marketing at Content Callout. Mark has grown Negotiations Ninja to become the Number 1 Negotiations Podcast in the World. Mark has grown Content Callout, his Marketing Company and has recently launched The Content Callout Podcast.
On this episode we talk about the following:
Why Procurement Pros should make Content and the challenges they may face
The Cannabis Sector
Negotiations and Artificial Intelligence
Future Skillsets Procurement Pros Need
Designation Bodies not providing enough value
It’s a packed episode that was completely unscripted and to which some of you may find to be more controversial and polarising.
Check out what Mark is up to here:
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/markraffan/
Negotiations Ninja - http://www.negotiations.ninja/podcast/
Content Callout - https://www.linkedin.com/company/content-callout/
Shipz and Women in Supply Chain with Sarah Barnes-Humphrey
Sarah Barnes-Humphrey
Sarah Barnes-Humphrey, the CEO of SHIPZ and Founder/Host of one of the biggest Supply Chain Podcasts and Content Channels, Let’s Talk Supply Chain. Sarah is a Supply Chain legend with twenty or so years experience in this space.
Sarah makes incredible content in the Supply Chain space and to add to this, she has just launched her new venture, SHIPZ. SHIPZ, as Sarah explains, is kinda like the eBay of Shipping.
We dive into what SHIPZ is and what it does as well as some insights into the World of Supply Chain. We then cover Women in Supply Chain and a range of topics in this space.
This is an incredible and entertaining podcast with Sarah who is a pro to talk to. I mean, what what would you expect from someone who has recorded over 100 podcast episodes.
Connect with Sarah here:
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahbarnescitp/
Let’s Talk Supply Chain - https://www.letstalksupplychain.com
SHIPZ - http://www.shipz.com
The Future of Contracts with Rory Unsworth
Rory is a Legal Professional, a Solicitor trained and qualified in the UK who has operated extensively in the Insurance Sector with Swiss Re. Rory is operating as a Contract Digitalisation Consultant who wants to bring substantive changes to the way in which contracts are drafted and used in Business.
We’re going to cover:
- The current problem with Contracts
- Innovations in Contracts
- Types of Contracts
- Types of Automation
- Class A - D Contracts
- IACCM and what it’s doing
This episode is packed full of information. If you want to up your knowledge of Contracts in fifteen minutes then we’ve got you covered in this episode.
Connect with Rory here:
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/roryunsworth/
Simplifire - https://simplifire.world
Video on Contract Simplification by Rory and Swiss Re - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3HkkHTng3Y
Nerding Out on Procurement with Jonathan M. Townsley
Jonathan is a Procurement Pro who has worked in Procurement for over 20 years covering a bunch of different Procurement Categories and Industries. We deep dive into Jonathan’s career and get his thoughts on the current World of Procurement.
We talk about the skills that Procurement Pros need, the approach hiring managers take in finding new Procurement staff and where the Profession could be going
It’s full of information, wonderful insights and Jonathan has a voice that is made for Podcasts.
Connect with Jonathan here:
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmtownsley/
Inside Nuisance Expenses and Niche Categories with Rich Ham
Rich Ham is the CEO of FINETUNE , a Consultancy based in Chicago that partners with companies to source, negotiate, manage and audit certain “nuisance” expense programmes. Fine Tune operates with three categories in mind: Uniform & Facility Services, Waste Disposal Services and Pest Control. These are three categories that many in Procurement will not have procured previously.
We talk about the concept of Nuisance Expenses, the myth of savings at the sourcing stage and why Procurement Teams should consider outsourcing these categories to ensure they get best in-class Procurement outcomes without any of the issues that arise when procuring these services.
Connect with Rich and FINETUNE here:
Website - https://www.finetuneus.com
Rich Ham - https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-ham-51b38a10/
Being Open About Mental Health and Career Insights from a Procurement Pro with Andy Neilson
Andy Neilson Owner of the Procurement Consultancy, Twisted Orange. After 30+ years working across Procurement in every level, Andy has a wealth of experience to share with the World of Procurement.
In the first part of this conversation, we discuss Andy’s career and what he’s learned over the years. If you want to learn how to improve your Procurement Career then you should certainly listen to this episode.
In the second part of this episode, we talk about Mental Health. Andy has suffered from Mental Health for a long time and was open on his battle with his own Mental Health. Procurement can be a particularly stressful career. We’ve included some links to some recognised mental health charities that can help you should you wish to talk.
Connect with Andy here:
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewneilson1/
Twisted Orange - https://www.twisted-orange.co.uk
If you need help with your mental health these are the places you should go to now:
https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/
https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/
ERP vs P2P v Niche Masterclass with Joël Collin-Demers
Joël is a Procurement Consultant and more importantly…one of the Procurement nerds. Joël is the man behind Pure Procurement, a consultancy that specialises in freeing up your time so you can focus on the strategic work through Procurement Trasnformation and digital transformation.
Joël covers a lot of ground in this weeks’ podcast and I was stuck between a few titles. In essence, this could be called the “idiots Guide to Digital Procurement Transformation” but we’re pretty sure there is a trademark for that somewhere. In essence, Joël breaks down the three categories of Procurement Software solutions, namely ERP, P2P and Niche solutions.
We cover Supplier integration and on-boarding which is an area that is often overlooked. Once you get the solution in place, how do your Suppliers use it? Joël has a thorough understanding of this subject and I will not hesitate in calling him an expert.
You’re going to learn a lot.
Connect with Joël here:
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelcollindemers/
Pure Procurement - https://www.linkedin.com/company/pureprocurement/
Sustainable Procurement Masterclass with Marina Bradford
Marina Bradford is a Procurement and Sustainability Consultant through her company Bemari. Marina, pronounced Mar-een-a has worked across 18 countries and is an expert in Procurement, Sustainability, Risk and how this impacts on social and environmental issues.
Marina delivered a Masterclass on Sustainable Procurement. We talked about the difference between Procurement and Sustainable Procurement, why Sustainability is vital, and how businesses can profit from it and traceability.
Marina has a particular skill in making the complex seem simple. This was one of my personal favourites from all the podcasts I’ve hosted to date.
You can connect with Marina here:
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marinabradford/
bemari - https://www.bemari.co.uk
How to Design Procurement with Total Cost of Ownership in Mind with Louis Bastone
Louis Bastone
Louis Bastone is an Indirect Procurement Pro with a Supply Chain Masters Degree. This is evident in that Louis is an avid reader and consumer of content in this space. He also knows a lot and decided to give us all a lot of value in this episode talking about Total Cost of Ownership.
Total Cost of Ownership is the principle of knowing and ensuring you procure goods/services that include the soft/hard costs of the goods or services. Yet, this is often neglected at the Procurement Stage and manyOrganisations end up paying out large sums of money on repairs, maintenance or additional services as these were not considered or requested.
Louis breaks down Total Cost of Ownership and gives us a practical and useful way of applying it in your day to day work.
Connect with Louis on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/louis-b-0695b749/
Check out the books that Louis recommended:
Purchasing Advantage by Running a World Class Purchasing Organization, by Omid Ghamami .
Buy it here
UK/EU - https://amzn.to/3iF3pC6
World Class Contract Management - The Ultimate Reference Guide for Purchasing, by Omid Ghamami.
Buy it here:
USA - https://amzn.to/2Z1xKTu
UK/EU - https://amzn.to/2ZGIvtB