The Way We Source – Détails, épisodes et analyse

In this episode, we’re joined by Anna McGovern, CPIM, CSCP - Business & Consulting Partner at Tompkins Ventures, Founder & Managing Director at Pondview Consulting, former CPO at Unilever, and a Supply Chain & Procurement Evangelist helping business to streamline supply chains & procurement, boost efficiency, maximize value, and tapping into supplier networks for innovation and growth.
In this fantastic conversation, Anna and Sam discuss various lessons from her impressive career, the importance of strategic supplier relationships, how to drive procurement together with suppliers, and Procurement’s role within their business in this new era. 

(00:38) - Introducing Anna

(01:18) - What does Sourcing & Procurement mean to Anna?

(02:09) - How did Anna start working in Procurement?

(03:58) - What are the distinguishing factors between Buying and Procurement as a role?

(06:55) - When does Anna think it’s okay or wrong to take bets on supplier-led innovation?

(08:28) - Why should Procurement invest in supplier innovation?

(10:05) - What is the real responsibility of Procurement and how can they shift from a focus on savings to driving revenue?

(14:34) - Does Anna have any experiences with driving direct value through Procurement?

(19:31) - When is a supplier relationship too broken and you need to find a new supplier?

(21:01) - Which is more important: a deep, long-term, strategic supplier relationship or a reliable low-cost supplier?  

(24:46) - What is the importance of storytelling in Procurement & Supply Chain?

(29:32) - What is the role of Procurement to become a supplier’s Customer of Choice and what factors can influence that?

(32:39) - Is beating down on suppliers in cost negotiations a thing of the past?

(35:31) - What is a lesson that Anna would share with someone starting their career in Procurement & Supply Chain?

(38:11) - What’s one thing Anna knows today that she wishes she knew at the start of her Procurement career?

(40:29) - Anna answers Sam’s round of quick-fire questions

In this episode, we’re joined by Rani Al Hajji, start-up advisor and an experienced marketing and brand manager in the FMCG space.

With over 25 years of experience with iconic brands such as L’Oreal, Garnier, Colgate, and Palmolive, Rani joins Sam to share his knowledge about the relationship between sustainability and innovation, and marketing and procurement.

In this fantastic discussion, Rani covers the balance between functionality and sustainability in product innovation, how businesses can drive sustainability across their organization, how important suppliers are for sustainable innovation, and more! 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rani-al-hajji/

(00:37) - Introducing Rani

(01:33) - What does Rani think of as a marketing professional when he hears “sourcing” and “procurement”?

(03:39) - How would Rani break down the chapters of his 25 year career? 

(08:14) - What does Rani view as the three pillars of sustainability and innovation?

(14:08) - Does Rani think that consumers are willing to sacrifice for sustainability?

(16:06) - If we can’t sacrifice functionality for sustainability, how can we best develop sustainable products and bring them to market?

(19:00) -  Are there any instances where businesses can sacrifice functionality for improved sustainability? 

(22:05) - How does Rani define what innovation truly looks like and does he have any good examples of it? 

(25:08) - What are some of the typical pitfalls that Rani has seen in businesses that are trying to innovate?

(28:34) - How can marketing and procurement best collaborate to enhance the value of innovation for the end consumer? 

(33:35) - How do companies take responsibility for sustainability across the organization and how does the relationship between procurement and marketing play into that? 

(37:24) - How can a business create champions for sustainability in their supplier base? 

(39:39) - Rani answers Sam’s quick-fire round of questions

This episode, we’re joined by Alex Evans, a procurement practitioner with a wide range of experience in the aerospace and defense sector – having previous sourced for Boeing, Leonardo, Vertical Aerospace, and Heart Aerospace before joining Elbit Systems UK as their Supply Chain Manager.
Alex discusses his experiences of working at both multinationals and startups, the differences and similarities between Procurement in aerospace vs. other industries, whether Procurement has won the trust of stakeholders, how to build a supplier base from scratch, which SRM tactics are dead or here to stay, and more! 

(00:39) - Introducing Alex

(01:03) - How did Alex start working in Procurement & Sourcing?

(01:50) - What makes Alex stay in Procurement and what does it means to him? 

(02:48) - How is Procurement in the aerospace and defense industry different from Procurement in other industries? 

(03:43) - What’s the biggest difference between working in Procurement for multinationals vs. startups? 

(05:44) - Is it hard for Procurement teams in startups to get things right?

(07:24) - Do multinationals have something to learn from startups?

(09:00) -  Where do you start with building a Procurement team in a startup? 

(12:00) - Does Procurement have playbooks and who should be responsible for creating them? 

(13:47) - Has Procurement won the trust of stakeholders? 

(15:37) - What is some advice that Alex can give for building trust with stakeholders?

(17:11) - Where does one start to build up a new supplier base?

(19:15) - How many suppliers should a Procurement professional have in their back pocket?

 (21:09) - How do you develop a supplier who isn’t delivering up to expectations? 

 (25:18) - What are some of the traditional Supplier Relationship Management tactics that are dead now? 

(26:24) - What are some SRM tactics that are here to stay? 

(28:05) - Alex answers our Kodiak Moment round of quick-fire questions

In this episode, we’re joined by Francesco Bassoli, an accomplished Procurement leader and practitioner with over 20 years of experience, having previously served as the CPO of Alcoa and the VP of Global Procurement at Amcor. 

Francesco discusses how his background in engineering has influenced his career in Procurement, how he’s transitioned to different industries during his Procurement career, his thoughts on how Procurement can drive Sustainability within their organizations, and more! 

(00:38) - Introducing Francesco

(01:36) - What does Sourcing and Procurement mean to Francesco?

(03:32) - Why has Procurement typically been seen as a secondary function within organizations even though it’s so vital? 

(06:10) - Has Francesco’s background as an engineer influenced his work in Procurement? 

(08:44) - How has Francesco taken lessons from each of the different industries that he’s worked in during his Procurement career?

(14:08) - Is it challenging to change industries as a Procurement practitioner? And does Francesco have any advice for doing so? 

(17:57) - What does Francesco think that the mega-trend of “Sustainability” means for Procurement and its practitioners? 

(22:56) - How can businesses practically lay the groundwork for sustainable development throughout their supply chains? 

(27:38) - How can Procurement convince their businesses that Sustainability brings a competitive edge? 

(31:28) - Francesco answers our quick-fire round of questions

In this episode, we’re joined by a household name and thought leader in Procurement – Peter Smith. With over 40 years (or make that 30 years) of experience, Peter has worked with Procurement as a practitioner, professor, Managing Editor of Spend Matters Europe, and author of the books “Bad Buying” and “Procurement with Purpose.” He joins us to discuss how he’s seen Procurement evolve during his career and where it’s going in the future, where Procurement is succeeding and “F’ing up,” how to avoid “Bad Buying,” and more! 

(00:40) - Introducing Peter

(02:25) - What does Procurement & Sourcing mean to Peter?

(04:40) - How has the role of Procurement evolved over Peter’s career and why has it changed? 

(08:36) - What topics does Peter see are most pressing for the next generation of Procurement in university? 

(11:45) - How well is the theory of Sustainable Procurement aligning with the actual practice? 

(12:52) - How do Procurement leaders go beyond just “ticking the boxes” and drive truly Sustainable Procurement?

(16:10) - Where does Peter see businesses succeeding and where are they F’ing up? 

(18:52) - How does Peter think that targets are actually influencing Procurement practitioners? 

(22:26) - How does Peter think that businesses are F’ing up? 

(26:13) - What are some steps that Procurement can take to avoid Bad Buying? 

(30:48) - Peter talks about the importance of investing in Contract Management

(34:20) - Peter answers our quick-fire round of questions 

In this episode, we’re joined by Lukas Wawrla, Co-Founder & Managing Director of Archlet. Lukas tells us about how he stumbled into sourcing & procurement with no prior experience while co-founding his sourcing platform in university, how Archlet broke into the sourcing space and found the success it has today, Lukas’s experience as an unexpected procure tech founder, and his thoughts on what the next trends in procurement and sourcing will be. 

(00:44) - Introducing Lukas

(01:30) - What does sourcing & procurement mean to Lukas?

(02:25) - How did Lukas get started in procurement?

(04:05) - What is the mission of Archlet? 

(05:48) - What is Archlet doing differently from other sourcing solutions so they could break into the space? 

(08:17) - How does Lukas think GenAI will change sourcing? 

(10:55) - Are today’s procurement teams digitally mature enough to adopt and utilize GenAI?

(13:45) - How does Archlet ensure that it delights its customers at every step? 

(16:55) - How does Archlet get over hurdles within user adoption? 

(19:27) - How does Lukas find the right balance between standardization and configuration? 

(21:17) - How will procurement get over the hurdles of adopting standardized new solutions? 

(23:00) - Why did Lukas decide to make Archlet with a more consumerized design? 

(25:40) - Why does Lukas think that founders have difficulty talking about losses? 

(30:23) - What tips does Lukas have for other ProcureTech founders or entrepreneurs? 

(32:44) - Lukas answers Sam’s quick-fire round of questions

This episode, we’re joined by a ProcureTech pioneer - Heiko Schwarz, founder & CEO of riskmethods. Heiko discusses his journey as a ProcureTech founder, how risk management has evolved over the last decade, the next big trends he sees coming in procurement, and more! 

(00:39) - Introducing Heiko

(01:11) - What does Sourcing & Procurement mean to Heiko?

(02:20) - How’s life for Heiko as a ProcureTech pioneer?

(03:47) - What does Heiko think will be the next big talent trends in Procurement? 

(05:58) - What products and solutions did Heiko develop with riskmethods? 

(10:44) - How has Heiko seen Supplier Risk Management grow in his career?
(14:39) - Where is Supplier Risk Management headed next?

(17:10) - Did Heiko ever feel lonely as a founder?

(19:40) - What were the biggest changes that Heiko saw in his business throughout different stages of growth?

(24:11) - What was one of Heiko’s biggest learnings as an entrepreneur?

(27:35) - What was the journey to break into the US market like?

(31:08) - How did riskmethods get their first early-adopter clients in the US?

(33:55) - Heiko answers our quick-fire round of questions 

We’re thrilled to be joined by a household name in the Procurement space, Omer Abdullah - former Principal at A.T. Kearney, co-founder of The Smart Cube, and author of “Risk and Your Supply Chain: Preparing for the Next Global Crisis.” Sam talks to Omer about the changes he’s seen in Procurement in his 30-year career, the adoption of ProcureTech solutions and how it will transform teams in the future, whether the hype around GenAI is justified, and more! 

Timestamps:

(00:40) - Introducing Omer

(01:25) - What does Sourcing & Procurement mean to Omer?

(02:50) - What made Omer decide to work in Procurement?

(04:16) - What is “high performance intelligence” for Procurement in 2023?

(06:50) - Where does Omer think that Procurement teams are lacking intelligence? 

(09:20) - What does Omer think about the hype around GenAI in Procurement?

(12:31) - What Procurement roles will be most affected by GenAI?

(16:11) - What does the effects of technology on Procurement teams mean for ProcureTech vendors? 

(19:17) - Is the future of ProcureTech adoption bottom-up? 

(23:00) - Is the average Procurement team ready for the adoption of cutting-edge ProcureTech or is it still only for the digital natives?

(24:00) - Why is Procurement talking about GenAI so much if most teams aren’t ready to adopt it? 

(25:55) - How do we avoid leaving people behind with the adoption of ProcureTech? 

(27:55) - What’s one think Omer knows now that he wishes he knew at the beginning of his career?

(30:53) - Omer answers our quick-fire round of questions

This week, we’re joined by Fredrik Taube, Head of Procurement at Söderberg & Partners and former Head of Sourcing for Ericsson. Fredrik discusses how he began his career in Sales at Ericsson before transitioning to Procurement and leading Ericsson’s global Sourcing team. He shares some lessons that he’s learned from having sat on both sides of the table to develop a 360-Degree Procurement Mindset and his experience with building a Procurement organization from scratch. 

Timestamps:

(01:24) - What does Sourcing & Procurement mean for Fredrik?

(02:08) - How did Fredrik end up working in Procurement?

(02:54) - Fredrik talks about his current procurement role at Söderberg & Partners

(03:50) - What lessons from Fredrik’s career has he taken into his work today? 

(05:31) - What are the most important tools for a Procurement professional to successfully transition into a new organization? 

(06:41) - What can Procurement learn from Sales, and vice-versa? 

(07:55) - How can Procurement & Sales improve their understanding of each other’s perspectives and needs? 

(09:18) - How has Fredrik seen an evolution in Buyer-Supplier relationships during his career?

(12:47) - What was the most challenging aspect of transitioning to Fredrik’s current position? 

(16:45) - What advice does Fredrik have for someone with the opportunity to build up a new Procurement org? 

(20:00) - How does talent recruitment differ between different types of Procurement teams? 

(21:26) - How does Fredrik assure that he stays current and up-to-date throughout his career? 

(23:59) - What does Fredrik see his Procurement peers doing right and wrong? 

(26:10) - What tips does Fredrik have for staying close to the pulse of a business operationally? 

(27:10) - What else are Procurement teams getting right today? 

(28:40) - What is something that Fredrik knows today that he wishes he knew at the beginning of his career? 

(30:59) - Fredrik answers our round of quick-fire questions

Christian Paul is an expert in game theory and Geschäftsführer (or “Managing Director”) of nnamu, the German ProcureTech solution that utilises game theory algorithms to improve sourcing strategies and negotiations.

He joins us to discuss his journey from Procurement consultant to startup founder, how nnamu helps its clients, and what Procurement teams can learn from game theory in their strategies and negotiations.

Timestamps:

(01:30) — What does Sourcing & Procurement mean to Christian?

(03:18) — What are Christian and nnamu trying to achieve in Procurement?

(05:01) — How is nnamu different from Procurement solutions of the past?

(06:46) — What is game theory and how does nnamu use it within Procurement?

(09:56) — What does winning look like within Procurement?

(12:31) — Does the current level of maturity in Procurement match nnamu’s offerings and the use of game theory?

(14:45) — What type of businesses are mature enough to use game theory in Procurement?

(16:04) — What’s the reason behind the name “nnamu”?

(18:40) — What made Christian leave consulting to launch his own venture?

(21:06) — How did Christian end up working in Procurement?

(24:01) — Does Christian ever get lonely as a founder?

(29:08) — What are Christian’s tips for other ProcureTech founders?

(33:05) — What does Christian wish that he knew at the beginning of his career?

(36:00) — Kodiak Moment: Christian answers our quick-fire round of questions