Welcome to Procurement Pulse, where we delve into the heartbeat of supply chain and procurement innovation. Hosted by Friddy, Founder of SCOPE Recruiting, this podcast brings you insider insights, expert interviews, and success stories from industry leaders like Google and Cisco. Explore the latest trends in centralized procurement, learn how to attract top talent, and discover strategies to optimize your operations. Whether you’re in procurement, supply chain, or talent management, Procurement Pulse is your essential guide to staying ahead in a rapidly evolving industry.
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How to Find Suppliers Alibaba Will Never Show You with Customs Data
Season 1 · Episode 7
Wednesday, April 8, 2026 • Duration 04:25
90% of Alibaba's revenue comes from supplier advertising fees. That means page one rankings are heavily influenced by who paid the most, not just who's best for your product.
Most procurement teams contact 3 to 5 suppliers before making a decision. Not because that's enough because contacting more is too time-consuming. But better pricing and better quality might be sitting with supplier #47.
Ricky Ho, Co-founder of SourceReady, explains how AI changes sourcing. His platform has indexed 1.4M suppliers using customs data from 80 countries, including factories with no website or online presence. Instead of manually messaging 5 suppliers, their AI contacts 50 or 100 simultaneously, collects responses, and ranks suppliers by match quality rather than ad spend.
What We Discuss:
00:00 Why Alibaba's page one is dominated by who paid most
01:59 How to find 1.4 million suppliers invisible on directories
03:55 The AI tool that contacts 100 suppliers automatically
About Procurement Pulse: Real conversations with supply chain and procurement professionals who've been on both sides—building teams, solving problems, and staying ahead of what's coming next.
About SCOPE Recruiting: SCOPE Recruiting is a boutique supply chain recruiting firm where every recruiter is a former supply chain professional. Co-founders Friddy and Melissa, both ex-ABB global category managers, built the company after seeing how many “generalist” recruiters didn’t truly understand supply chain, procurement, or logistics roles.
By hiring professionals first and teaching them recruiting second, SCOPE delivers better matches, higher retention rates, and faster hiring results across manufacturing, procurement, logistics, and supply chain leadership.
If you're building a supply chain team and the usual recruiting approach isn't working, check out scoperecruiting.com.
What Is ‘Reverse Recruiting' and Why It’s Growing Now?
Season 1 · Episode 8
Tuesday, March 24, 2026 • Duration 31:57
Hundreds of applications. Zero callbacks. That's the reality for a lot of senior professionals right now. And it's not because they're underqualified.
The job market has quietly shifted. More competition, more AI-generated resumes flooding the same roles, and a hiring system that was built to process candidates, not advocate for them. Something had to give.
So what does it look like when the entire model gets flipped on its head?
In this episode of Procurement Pulse, Friddy sits down with Adam Feinberg, founder of My Personal Recruiter, to unpack what reverse recruiting actually is, why it's gaining traction right now, and what it reveals about the state of hiring in 2026.
Friddy and Adam get into how the traditional recruiting model has always served the employer and left job seekers to navigate a system stacked against them. They also tackle the AI question nobody is asking out loud: as more candidates use AI to bulk-apply and auto-generate resumes, does any of it even matter anymore? And if everyone looks great on paper, what actually separates the people who get hired?
Friddy also makes a prediction about where AI in recruiting is ultimately headed that stopped Adam in his tracks.
What We Discuss:
00:00 What reverse recruiting is and why it didn't exist before
03:03 How the job search actually works when someone else is running it for you
06:11 Who the job market is hardest on right now and why
10:08 The AI resume arms race and why it may be backfiring on candidates
14:53 Friddy's counterintuitive prediction: AI will matter less, not more
23:38 What happens to entry-level jobs and the leaders who were supposed to come from them
30:32 Where the job market goes from here
Interested in My Personal Recruiter? Use code SCOPE10 for 10% off.
How to 10x Your Sourcing Speed by Ditching Directories Built on Hidden Commissions
Season 1 · Episode 7
Tuesday, March 17, 2026 • Duration 04:41
You contact 5 suppliers. Maybe 10. You pick one. Done.
But what if the best supplier for your product was never even on your list?
That's not bad luck. That's how the old system was designed. Gatekeepers with "books of vendors" who steered you toward whoever paid them the highest commission, not who was best for you.
In this clip from Procurement Pulse, Ricky Ho, Co-founder, SourceReady, explains why sourcing without AI is fundamentally a luck game, and how the old purchasing agent model in Asia created hidden conflicts of interest that buyers are still dealing with today.
What's covered:
00:00 The purchasing agent model: gatekeepers, hidden commissions, and who really won
01:22 Why sourcing without AI means you're probably missing better suppliers
01: 58 How AI can vet 1,000 factories in minutes (what takes humans weeks)
About Procurement Pulse: Real conversations with supply chain and procurement professionals who've been on both sides—building teams, solving problems, and staying ahead of what's coming next.
About SCOPE Recruiting: SCOPE Recruiting is a boutique supply chain recruiting firm where every recruiter is a former supply chain professional. Co-founders Friddy and Melissa, both ex-ABB global category managers, built the company after seeing how many “generalist” recruiters didn’t truly understand supply chain, procurement, or logistics roles.
The Unicorn Problem: Everyone Wants One, Nobody Develops One
Season 1 · Episode 5
Tuesday, February 24, 2026 • Duration 04:33
Are you hiring for today or for 24 months from now?
In this episode, Darryl Fitzpatrick, CRO of Intellek, challenges the "plug-and-play" hiring mindset that's dominating procurement and supply chain recruiting right now.
His point: Everyone's chasing unicorns - ready-made experts who can hit the ground running on day one. But what happens when you hire someone without a development plan, clear milestones, or learning infrastructure in place?
You're not just setting them up to struggle. You're telling top talent that you haven't thought beyond their first 90 days.
The companies winning the talent war aren't just offering better comp packages. They're showing candidates a defined career path, meaningful metrics, and proof that people succeed there. That's what keeps unicorns from walking out the door six months in.
If you expect results in 6, 12, 24 months, you need to invest in getting people there, not just hope they figure it out.
Ep 7: Why Sourcing Is a Luck Game and How AI Is Finally Changing That
Season 1 · Episode 7
Tuesday, February 17, 2026 • Duration 36:19
You search for a supplier, contact the top five, pick one, and move on. But what if the absolute best manufacturer for your product never showed up on page one—and never will?
Most buyers rely on popular directories like Alibaba, assuming the top search results represent the highest quality.
In reality, visibility on many major sourcing platforms is heavily driven by advertising revenue, meaning the first page often showcases the biggest marketing budgets, not necessarily the best capabilities.
The secret to finding the actual top-tier factories isn't better keyword searches. It's looking beyond the standard pay-to-play directories at the one thing suppliers can't fake: objective, publicly available data.
In this episode of Procurement Pulse, host and SCOPE Recruiting Co-Founder Friddy Hoegener sits down with Ricky Ho, Co-founder and CEO of SourceReady.
Ricky has built an AI-powered discovery platform that indexes 1.4 million supplier profiles across 80 countries, specifically targeting the world-class factories that don't rely on advertising to be found.
What We Discuss:
00:00 Why this founder left a thriving company to fix sourcing
00:47 The broken system behind how most companies find suppliers
03:50 What AI is actually good at (and what it will never replace)
09:49 Why the best suppliers are invisible and how to find them
14:49 How Source Ready stays bias-free (and why that changes everything)
17:57 AI is flooding suppliers with inquiries — here's what happens next
22:48 The signals AI catches that humans miss and vice versa
28:42 The death of the entry-level role as we know it
Why So Many Companies Have an LMS No One Uses
Season 1 · Episode 5
Monday, February 9, 2026 • Duration 04:33
When your team asks for development tools and you say "we're not ready,” what are you really saying no to?
In this episode, Darryl Fitzpatrick, CRO of Intellek, calls out the uncomfortable truth: "We're not ready for learning technology" actually means "We're not ready to invest in our people."
His take? Companies that said they weren't ready for AI 3 years ago are struggling now. The ones who committed early are thriving.
The tech is easy. It's cloud-based, simple to adopt. What's hard is admitting that without ongoing development, you're setting your team up to fail in a world that's evolving faster than ever.
So the real question: Are you building a team for today, or for what's coming?
What we discuss:
00:00 The Readiness for Technology Adoption
02:55 The Importance of Continuous Learning and Development
04:08 Challenges with Outdated Learning Management Systems
About Procurement Pulse: Real conversations with supply chain and procurement professionals who've been on both sides—building teams, solving problems, and staying ahead of what's coming next.
Episode 6: Why Supply Chain Will Always Be Undervalued Without Better Storytelling
Season 1 · Episode 3
Tuesday, January 20, 2026 • Duration 37:10
Supply chain isn't just about moving boxes. It’s about the human experience.
For too long, our industry has been viewed as a back-office utility. A cost center that simply "makes things happen."
But as Patrick Van Hull, Supply Chain Storyteller & Strategist, explains in this week’s episode, the leaders who win in 2026 aren't just the ones with the best data. They are the ones who can tell the best story about that data.
What We Discuss:
00:00 What it means to be a "supply chain storyteller"
02:11 The pivot table mistake that shut down a mining company
05:02 Why supply chain gets blamed but never gets credit
07:48 "Do good and talk about it" — earning your seat at the table
10:29 When supply chain isn't in the room from day one
12:57 AI hype vs. AI reality in daily operations
15:49 One AI platform or ten disconnected solutions?
18:33 Automating the work that burns people out
21:27 Entry-level roles nobody knows how to define yet
23:47 The new essential skills: Prompting AI and storytelling
Episode 5: Why Companies Struggle to Grow Talent (And How to Fix It)
Season 1 · Episode 5
Tuesday, November 25, 2025 • Duration 23:44
You hire great people. But three months in, they're struggling. Not because they lack talent because nobody showed them how to succeed in your specific environment.
1,800 learning management systems exist in the market. Most companies either don't have one, use an outdated "Stone Age" system, or have a platform that nobody touches after onboarding.
But here's what changed: AI emerged in 18 months and reshaped every job description. The skills your team had last year aren't enough today. And the "just hire ready-made talent" strategy isn't sustainable when unicorns are rare and expensive.
In this episode, Darryl Fitzpatrick, CRO of Intellek, breaks down why L&D infrastructure isn't just an HR nice-to-have, it's a competitive advantage for talent attraction, retention, and performance.
00:00 Introduction
00:28 What is an LMS and how do companies actually use them?
01:29 Why LMS engagement drops after week two
03:22 Why 300-person companies still don't have learning platforms
05:12 When your LMS is built on old HTML and nobody uses it
07:45 What separates Intellek from 1,800 other LMS platforms
09:24 "We're not ready for new software": What companies are actually saying no to
11:30 Why hiring only experts limits your growth
14:03 First impressions matter: How LMS impacts company culture and retention
18:09 The future of L&D: Alignment, AI, and building unicorns internally
AI vs. Supply Chain Talent: Who Wins and What’s Next?
Season 1 · Episode 1
Thursday, November 13, 2025 • Duration 05:53
"Will AI take my job?"
Every supply chain professional is asking this question. But you're asking the wrong thing.
The real question isn't whether AI will replace you, but it's whether you'll learn to use it before someone else does.
AI isn't coming for entry-level jobs first. It's transforming how businesses build systems, make decisions, and compete. And the companies still clinging to SAP implementations and legacy ERP systems? They're about to get steamrolled by mid-sized competitors building custom solutions in weeks instead of years.
In this episode of Procurement Pulse, host and SCOPE Recruiting Co-Founder Friddy Hoegener sits down with David Heacock, Founder and CEO of Filterbuy, who's used custom-built ERP systems and AI-powered development teams to unlock competitive advantages that enterprise software could never deliver.
They discuss why "AI will take your job" is the wrong fear (and what you should actually worry about), how a development team is now shipping code 3-5x faster than two years ago, and why small and mid-sized businesses finally have a weapon against enterprise competitors.
What We Discuss:
00:00 The AI job question everyone gets wrong
02:07 How AI 3x'd development team productivity
02:50 Why custom ERP beats SAP (even for smaller companies)
04:04 The legacy system trap: Making systems work vs. building what works
05:00 Small business advantage: Agility over enterprise bureaucracy
If You Don’t Know What You’re Selling, You’re Already Wasting Money
Season 1 · Episode 4
Tuesday, November 4, 2025 • Duration 08:57
Most companies fail at Lean because the people designing the process aren’t the ones living it every day.
Jared Paget, VP of Operations at ClearOne, explains how giving a voice to the people closest to the work leads to better decisions, smarter production, and a stronger culture.
What We Discuss:
00:00 Why you can't just build products and hope someone buys them — the S&OP foundation
01:32 Tying sales team compensation to forecast accuracy (and why it worked)
03:53 Every moment on the shelf is waste — the three types of waste to eliminate
04:09 The "most infant state" rule: Why customizing too early kills flexibility
05:26 The operator buy-in secret: Don't ask about efficiency, ask about ease
About Procurement Pulse: Real conversations with supply chain and procurement professionals who've been on both sides—building teams, solving problems, and staying ahead of what's coming next.
About SCOPE Recruiting: SCOPE Recruiting is a boutique supply chain recruiting firm where every recruiter is a former supply chain professional. Co-founders Friddy and Melissa, both ex-ABB global category managers, built the company after seeing how many “generalist” recruiters didn’t truly understand supply chain, procurement, or logistics roles.
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About Procurement Pulse: Real conversations with supply chain and procurement professionals who've been on both sides—building teams, solving problems, and staying ahead of what's coming next.
About SCOPE Recruiting: SCOPE Recruiting is a boutique supply chain recruiting firm where every recruiter is a former supply chain professional. Co-founders Friddy and Melissa, both ex-ABB global category managers, built the company after seeing how many “generalist” recruiters didn’t truly understand supply chain, procurement, or logistics roles.
By hiring professionals first and teaching them recruiting second, SCOPE delivers better matches, higher retention rates, and faster hiring results across manufacturing, procurement, logistics, and supply chain leadership.
If you're building a supply chain team and the usual recruiting approach isn't working, check out scoperecruiting.com.
By hiring professionals first and teaching them recruiting second, SCOPE delivers better matches, higher retention rates, and faster hiring results across manufacturing, procurement, logistics, and supply chain leadership.
If you're building a supply chain team and the usual recruiting approach isn't working, check out scoperecruiting.com.
About Procurement Pulse: Real conversations with supply chain and procurement professionals who've been on both sides—building teams, solving problems, and staying ahead of what's coming next.
About SCOPE Recruiting: SCOPE Recruiting is a boutique supply chain recruiting firm where every recruiter is a former supply chain professional. Co-founders Friddy and Melissa, both ex-ABB global category managers, built the company after seeing how many “generalist” recruiters didn’t truly understand supply chain, procurement, or logistics roles.
By hiring professionals first and teaching them recruiting second, SCOPE delivers better matches, higher retention rates, and faster hiring results across manufacturing, procurement, logistics, and supply chain leadership.
If you're building a supply chain team and the usual recruiting approach isn't working, check out scoperecruiting.com.
About Procurement Pulse: Real conversations with supply chain and procurement professionals who've been on both sides—building teams, solving problems, and staying ahead of what's coming next.
About SCOPE Recruiting: SCOPE Recruiting is a boutique supply chain recruiting firm where every recruiter is a former supply chain professional. Co-founders Friddy and Melissa, both ex-ABB global category managers, built the company after seeing how many “generalist” recruiters didn’t truly understand supply chain, procurement, or logistics roles.
By hiring professionals first and teaching them recruiting second, SCOPE delivers better matches, higher retention rates, and faster hiring results across manufacturing, procurement, logistics, and supply chain leadership.
If you're building a supply chain team and the usual recruiting approach isn't working, check out www.scoperecruiting.com.
About SCOPE Recruiting: SCOPE Recruiting is a boutique supply chain recruiting firm where every recruiter is a former supply chain professional. Co-founders Friddy and Melissa, both ex-ABB global category managers, built the company after seeing how many “generalist” recruiters didn’t truly understand supply chain, procurement, or logistics roles.
By hiring professionals first and teaching them recruiting second, SCOPE delivers better matches, higher retention rates, and faster hiring results across manufacturing, procurement, logistics, and supply chain leadership.
If you're building a supply chain team and the usual recruiting approach isn't working, check out scoperecruiting.com.
About Procurement Pulse: Real conversations with supply chain and procurement professionals who've been on both sides—building teams, solving problems, and staying ahead of what's coming next.
About SCOPE Recruiting: SCOPE Recruiting is a boutique supply chain recruiting firm where every recruiter is a former supply chain professional. Co-founders Friddy and Melissa, both ex-ABB global category managers, built the company after seeing how many “generalist” recruiters didn’t truly understand supply chain, procurement, or logistics roles.
By hiring professionals first and teaching them recruiting second, SCOPE delivers better matches, higher retention rates, and faster hiring results across manufacturing, procurement, logistics, and supply chain leadership.
If you're building a supply chain team and the usual recruiting approach isn't working, check out scoperecruiting.com.
About Procurement Pulse: Real conversations with supply chain and procurement professionals who've been on both sides—building teams, solving problems, and staying ahead of what's coming next.
About SCOPE Recruiting: SCOPE Recruiting is a boutique supply chain recruiting firm where every recruiter is a former supply chain professional. Co-founders Friddy and Melissa, both ex-ABB global category managers, built the company after seeing how many “generalist” recruiters didn’t truly understand supply chain, procurement, or logistics roles.
By hiring professionals first and teaching them recruiting second, SCOPE delivers better matches, higher retention rates, and faster hiring results across manufacturing, procurement, logistics, and supply chain leadership.
If you're building a supply chain team and the usual recruiting approach isn't working, check out scoperecruiting.com.
About Procurement Pulse: Real conversations with supply chain and procurement professionals who've been on both sides—building teams, solving problems, and staying ahead of what's coming next.
About SCOPE Recruiting: Every recruiter at SCOPE is a former supply chain professional. Freddy and Melissa, both former ABB global category managers, started the company because they were tired of recruiters who didn't understand the roles they were filling. The result? Better matches, higher retention rates, and fewer headaches for everyone involved.
If you're building a supply chain team and the usual recruiting approach isn't working, check out scoperecruiting.com.
By hiring professionals first and teaching them recruiting second, SCOPE delivers better matches, higher retention rates, and faster hiring results across manufacturing, procurement, logistics, and supply chain leadership. If you're building a supply chain team and the usual recruiting approach isn't working, check out scoperecruiting.com.
