“When you have the ability to connect data and collaborate with teams, that collective intelligence you’re able to surface at different places is what causes generational change.” - Shachi Rai Gupta, Vice President of Strategy at ORO Labs

Procurement is in the midst of a transformational shift when it comes to technology and data, and many teams are now looking to procurement orchestration to unify their processes, improve spend and risk management, and position themselves as innovative and strategic leaders in the business.

In early 2024, Art of Procurement and ORO Labs partnered to conduct a study into the factors that are making procurement orchestration a top area of focus. The study also made it possible to gain a better understanding of how teams can use strategic orchestration to increase their visibility, effectiveness, and influence.

In this episode, Shachi Rai Gupta, Vice President of Strategy at ORO Labs, and Martin Ward, Digital Procurement Transformation at Roche, discuss the results of the survey and key insights learned about procurement orchestration, including:

• The observations we can make about procurement organizations that consider strategic orchestration a top priority
• Why nearly half of procurement teams have low or very low real-time visibility into ongoing activities, and how that limits their impact
• The correlation between increased automation and how easy the rest of the business feels it is to work with procurement
  

Links:

• Martin Ward on LinkedIn
• Shachi Rai Gupta on LinkedIn
• Watch Again: Seismic Shifts: Harnessing the Power of Procurement Orchestration
• Download the Research Report: Procurement’s Orchestration Readiness
• Subscribe to This Week in Procurement
• Subscribe to AOP on YouTube

Procurement 6 is a short podcast from Art of Procurement that publishes in the Art of Procurement feed every Friday morning at 6am US Eastern Time.

Presented by a member of the Art of Procurement team, each episode has 6 short segments that summarize the week in procurement.

Segments range from procurement tips to podcast summaries, from details of events to news or overviews of blog posts that capture our attention.

“I’m madly passionate about procurement because I think it’s a hidden gem of the corporate world, and it’s a magical field for problem solvers.” - Natasha Gurevich, Founder and CEO of Candor Procurement

Natasha Gurevich, Founder and CEO of Candor Procurement, has a long track record of procurement leadership under her belt. Most recently, she was the first Chief Procurement Officer at Nike, and, before that, VP of Global Procurement at Salesforce. She has also enjoyed procurement leadership roles at McKesson, Paypal, Gap, and Visa.

In this episode, Philip Ideson talks with Natasha about her journey to becoming one of procurement’s most well-known change agents and how her decades of experience in leadership roles have shaped her approach to driving change at scale.

Natasha shares her perspectives on:

• How to create change without causing too much disruption, fear, or resistance
• Adopting a specific, repeatable methodology to change in order to balance wider business goals with individual needs and concerns
• The ways procurement needs to evolve and improve, starting with a recognition that category management will be the #1 driving factor for success in the future

Links:

• Natasha Gurevich on LinkedIn
• Subscribe to This Week in Procurement
• Subscribe to the AOP YouTube channel

Procurement 6 is a short podcast from Art of Procurement that publishes in the Art of Procurement feed every Friday morning at 6am US Eastern Time.

Presented by a member of the Art of Procurement team, each episode has 6 short segments that summarize the week in procurement.

Segments range from procurement tips to podcast summaries, from details of events to news or overviews of blog posts that capture our attention.

“Procurement is at the point where they’re trying to figure out next steps on digitization, and it will be an immediate priority for everyone in the next couple of years.” - Gordon Donovan, Vice President of Research - Procurement and External Workforce at SAP

It is Gordon Donovan’s job to read every single piece of research that’s published on procurement, the workforce, and the supply chain. More importantly, it is his job to figure out what it means. As he told Philip Ideson, “I’ve got the best job in the world.”

All of this information gives Gordon a deep and comprehensive view of the global procurement landscape and the challenges and opportunities that it presents.

In this episode, Philip draws on Gordon’s depth of knowledge to discuss the findings of SAP’s recently published Economist Impact report, as well as what the research tells us about procurement’s vision, priorities, and opportunities for the future.

Listen in to hear Gordon and Phil discuss the report, which included some surprising findings, as well as:

• Why digitization tops the list of procurement’s most important priorities
• How procurement can handle increased complexity and workloads, even as headcounts remain stagnant
• Procurement’s AI maturity journey and where they are on the path to acceptance and adoption compared to other business functions

Links:

• Subscribe to This Week in Procurement
• Gordon Donovan on LinkedIn
• Read the 2024 Sap Economist Impact Report
• Listen to Gordon Donovan in a previous episode: From C-Suite Priority to Procurement
• Unpacking SAP’s 2024 Economist Impact Report
• Strategy: Managing Risk at Scale

Procurement 6 is a short podcast from Art of Procurement that publishes in the Art of Procurement feed every Friday morning at 6am US Eastern Time.

Presented by a member of the Art of Procurement team, each episode has 6 short segments that summarize the week in procurement.

Segments range from procurement tips to podcast summaries, from details of events to news or overviews of blog posts that capture our attention.

“Everyone has an opinion about facility services in your buildings, so you're always trying to accommodate multiple stakeholders and juggle multiple departments.” - Alex Carlson, VP of Facilities Management Services at Fine Tune

In the world of indirect spend management, there are few categories as complex - and high stakes - as facilities management. Delivery locations and sometimes provider networks are distributed and fragmented, making selection, implementation, and ongoing oversight especially difficult.

It is no wonder, then, that so many companies are tempted over to “the dark side” of convenience-based solutions in this category. Unfortunately, allowing third parties to manage the delivery of services may also give them more control over cost than procurement realizes.

In this episode, Kelly Barner is joined by Alex Carlson, former Vice President of Category Management within Wells Fargo’s Corporate Properties division and new VP of Facilities Management Services at Fine Tune.

His experience and advice can help your organization avoid “the dark side” and instead walk towards the many opportunities for value creation associated with this category of spend.

Listen in to learn:

• The benefits of managing costs as well as services through a cost plus model
• How to navigate the transition from service provider to client
• Unique facilities management challenges in C-store, big box retail, and office environments
• In depth category perspectives and stories of managed services survival

Links:

• Subscribe to This Week in Procurement
• Alex Carlson on LinkedIn
• Watch Again: Why is facilities management so complex?

Procurement 6 is a short podcast from Art of Procurement that publishes in the Art of Procurement feed every Friday morning at 6am US Eastern Time.

Presented by a member of the Art of Procurement team, each episode has 6 short segments that summarize the week in procurement.

Segments range from procurement tips to podcast summaries, from details of events to news or overviews of blog posts that capture our attention.