“ProcureTech100 is the voice of the user. It's the voice of the customer. We want the perspective of those who are using these solutions every day, who have done proof of concepts, and who have seen the ROI.” - Philip Ideson, Co-Founder and Managing Director at Art of Procurement

Today’s procurement leaders are surrounded by tech innovation and disruption, but separating real value from empty hype is more complex than ever. With hundreds of new providers, AI tools, and shifting priorities, staying competitive calls for more than just another list of solutions; it demands objective, peer-driven insights.

This week, Art of Procurement co-founders Philip Ideson and Kelly Barner unpack the acquisition of the ProcureTech100 and Founders’ Circle programs. They explain what sets the ProcureTech100 apart, why practitioner voices matter, and how this new approach will improve visibility, trust, and practical decision-making for procurement teams everywhere.

Tune in for a candid conversation about rethinking technology intelligence, the importance of independence in awards and recommendations, and how community engagement is shaping the next chapter of procurement’s digital story.

In this episode, Philip and Kelly:

• Explain what makes the ProcureTech100 uniquely objective and peer-driven
• Share how practitioner insights inform more valuable tech recommendations
• Reveal new ways leaders and providers can participate or become judges
• Discuss the future direction for digitization advisory, as informed by community data

Links:

• Trust & Transparency: Judging the 2025/26 ProcureTech100
• Art of Procurement Acquires ProcureTech100, ProcureTech100 Yearbook, and Founders' Circle
• Subscribe to This Week in Procurement
• Subscribe to Art of Procurement on YouTube

"Business partnering is what sets apart good procurement teams from great procurement teams, especially in indirect procurement... Those who are good at partnering with the business, they actually are able to excel." - Sasha Sergeev, Director of Technical & Corporate Procurement, Nova Chemicals

Procurement must evolve beyond traditional cost-focused metrics to become true business partners that drive organizational success. The most mature procurement teams understand that delivering exceptional stakeholder support and building embedded relationships creates far more value than savings alone.

In this episode of the Art of Procurement podcast, recorded at the Supply Chain Canada National Conference, procurement transformation leader Sasha Sergeev, Director of Technical & Corporate Procurement at Nova Chemicals, reveals the comprehensive approach his organization used to elevate their indirect procurement team from good to great through strategic business partnering.

Sasha shares practical insights on conducting honest maturity assessments, embedding procurement professionals within business teams, and building stakeholder relationships that separate high-performing procurement organizations from the rest.

Sasha also discusses:

• How to conduct comprehensive procurement maturity assessments using both quantitative benchmarks and qualitative stakeholder feedback
• The critical importance of honest, anonymous feedback in identifying procurement's blind spots and pain points
• Strategies for embedding procurement business partners directly within stakeholder teams and daily operations
• Why in-person engagement accelerates relationship building and trust, though virtual partnering can also be effective
• How to train procurement professionals to balance being helpful business partners while maintaining appropriate governance

Links:

• Sasha Sergeev on LinkedIn
• Subscribe to This Week in Procurement
• Subscribe to Art of Procurement on YouTube

“Savings is completely self-invented and pointless because it's separated from the real P&L."

This assessment from Bayer Chief Procurement Officer Thomas Udesen captures the essence of what may be procurement's most radical transformation in decades.

In this episode of “Buy: The Way...To Purposeful Procurement,” Thomas joins Philip Ideson and Rich Ham to discuss how one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies abandoned traditional procurement metrics entirely, replacing “savings” with six C's that actually drive business outcomes: cost, cash, carbon, community, compliance, and continuity. 

Thomas's approach defies conventional wisdom at every turn. 

At Bayer, every employee can spend up to €50,000 without pre-approval – a level of transactional autonomy that would terrify most procurement organizations. Yet the results speak for themselves: increased responsibility, entrepreneurial thinking, and more strategic spend management decisions driven by transparency rather than control.

The conversation reveals how procurement's obsession with “savings” has become a self-inflicted wound. Stakeholders roll their eyes when procurement leads with savings slides because the metrics mean nothing to them. Instead, Bayer measures real P&L impact through price index benchmarking and spend ratios that directly correlate to competitive performance. 

In this episode, Thomas demonstrates that purposeful procurement isn't just theoretical; it's already happening. His parting challenge: procurement can be “the heartbeat of the change that is coming.”

Links:

• Thomas Udesen on LinkedIn
• Rich Ham on LinkedIn
• Learn more at FineTuneUs.com

"I believe if you can define it, you can source it. And if you can source it, you can auction it." - Adam Collins, Head of Sales, Esker

Procurement teams are navigating unprecedented global disruptions, from tariffs and geopolitical tensions to supply chain instabilities that refuse to settle. 

What if these chaotic conditions actually present procurement's greatest opportunity to demonstrate strategic value?

In this episode, Philip Ideson and Kelly Barner are joined by Adam Collins from Esker to explore how procurement can leverage fundamental strategic sourcing techniques to not just survive but thrive in turbulent market conditions.

Adam’s procurement technology experience is predominantly focused on source-to-contract capabilities that offer practical ways to turn market chaos into competitive advantage.

In this episode, Adam discusses:

• Why transparency with suppliers during market engagement drives better outcomes than secrecy
• The critical importance of being proactive rather than reactive when markets are unstable 
• How to challenge traditional definitions of "addressable spend" and uncover hidden opportunities 
• Strategic approaches to payment timing that support working capital while serving as negotiating levers 
• Why keeping a calm head and making fact-based decisions separates successful procurement teams from the rest

Links:

• Adam Collins on LinkedIn
• Watch: Sourcing Strategically in Chaotic Conditions
• Subscribe to This Week in Procurement
• Subscribe to Art of Procurement on YouTube

There is no template for transformation. You have to build transformation for the organization that you're in. Go and learn as much as you can about the organization and then pivot where you need to.”  - Tanya Roach, Director of Procurement, Federated Co-operatives Limited

Building procurement from scratch is never easy… let alone within a 90-year-old organization, during a pandemic, and with business demands changing faster than ever. Resilient, adaptable team members are the key to overcoming challenges and creating lasting transformation.

In this episode, Tanya Roach, Director of Procurement at Federated Co-operatives Limited, speaks to Philip Ideson at the 2025 Supply Chain Canada National Conference. 

Tanya shares her transformation journey: from assembling a new team during COVID to designing processes with flexibility, and the lessons learned from steady, people-centered change.

In this candid conversation, she details how picking the right talent, using technology as a true enabler, and upskilling for AI set the stage for procurement success in a complex cooperative model. 

Whether you’re leading a transformation or shaping day-to-day change, Tanya’s story offers practical strategies:

• How to build and scale procurement teams amid uncertainty
• Why adaptability, curiosity, and resilience trump job titles in transformation
• How to introduce technology and AI in ways that add lasting value
• The essentials of aligning stakeholders in a distributed organization

Links:

• Tanya Roach on LinkedIn
• Subscribe to This Week in Procurement
• Subscribe to Art of Procurement on YouTube

Halfway through their journey toward purposeful procurement, the co-hosts confront a fundamental question: if procurement drives value in so many ways beyond cost savings, why do incentive structures ignore virtually everything else?

In this episode of "Buy: The Way...To Purposeful Procurement," Philip Ideson, Rich Ham, and Kelly Barner discuss insights from their recent conversations with Martin Chilcott and Paul Polizzotto to explore a troubling pattern: procurement consistently creates value despite their flawed incentive structures, not because of them.

The conversation maps procurement's hidden value drivers… from supplier-enabled innovation that harnesses R&D capabilities many times larger than any single organization, to supplier diversification efforts that identify alternatives but rarely get implemented, to risk mitigation strategies that could free companies from incumbent supplier traps.

The hosts also examine why procurement tends to abandon innovation initiatives precisely when they're most needed, creating self-defeating cycles that damage supplier relationships. Kelly adds a practitioner's perspective into the mix, pointing out the frustration of extensive supplier qualification work that gets shelved due to entrenched decision structures, systematically wasting value creation that never appears on any scorecard.

The episode also sets up the series' next phase: conversations with executives who've successfully broken the mold on traditional incentive structures, proving that purposeful procurement is achievable at any scale.

Links:

• Rich Ham on LinkedIn
• Learn more at FineTuneUs.com

“Deglobalization is a nice soundbite, but the reality is, we need more focus on risk management and mitigation.” – Philip Ideson, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Art of Procurement

Deglobalization is a hot topic right now, but behind the big headlines and boardroom buzzwords, real change is proving to be slow, complicated, and deeply influenced by geopolitics and regulation. 

Are companies really bringing supply chains home, or is the story much more nuanced?

In this episode, Art of Procurement co-hosts Philip Ideson and Kelly Barner get candid on what’s behind deglobalization: from shifting away from China and the reality of “diversifying in name only,” to why risk management and local expertise matter now more than ever. 

They discuss why many global supply strategies often move in cycles, and what procurement leaders can do to shape smarter, more resilient portfolios (despite increasing uncertainty).

In this episode, Philip and Kelly cover:

• How to reframe deglobalization beyond the headlines and signal real risk
• Why China +1 isn’t always the diversification strategy it seems
• The value of local presence in mitigating global risk
• How to connect cost, optionality, and stakeholder alignment for practical deglobalization
• Which supply chain trends are actually moving (and which are just noise)

Links:

• Subscribe to This Week in Procurement
• Subscribe to Art of Procurement 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 think we have hit a tipping point where procurement has become a pretty complicated practice. There's so many options and choices and optimizations with concepts that are just so alien to the typical user." - Jason Kim, Senior Director of Product Management, Coupa

The procurement technology landscape demands solutions that work for both power users and occasional requesters, yet many organizations struggle with platforms that create friction rather than facilitating smooth workflows. Usability isn't just about the user experience. It’s about adoption, compliance, and ultimately the strategic perception of procurement itself.

In this episode, Jason Kim, Senior Director of Product Management at Coupa, explains how AI, integration capabilities, and user interface design are reshaping the procurement experience for everyone from seasoned buyers to infrequent requesters.

Jason shares practical insights on designing systems that eliminate cognitive overhead, the critical importance of transparency in procurement workflows, and how meeting users where they are (rather than forcing them into rigid interfaces) drives better outcomes for procurement organizations.

Jason also discusses:

• How the procurement technology landscape has evolved from suite-based to point solutions and back again over the past decade
• Why successful procurement platforms must meet users in their existing workflows rather than forcing context switches
• The critical difference between designing for power users versus infrequent requesters (and why both matter)
• Why eliminating cognitive overhead is essential for user adoption and spend management compliance
• The evolution from centralized to truly decentralized procurement models enabled by intelligent orchestration

Links:

• Jason Kim on LinkedIn
• Subscribe to This Week in Procurement
• Subscribe to Art of Procurement 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.