Procurement has to have equally effective technical capabilities and relationships building skills, but the business needs to meet them halfway. If both sides can connect in a place of mutual trust and mutual gain, the possibilities are limitless. If, however, there is no trust, there will always be a gap between what the business wants and what procurement can do for them.

In this episode of The Sourcing Hero podcast, Host Kelly Barner welcomes Cedric Watlington. Cedric is an experienced procurement and sourcing manager with a specialization in technology spend. He is proud to be a continuous learner with an extreme ownership mindset and an operational problem solver. His proven track record of sourcing results includes creating value in the form of savings and supplier innovation.

In this conversation, Cedric shares his perspective on how procurement and the business can both take steps to improve their relationship on behalf of the business:

His approach to building a procurement-business partnership

Whether the “constructive feedback” procurement often receives from the business is deserved and how we can improve their perception

The role of company culture in procurement’s approaches and relationships

How the business could make it easier for procurement to support them