Love Procurement: The Podcast

The long-running debate between procurement generalists and category specialists is taking a new turn. Technology is leveling the playing field on market intelligence just as many seasoned category experts retire, and procurement's value increasingly depends on communication, stakeholder influence, and the ability to put data to work.

The leaders handling this moment best are redesigning their operating models from scratch and investing in the people who are willing to learn.

In this episode of the #LoveProcurement podcast host Kelly Barner welcomes James Meads to the show. James is a procurement technology go-to-market advisor specializing in buyer-centric positioning, sales effectiveness, and funnel conversion.

James shares his perspective on how technology is reshaping procurement talent, stakeholder relationships, and the CPO's role:

• Why deep category expertise is becoming less of a differentiator for procurement teams, even in direct spend
• How stakeholder management changes when category expertise resides primarily in the business
• Where CPOs should start when redesigning their operating model, including why willingness to learn matters more than tech savvy

Links: James Meads on LinkedIn

AI experimentation is giving way to a much harder question for procurement: how do you turn all that potential into measurable business value? That challenge is especially pronounced in the public sector and in other regulated environments, where data residency, security, compliance, and governance can determine which AI use cases are viable in the first place.

Progress requires more than adopting new technology; it means establishing the right data foundations, balancing governance with usability, and approaching implementation as a broader business transformation.

In this episode of the #LoveProcurement podcast host Kelly Barner welcomes Sunny Kharkar to the show. Sunny is a Partner at KPMG Canada, focused on Supply Chain & Procurement Solutions and Procurement Transformation.

Listen in to hear Sunny speak about:

• The gap between AI ambition and meaningful readiness
• Why having a centralized view or "control tower" matters when organizations start thinking about AI
• How procurement leaders can avoid treating AI as a set of isolated experiments instead of part of a broader transformation

Links: Sunny Kharkar on LinkedIn

Rapid advances in technology, geopolitical volatility, and constant business disruption make it impossible for procurement to have every answer, and pretending otherwise can undermine credibility.

The strongest communicators take a different approach, combining humility and authenticity with the ability to make complex ideas human, memorable, and relevant to their audience. Effective communication isn't about commanding the room; it's about listening closely, knowing when to say less, and helping people understand why the work matters.

In this episode of the #LoveProcurement podcast host Kelly Barner welcomes Neil Perry to the show. Neil is Content Director at Outlook Publishing, as well as an experienced moderator, voice coach, journalist and broadcaster.

Neil shares what he has learned from many years of public speaking, interviews, and facilitation:

• Why communication skills are so critical for procurement leaders
• The role that active listening plans in effective communication
• How to project influence through communication style as well as substance

Links: Neil Perry on LinkedIn

Savings will never be unimportant to procurement, but procurement can easily damage their credibility if they selectively report savings without accounting for the full movement of costs, including increases, market conditions, and the baseline against which their performance is being judged.

In other words, procurement should stop defining their value in terms of savings and start building credibility through the transparent measurement of costs, business outcomes, and supplier performance.

In this episode of the #LoveProcurement podcast host Kelly Barner welcomes Roberto Fabris to the show. Roberto is the Founder and Managing Director of We Procure International, a procurement advisory firm focused on industrial companies across Italy, the UK, and France.

Roberto shares a number of well-considered perspectives on the role that savings play in procurement's priorities and performance:

• What can go wrong when procurement claims savings without establishing a clear market or price baseline
• The larger conversations (and agreements) that procurement and finance need to have in order to validate savings delivery at the project level
• What procurement credibility looks like at the C-suite level, and how it enters into conversations with suppliers

Links: Roberto Fabris on LinkedIn

Modern procurement calls for a team that can combine world-class functional expertise with judgment, curiosity, communication skills, and the ability to build trust across the business. As a result, CPOs should spend less time directing transactions and more time understanding business priorities, bringing the outside world in, and empowering talented teams to turn data and insight into confident decisions.

In this episode of the #LoveProcurement podcast host Kelly Barner welcomes Hiten Parmar to the show. Hiten is the Chief Procurement Officer at Beazley, a global specialty insurance company. He has held leadership roles across banking, pharmaceuticals, consulting, and technology, and has worked in legacy procurement environments as well as 'blank page' ones.

Hiten shares his perspective on leadership and cultivating procurement talent:

• The skills and capabilities he prioritized when building his current team from scratch
• How connecting procurement with overall business objectives allows the team to contribute far beyond cost and efficiency
• How building a 'sophisticated-skills-first' procurement team changed what is required of him as the CPO

Links: Hiten Parmar on LinkedIn

Despite the hype about AI, procurement must still take a pragmatic approach to transformation that includes a focus on governance, processes, and day-to-day execution. Rather than treating AI as a destination, it is the next step in a longer maturity journey, one where technology must earn its place by delivering clear, measurable value and making procurement professionals more effective.

In this episode of the #LoveProcurement podcast host Stephen Carter welcomes Callum Jolly to the show. Callum is the Head of Strategic Supplier and Commercial Management at Smart DCC, a company that runs a secure network to allow smart meters across Great Britain to communicate with energy companies.

Callum shares his perspective on the operational foundations that make procurement transformation and AI adoption sustainable:

• His 'earn the right' philosophy and how it has shaped his procurement journey
• The approach he has taken to evaluating, adopting, and scaling AI
• How the challenge of working in a regulated industry plays out in his priorities

Links:

Callum Jolly on LinkedIn

Stephen Carter on LinkedIn

Agentic AI is rapidly moving beyond the narrow, task-specific agent model to become a single, dynamic capability that can specialize on the fly rather than requiring a new agent for every new problem.

In order to take advantage of this new agentic framework, procurement will need to consider "governed autonomy," human accountability, data privacy, and the role expertise will play in making agentic operating models smarter over time.

In this episode of the #LoveProcurement podcast host Kelly Barner welcomes Paul Zammit to the show. Paul is a Senior Product Marketing Manager for AI and Platform at Ivalua, which includes the newly announced IVA and IVA Studio, the agentic operating model for procurement.

Paul explains the process of creating and using IVA:

• How IVA and IVA Studio are different from other procuretech approaches to leveraging agentic AI?
• IVA's ability to 'understand' the context of the user (role, permissions, business unit, and responsibility) and factors that into the work it does?
• How IVA works in environments where data lives across multiple systems
• Ensuring IVA meets enterprise safety and information security requirements to balance autonomy with accountability in an enterprise setting

Links:

Paul Zammit on LinkedIn

Introducing IVA Powered by IVA Studio: The Agentic Operating System for Procurement

The World Cup is more than the biggest sporting event in the world. It is also a rare global experience that brings together nations, cultures, and millions of fans around a shared passion. Beyond the action on the pitch, the tournament is a fascinating case study in logistics, commercialization, technology, and the economics of modern sport.

In this episode of the #LoveProcurement podcast host Vishal Patel welcomes Philip Ideson back to the show. Both are well-known for their love of football (or soccer, depending on your location) and take this opportunity to elaborate on one of their other great 'loves' - beyond procurement, of course.

Philip and Vishal discuss this year's World Cup from multiple perspectives:

• Why the World Cup fan experience is unlike any other sporting event
• The business behind football, from ticket pricing and sponsorships to commercial strategy and the growth of the game
• Whether technology has improved or diminished the sport.
• Surprising parallels between football and procurement, including teamwork, governance, logistics, and designing systems that guide behavior without getting in the way

Links:

Philip Ideson on LinkedIn

Vishal Patel on LinkedIn

As AI capabilities are added to an increasing number of SaaS platforms, procurement must ensure that their evaluation frameworks match solution strengths to enterprise priorities and also separate real progress from marketing spin.

It is the evidence of impact and effectiveness, not talk or hype about it, that should drive decision-making about technology.

In this episode of the #LoveProcurement podcast host Kelly Barner welcomes Sandra Göttlinger and Max-Leonhard Böttrich to the show. Sandra is a Senior Manager and Co-Lead in Digital Procurement at Deloitte, and Max is a Senior Consultant on the same team.

Sandra and Max share their perspectives on:

• How AI impact is being assessed in source-to-contract provider evaluation and selection processes
• The most important dimensions or criteria to include in provider evaluation frameworks
• Ways procurement can evaluate AI capabilities fairly across providers, avoiding being misled by self-assessments or marketing claims
• ROI measurement, AI maturity, and where companies should focus next

Links:

Sandra Göttlinger on LinkedIn

Max-Leonhard Böttrich on LinkedIn

Sourcing & Procurement | Deloitte Deutschland

Deloitte_Selecting-Source-to-Contract-AI-Vendors.pdf

AI ROI: The paradox of rising investment and elusive returns

As this episode's guest explains it, AI is the jet engine, and supplier data is the jet fuel for procurement organizations looking to make the most of their supplier ecosystem. Performance aircraft will struggle to operate with substandard fuel in it, even if it is available in large supply.

In practice, this means that taking a grounded, thorough approach to supplier data may be the best way for procurement to deliver measurable returns from investments in AI.

In this episode of the #LoveProcurement podcast host Kelly Barner welcomes Jarrod McAdoo back to the show. Jarrod is Director of Product Marketing at Ivalua, and was one of the first guests to appear on #LoveProcurement in season one.

In this episode, Jarrod returns to talk about the data and process considerations associated with having a successful supplier data management program:

• Why it is important for procurement to decide what a "supplier" actually is (e.g. parent company, site, business unit) and to communicate that to the business
• Ways procurement can bolster their supplier data without sending those suppliers an unnecessary number of requests
• Why procurement should see supplier data quality as a cross-functional project rather than a procurement clean-up exercise

Links: Jarrod McAdoo on LinkedIn