ProctoCast: Real World Procurement Conversation

Hands up...how many of you actually knew what procurement was when you went through school or university?

I didn't, until I did a summer job as buying assistant. And it seems that I'm in the majority. Not many careers advisors recommend a career in procurement.

So, attracting recent graduates and younger members of the workforce into our profession should surely

We cover why the Proctopus community set up ProcGenesis and what it aims to achieve as an extra "tentacle" of the network.

How is procurement perceived in certain different countries from Courtney, Shazia and James' experiences?

What can established industry bodies and groups do to attract more millennials and Gen Z attendees to their events? And what dangers are lurking out there as obstacles for these younger professionals to successfully establish themselves as procurement pros?

For any employers listening, the unique skills that the workplace can gain from the first mobile internet and social media generation will be particularly insightful.

We've opened the lid on what makes younger professionals tick and how companies can make themselves the employer of choice.

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Protcocast is a part of the Proctopus network.

Join our Proctopus LinkedIn Group here!

Follow ProcGenesis LinkedIn Page here!

Connect with Courtney here

Connect with Shazia here

Connect with James here

We're on a mission to make the procurement community more engaged and our profession better understood.

Our events and content are way more exciting and fun than the traditional conferences hosted by established industry bodies.

No jargon. No acronyms!

Procurement often gets a bad rap in organisations because we're seen as only going after cost savings and expense reduction.

There's a valid reason for that.

Often, procurement only (or chiefly) gets measured on cost savings. It's natural that hitting what you're measured on becomes the top priority.

This is slowly, but evidently, changing.

Richard Nixon from tech platform Per Angusta is my guest on this episode.

We discuss how procurement is more and more seen as being a provider of wider value through the different touch points we have into the business, and the front line role we have in steering relationships with external vendors.

We dig into how we can consider wider value delivered by procurement in the following areas:

• Sustainability and its direct impact on the brand, customer and bottom line through energy savings.
• Work hours saved through elimination or automation of cumbersome administrative processes, freeing up employees' time.
• Profit maximisation, delivered through the total asset or package which can be sold to the end customer.
• Total lifetime cost of operation for physical assets
• Risk management and supply chain resilience, and how it can actually translate into savings rather than cost increases.

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Protcocast is a part of the Proctopus network.

Join our Proctopus LinkedIn Group here!

Check out Per Angusta's solution here

Connect with Richard here

Connect with James here

We're on a mission to make the procurement community more engaged and our profession better understood.

Our events and content are way more exciting and fun than the traditional conferences hosted by established industry bodies.

No jargon. No acronyms!

B2B platforms have been around for a while, but have traditionally been more successful as collaboration platforms for sourcing goods rather than services.

We take a look at the current landscape for B2B collaboration, from traditional Google searches and using social media such as LinkedIn, right the way through to more focused supplier networks aimed at procurement professionals.

There are certain flaws in all of them, and none have become a dominant go-to platform.

Jason explores the evolution of B2B platforms, as well as explaining some of the flaws of traditional supplier search techniques.

As a passionate supporter of supplier diversity, Jason also explains how Kaleida has found a specific place in a crowded marketplace.

The platform ensures that buyers can search and discover diverse suppliers to invite to tender requirements they may have.

I finish off the show by asking Jason where he thinks the direction of travel will be for B2B collaboration platforms in 3-5 years time, and what developments he sees in this space in future.

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Protcocast is a part of the Proctopus network.

Join our Proctopus LinkedIn Group here!

Register and browse the Kaleida platform here

Connect with Jason here

Connect with James here

We're on a mission to make the procurement community more engaged and our profession better understood.

Our events and content are way more exciting and fun than the traditional conferences hosted by established industry bodies.

No jargon. No acronyms!

Sustainability is no longer just a box-ticking exercise for companies to get positive PR.

That's the message that my two guests today on ProctoCast really want to drive home.

We're here to encourage everyone working in procurement to get involved and take collective responsibility for the challenges of climate change through soft action.

The decisions we make, and how we elevate sustainability within our own organisations are both key to the long term success of the movement.

Collectively making our employers more responsible for decisions affecting the planet is the best way to ensure that we can impact change from the bottom up, and ensure both the supply base and boardrooms get on board.

We can all do more than we think.

Thomas and Oliver talk about how the landscape is changing and how their approach aims to build a groundswell to drive lasting change.

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Protcocast is a part of the Proctopus network.

Join our Proctopus LinkedIn Group here!

Learn more about SPP here

Take the Sustainable Procurement Pledge and become an Ambassador here

Connect with James here

We're on a mission to make the procurement community more engaged and our profession better understood.

Our events and content are way more exciting and fun than the traditional conferences hosted by established industry bodies.

No jargon. No acronyms!

Negotiation is a core business skill to procurement professionals.

Almost all of us who have worked in procurement for a long time will have been on negotiation training courses of some description.

Actually practicing negotiation skills outside of a competitive environment though? Well, that can often be difficult.

For example: where do you find people to spar with and hone your skills?

And if you don't work in procurement, or maybe you recently joined the function, then how do you play catch-up?

Enter The Negotiation Club, and The Negotiation Cards, both of which are the brainchild of my guest on today's show, Philip Brown.

In this week's podcast, we explore the topic of "gamifying" negotiation, and making it accessible to beginners and experienced negotiators alike.

The Negotiation Club and The Negotiation cards provide a safe space and some ready-made scenarios for people to practice and improve their negotiating skills.

We discuss this, as well as how Phil is one of the few in our profession who actually PLANNED to have a career in procurement.

Phil also tells us how migrating to Zoom for the Clubs as a result of COVID-19 may also end up being a permanent fixture.

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Protcocast is a part of the Proctopus network.

Join our Proctopus LinkedIn Group here!

Learn more about The Negotiation Club here

Connect with Philip here

Connect with James here

We're on a mission to make the procurement community more engaged and our profession better understood.

Our events and content are way more exciting and fun than the traditional conferences hosted by established industry bodies.

No jargon. No acronyms!

I connected with my guest, Steve Adolt, recently on LinkedIn and we quickly realised that we play in a very similar space, except we do it on different sides of the Pond.

Steve is based in Pennsylvania, and I'm based in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Nonetheless, our target client base is very similar.

We both serve scaling startups, as well as traditional manufacturing companies with the procurement consulting services we provide to our typical client base.

Rapidly scaling startups and traditional industries have some similar challenges, as well as some very unique differentiators. We talk about how elevating the role of procurement, as well as governance and necessary processes, are essential in both types of organisations. 

But then we cover how the value we deliver as a function is very different in both instances. 

Procurement in startups is categorised by lack of process and structure, and a new organisation with motivated, driven employees but no legacy supply base and contracts. 

Traditional businesses on the other hand often issues with legacy vendors, lots of bad processes and a culture of resistance to change, but nonetheless an established supply base which can be leveraged to partner with and drive cost optimisation.

Our conversation explores what's necessary to ensure success in either scenario, and the best ways to approach each one individually.

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Proctocast is a part of the Proctopus network.

Join our Proctopus LinkedIn Group here!

Connect with James here

Connect with Steve here

We're on a mission to make the procurement community more engaged and our profession better understood.

Our events and content are way more exciting and fun than the traditional conferences hosted by established industry bodies.

No jargon. No acronyms!

Much is published about how procurement's different challenges manifest themselves in the public sector. However, procurement in the non-profit sector is only really starting to emerge from its perception as being an administrative and tactical function.

Growing procurement into a strategically minded organisation in the charity sector has many challenges:

How do you attract capable, experienced employees when you can't compete on salaries?

How do you take advantage of the massive opportunity to reduce and manage spend more effectively, to ensure more donated money goes to the good causes?

How do you deal with having employees who are super motivated for the cause but lack the necessary strategic procurement skills which will be essential for the future?

How can the similar categories of spend be leveraged to drive better deals for the sector as a whole through group procurement and purchasing alliances within the sector going forward?

My guest on this episode of ProctoCast is Verity White, who was recently elected Chair of the Charities Sector Procurement Group (CSPG) and is also Head of Procurement for UK charity The Prince's Trust.

We dive into this unexplored sector and discover what makes charities tick, and some of the unique problems , solutions and opportunities presented by procurement in the non-profit sector.

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Proctocast is a part of the Proctopus network.

Join our Proctopus LinkedIn Group here!

Connect with James here

Connect with Verity here

Link to CSPG

We're on a mission to make the procurement community more engaged and our profession better understood.

Our events and content are way more exciting and fun than the traditional conferences hosted by established industry bodies.

No jargon. No acronyms!

This week on ProtoCast I am joined by a veritable celebrity of the procurement world. My guest is none other than former CIPS President, Peter Smith.

Peter is also a distinguished former CPO in both the public and private sector, as well as the former editor of Spend Matters UK & Europe.

In his newly released book, Peter takes us on a journey through the journey of how bad buying happens in the first place, what can be done to prevent it, and how it's often a very fine line between what is considered a compliant and non-compliant process.

We also examine how procurement failures are perceived and reported on in the public sector versus the private sector. Will this change with an increased focus on compliance in the private sector in the light of the desire to avoid scandals and reduce supply chain risk?

And what plans does Peter have for the future with his work and his writing, including his new venture on sustainability in procurement?

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Proctocast is a part of the Proctopus network.

Join our Proctopus LinkedIn Group here!

Connect with James here

Connect with Peter here

We're on a mission to make the procurement community more engaged and our profession better understood.

Our events and content are way more exciting and fun than the traditional conferences hosted by established industry bodies.

No jargon. No acronyms!

I think we can all agree that 2020 has been most impactful to the travel, leisure and hospitality industries.

But how will this affect how we procure these services going forward? And what are travel and events procurement professionals seeing as the trends as we enter 2021?

My guest today on ProctoCast to help answer all of this is Anna Price, a travel, hospitality and events procurement expert from Procuregence. 

Will contraction result in consolidation of the market and higher prices over the long-term? How will distressed businesses deal with their customer base, and what can you as the buyer do to mitigate any potential losses, or unanticipated price increases?

Over the longer term, what are we likely to see as the dust settles and things begin to return to normal? And how will this normal be different from what we considered normal pre-2020?

And interestingly, Anna also shares how this could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to enforce compliance. With very little travel, it could be the perfect time to strategise, trim your long tail of vendors and ensure that a more stick-based approach to user compliance can be implemented.

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Proctocast is a part of the Proctopus network.

Join our Proctopus LinkedIn Group here!

Connect with James here

Connect with Anna here

We're on a mission to make the procurement community more engaged and our profession better understood.

Our events and content are way more exciting and fun than the traditional conferences hosted by established industry bodies.

No jargon. No acronyms!

Procurement professionals need more accessible opportunities to network, interact, share our best practices, ask questions and increase our visibility to employers (or potential clients). 

They were the hypotheses when we kicked off the roots (or tentacles) of what grew to become Proctopus. 

Sales & marketing folks are great at putting on industry events and networking. Procurement people less so. The same applies when it comes to sales & marketing of our achievements and capabilities internally with our stakeholders!

Conferences (and virtual conferences) in our industry are often overpriced (and often a bit crap). In person networking isn't going to come back for the foreseeable future. But people still need professional support, interaction, advice and the feeling of community.

Today I talk to my fellow Co-Founders of Proctopus: Keith McCabe, Graham Copeland, Oliver Mountain and Dave Jones about how Proctopus came into being, what we hope to achieve with it, and how we see the community and brand growing as we enter 2021.

While we all agree that 2020 has been a tough year for most people, we are cautiously optimistic about 2021 and are very excited to grow Proctopus to expand to other areas, and increase the number of people whom we touch through our virtual events and content.

If you'd like to suggest other ways we can support fellow procurement professionals, we'd love to hear from you. Connect with us below!

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Proctocast is a part of the Proctopus network.

Join our Proctopus LinkedIn Group here!

Connect with James here:

Connect with the other Proctopus Founders here:

Olly

Graham 

Dave 

Keith 

We're on a mission to make the procurement community more engaged and our profession better understood.

Our events and content are way more exciting and fun than the traditional conferences hosted by established industry bodies.

No jargon. No acronyms!