Procurement Legends

In this series, I talk with Procurement Tech providers to find out about their product. I want this series to help procurement pros like you and I to know what solutions are out there to better enable our procurement activities.

In this episode of Procurement Tech, I speak with Edmund Zagorin, the founder of Procurement Tech Company Bid Ops. Bid Ops software gives Procurement teams Supplier Management, Sourcing, Supplier Collaboration and much more.

We talk about the following:

• The Origin Story of Bid Ops
  
  


• What Bid Ops does
  
  


• 3 case studies around how the Bid Ops solution is used in different industries
  
  


• A Bid Ops event going live in March
  
  

You can find out more about Bid Ops here: https://bidops.com

Procurement Personal Branding! Procurement Communities! These are the things that the Procurement Pros who go the extra mile deliver. In this episode, I wanted to share the views and viewpoints of three previous guests on the Podcast: Dana Small, Karthik Rama, and Mike Cadieux. These are three people who I look up to and have the utmost respect for.

They have views and perspectives on how to stand out from the crowd and how to build up a network of procurement pros that you can call up on at any time.

Get building out there and having fun whilst you do it.

Connect with them here:

Dana Small - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dana-small/ 

Karthik Rama - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramakarthik/

Mike Cadieux - https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-cadieux/

Ms Category Management - https://mscategorymanagement.com

Procurement Foundry - https://procurementfoundry.com

What a Year it has been in 2020...in a good way. This episode is a solo episode with Daniel Barnes, as he reflects back on 2020 and the impact of World of Procurement. His kids also make a sneaky appearance with the odd cry of anguish.

World of Procurement was establish in April 2020. Since then, it has gone on to release a Podcast that has hit 9k+ listens, had over 250k views of content on LinkedIn and thousands of views of its written content at www.worldofprocurement.co.uk.

In this episode, Daniel covers off some of the amazing conversations and a provides an insight into his plans for 2021. 

Ashleigh Turner is the winner of the CIPS Young Talent of the Year 2019 award, domestic violence survivor, mother and a podcast host in her own rights with Empower with Ash.

This was my favourite podcast of the Year and I’d encourage you all to go connect with Ashleigh on LinkedIn.

In this episode, we cover:

• What Ashleigh does in Procurement (Caterpillar Dealership)


• How Ashleigh got into Procurement and why she loves it


• Why working in a Greenfield/new procurement team can be incredible - pros/cons


• How Procurement is perceived by your colleagues


• The daunting task of ripping millions out of the business through Industrial consumables


• Winning the CIPS Young Talent of the Year 2019 award


• The BIG aggregator project with 30+ consumable categories, 300,000 line items down to 60,000, across 23 sites that cover the size of India.


• Experience versus time served in Procurement roles and job adverts


• The issues with leaders who cannot use technology themselves and who do not understand the benefits of technology


• What the future of procurement is going to look like


• Why we should challenge procurement and push forward as millennials


• You need to adapt to change


• What was the impact of the CIPS award on Ashleigh’s career

Connect with Ashleigh here:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleigh-turner-7b69a876/

Podcast - https://open.spotify.com/show/1TgP5na4zCBCRcsXsLWVOm?si=6qlUmifHSdqsDPM3CfC-ow

Website - https://www.empowerwithash.com/ebooks

Dave Jones is an MCIPS Qualified Procurement Professional working in the retail sector in the UK. We dived into so much in a short space of time with this episode, including the effect that COVID has had on the retail sector. The main focus of this episode was to discuss what was Procmeet which has now transformed into the bigger and better Proctopus (ProcMeet is the Procurement Meet up). Dave had a thought one night whilst sat on the sofa. This thought was about having a cuppa with some fellow procurement professionals and he asked his LinkedIn Network if they’d be up for it. They really were up for it.

In this episode we cover:

Dave’s views on the impacts of Covid on Retail

Changes in governance models

Impacts of Working From Home on Procurement Teams

Where is Procurement Going

What Procmeet is (this has now grown into Proctopus)

Connect with Dave here:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dohjones/ 

Proctopus/ProcMeet - https://www.proctopus.co.uk

Karthik Rama, the Procurement Doctor is a Procurement Professional and knows a thing or two about Contract Management. We dived into so much in this episode. This episode was originally released as a video over on the World of Procurement YouTube Channel but I needed to release it via audio too.

We cover:

How Contract Management Activities could be improved by Blockchain Technology

Why Procurement and Contract Management needs to be easier for people to understand

Pre-Signature Contract Management Activities and why it’s important

Why Contract Management is neglected and why your Organisation sucks at it

Connect with Karthik here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramakarthik/

Susan Walsh is the fixer of dirty data, an expert in spend data classification, taxonomies, and data accuracy. In addition to all of this, Susan improves your Procurement Data to create savings both financially and in time. Susan is the Founder of The Classification Guru, an Organisation that takes the pain out of data issues to make your life easier.

In this episode we cover:

• How COVID has affected Corporate Culture


• Changes in behaviours with Managers and Staff


• Why Meeting Culture needs to shift


• Saying No, more


• Our Views on Thinkers 360 as a Platform and how Susan is being recognised an Industry Leader


• The COAT Acronym Origin Story


• Don’t google Dirty Susan


• How to use COAT for your Data


• The Story of 840 spreadsheets that needed to be merged


• Practical Steps to get basic Data Management in place with Excel in Procurement


• Excel horror stories for Data Management

You can find Susan Walsh here:

LinkedIn - Personal - https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanewalsh/

LinkedIn - The Classification Guru - https://www.linkedin.com/company/theclassificationguru/

The Classification Guru - https://www.theclassificationguru.com

Steve Wills is one of the most incredible and easy to talk to guys I’ve ever come across. He did not disappoint in this episode. We cover a wide range of Procurement topics in this World of Procurement episode.

Steve has worked in Procurement his entire life and has a love for it. That is clear from the passion he has in all he does for our Procurement Profession. Steve has held several high profile Procurement roles in the Insurance Sector and is the Founder of Procurement Central, who provide Procurement Training for the leaders of tomorrow.

In this Episode of the World of Procurement Podcast, we cover:

• Choice of Clothing throughout Lockdown


• A Brief History into Steve’s career to date and his Business, Procurement Central.


• People who fall into Procurement - is this a downside?


• The language of Procurement


• Understanding the wider Supply Chain throughout COVID


• The overlaps of Procurement with other Functions/Departments


• Responses to COVID and Planning for the Future

Connect with Steve here:

Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-wills-fcips-mba/

Procurement Central - https://www.procurementcentral.co.uk

Ed Cross is the Executive Director of Odesma, a Procurement Consultancy. Ed has 30+ years of experience in Procurement across a wide range of industries and sectors.

In this Episode of the World of Procurement Podcast, we cover:

A Brief History of his wonderful career

Insights into Odesma, Ed’s Procurement Consultancy based out of the Gig Economy Approach

Starting in Procurement out of want rather than falling into it

How Procurement are responding to COVID19

Amazing stories from the Procurement Teams dealing with COVID

Tales from the Black Death - this was awesome!!!

How can Procurement ready themselves for different/new disruptions in the future

Customer of First Choice and why this is going to be important moving forwards

Why back to basics Procurement is vital

Understanding your Supply Chain

What does a Procurement Professional look like over the next few years

Single Source vs Multi Source/Competitive Procurement

Connect with Ed here:

Ed Cross - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ed-cross-919b0a5/

Odesma - http://www.odesma.co.uk/

Madison Mobley is fairly new to the World of Procurement. Madison is a Senior Account Executive at the Procurement Tech company Fairmarkit. This is Madison’s first ever Podcast and she absolutely crushed it!

We cover so many topics in this episode such as:

• What is Fairmarkit


• Madison’s background in Sales


• Madison’s observation on the Procurement Profession from a sales background


• Tech adoption in Procurement


• Gen Z are going to hate the poor adoption of tech


• All things Tailspend


• Can we save money via Procurement solutions/software


• Self-Education in Procurement


• Re-establishing trust between Buyers and Sellers

Sit back, grab a coffee, go for a run…whatever you do when you listen to a podcast and enjoy.

Connect with Madison here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/madisonmobley/