When your team asks for development tools and you say "we're not ready,” what are you really saying no to?

In this episode, Darryl Fitzpatrick, CRO of Intellek, calls out the uncomfortable truth: "We're not ready for learning technology" actually means "We're not ready to invest in our people."

His take? Companies that said they weren't ready for AI 3 years ago are struggling now. The ones who committed early are thriving.

The tech is easy. It's cloud-based, simple to adopt. What's hard is admitting that without ongoing development, you're setting your team up to fail in a world that's evolving faster than ever.

So the real question: Are you building a team for today, or for what's coming?

What we discuss: 

00:00 The Readiness for Technology Adoption

02:55 The Importance of Continuous Learning and Development

04:08 Challenges with Outdated Learning Management Systems

Connect with us:

SCOPE Recruiting | https://www.scoperecruiting.com/ Connect with Friddy | https://www.linkedin.com/in/fhoegener/ Connect with Evan | https://www.linkedin.com/in/evan-cave 

Connect with Daryl Fitzpatrick https://www.linkedin.com/in/darylfitzpatrick/?originalSubdomain=uk 

About Procurement Pulse: Real conversations with supply chain and procurement professionals who've been on both sides—building teams, solving problems, and staying ahead of what's coming next.

About SCOPE Recruiting: SCOPE Recruiting is a boutique supply chain recruiting firm where every recruiter is a former supply chain professional. Co-founders Friddy and Melissa, both ex-ABB global category managers, built the company after seeing how many “generalist” recruiters didn’t truly understand supply chain, procurement, or logistics roles. 

By hiring professionals first and teaching them recruiting second, SCOPE delivers better matches, higher retention rates, and faster hiring results across manufacturing, procurement, logistics, and supply chain leadership.

If you're building a supply chain team and the usual recruiting approach isn't working, check out scoperecruiting.com.

Supply chain isn't just about moving boxes. It’s about the human experience.

For too long, our industry has been viewed as a back-office utility. A cost center that simply "makes things happen."

But as Patrick Van Hull, Supply Chain Storyteller & Strategist, explains in this week’s episode, the leaders who win in 2026 aren't just the ones with the best data. They are the ones who can tell the best story about that data.

What We Discuss:

00:00 What it means to be a "supply chain storyteller"

02:11 The pivot table mistake that shut down a mining company

05:02 Why supply chain gets blamed but never gets credit

07:48 "Do good and talk about it" — earning your seat at the table

10:29 When supply chain isn't in the room from day one

12:57 AI hype vs. AI reality in daily operations

15:49 One AI platform or ten disconnected solutions?

18:33 Automating the work that burns people out

21:27 Entry-level roles nobody knows how to define yet

23:47 The new essential skills: Prompting AI and storytelling

26:47 Where to find Patrick Van Hull

Connect with us:

SCOPE Recruiting | https://www.scoperecruiting.com/ Connect with Friddy | https://www.linkedin.com/in/fhoegener/ Connect with Evan | https://www.linkedin.com/in/evan-cave 

Connect with Patrick | https://www.linkedin.com/in/pvanhull/ 

About Procurement Pulse: Real conversations with supply chain and procurement professionals who've been on both sides—building teams, solving problems, and staying ahead of what's coming next.

About SCOPE Recruiting: SCOPE Recruiting is a boutique supply chain recruiting firm where every recruiter is a former supply chain professional. Co-founders Friddy and Melissa, both ex-ABB global category managers, built the company after seeing how many “generalist” recruiters didn’t truly understand supply chain, procurement, or logistics roles. 

By hiring professionals first and teaching them recruiting second, SCOPE delivers better matches, higher retention rates, and faster hiring results across manufacturing, procurement, logistics, and supply chain leadership.

If you're building a supply chain team and the usual recruiting approach isn't working, check out scoperecruiting.com. 

You hire great people. But three months in, they're struggling. Not because they lack talent because nobody showed them how to succeed in your specific environment.

1,800 learning management systems exist in the market. Most companies either don't have one, use an outdated "Stone Age" system, or have a platform that nobody touches after onboarding.

But here's what changed: AI emerged in 18 months and reshaped every job description. The skills your team had last year aren't enough today. And the "just hire ready-made talent" strategy isn't sustainable when unicorns are rare and expensive.

In this episode, Darryl Fitzpatrick, CRO of Intellek, breaks down why L&D infrastructure isn't just an HR nice-to-have, it's a competitive advantage for talent attraction, retention, and performance.

00:00 Introduction

00:28 What is an LMS and how do companies actually use them?

01:29 Why LMS engagement drops after week two

03:22 Why 300-person companies still don't have learning platforms

05:12 When your LMS is built on old HTML and nobody uses it

07:45 What separates Intellek from 1,800 other LMS platforms

09:24 "We're not ready for new software": What companies are actually saying no to

11:30 Why hiring only experts limits your growth

14:03 First impressions matter: How LMS impacts company culture and retention

18:09 The future of L&D: Alignment, AI, and building unicorns internally

Connect with us:

SCOPE Recruiting | https://www.scoperecruiting.com/

Connect with Friddy | https://www.linkedin.com/in/fhoegener/

Connect with Evan | https://www.linkedin.com/in/evan-cave 

Connect with Daryl Fitzpatrick | https://www.linkedin.com/in/darylfitzpatrick/?originalSubdomain=uk 

About Procurement Pulse: Real conversations with supply chain and procurement professionals who've been on both sides—building teams, solving problems, and staying ahead of what's coming next.

About SCOPE Recruiting: SCOPE Recruiting is a boutique supply chain recruiting firm where every recruiter is a former supply chain professional. Co-founders Friddy and Melissa, both ex-ABB global category managers, built the company after seeing how many “generalist” recruiters didn’t truly understand supply chain, procurement, or logistics roles. 

By hiring professionals first and teaching them recruiting second, SCOPE delivers better matches, higher retention rates, and faster hiring results across manufacturing, procurement, logistics, and supply chain leadership.

If you're building a supply chain team and the usual recruiting approach isn't working, check out scoperecruiting.com. 

Your supplier worked perfectly for 10 years. Then overnight, tariffs made them unviable. Now you're scrambling to find alternatives while maintaining quality, delivery, and relationships.

Welcome to 2025's biggest supply chain challenge.

What worked last month is obsolete today. India looked perfect until it wasn't. Mexico had advantages until the rules shifted. And traditional "set it and forget it" supplier strategies are dead.

In this episode of Procurement Pulse, host and SCOPE Recruiting Co-Founder Friddy Hoegener sits down with Flavio Albarino, VP of Procurement at TK Elevator, who's spent over two decades navigating offshore transitions, nearshoring strategies, and supply chain redesigns across multiple continents.

What we discuss:

00:00 Welcome to Procurement Pulse

01:58 Why HTS codes matter more than you think

04:48 The 80/20 strategy: Having vendor options ready before you need them

08:13 When your 10-year supplier relationship hits a tariff wall11:50 Why e-auctions killed your supplier relationships (and when they actually work)

15:24 The "control room" test: How mature is your procurement org?

19:34 AI is making market intelligence 10x faster

21:35 How to become tactical buyer to strategic leader

27:29 What TK Elevator looks for in procurement talent

Connect with us:

SCOPE Recruiting | https://www.scoperecruiting.com/ Connect with Friddy | https://www.linkedin.com/in/fhoegener/

Connect with Evan | https://www.linkedin.com/in/evan-cave 

Connect with Flavio Albarino | https://www.linkedin.com/in/flavioalberino/ 

About Procurement Pulse: Real conversations with supply chain and procurement professionals who've been on both sides—building teams, solving problems, and staying ahead of what's coming next.

About SCOPE Recruiting: SCOPE Recruiting is a boutique supply chain recruiting firm where every recruiter is a former supply chain professional. Co-founders Friddy and Melissa, both ex-ABB global category managers, built the company after seeing how many “generalist” recruiters didn’t truly understand supply chain, procurement, or logistics roles. 

By hiring professionals first and teaching them recruiting second, SCOPE delivers better matches, higher retention rates, and faster hiring results across manufacturing, procurement, logistics, and supply chain leadership.

If you're building a supply chain team and the usual recruiting approach isn't working, check out scoperecruiting.com. 

"Will AI take my job?"

Every supply chain professional is asking this question. But you're asking the wrong thing.

The real question isn't whether AI will replace you, but it's whether you'll learn to use it before someone else does.

AI isn't coming for entry-level jobs first. It's transforming how businesses build systems, make decisions, and compete. And the companies still clinging to SAP implementations and legacy ERP systems? They're about to get steamrolled by mid-sized competitors building custom solutions in weeks instead of years.

In this episode of Procurement Pulse, host and SCOPE Recruiting Co-Founder Friddy Hoegener sits down with David Heacock, Founder and CEO of Filterbuy, who's used custom-built ERP systems and AI-powered development teams to unlock competitive advantages that enterprise software could never deliver.

They discuss why "AI will take your job" is the wrong fear (and what you should actually worry about), how a development team is now shipping code 3-5x faster than two years ago, and why small and mid-sized businesses finally have a weapon against enterprise competitors.

What We Discuss:

00:00 The AI job question everyone gets wrong

02:07 How AI 3x'd development team productivity

02:50 Why custom ERP beats SAP (even for smaller companies)

04:04 The legacy system trap: Making systems work vs. building what works

05:00 Small business advantage: Agility over enterprise bureaucracy

05:23 What to look for when hiring in the AI era

Connect with us:

SCOPE Recruiting | https://www.scoperecruiting.com/

Connect with Friddy | https://www.linkedin.com/in/fhoegener/

Connect with Evan | https://www.linkedin.com/in/evan-cave 

David Heacock | https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidfilterbuy 

Filterbuy | https://www.linkedin.com/company/filterbuy 

About Procurement Pulse: Real conversations with supply chain and procurement professionals who've been on both sides—building teams, solving problems, and staying ahead of what's coming next.

About SCOPE Recruiting: Every recruiter at SCOPE is a former supply chain professional. Freddy and Melissa, both former ABB global category managers, started the company because they were tired of recruiters who didn't understand the roles they were filling. The result? Better matches, higher retention rates, and fewer headaches for everyone involved.

If you're building a supply chain team and the usual recruiting approach isn't working, check out scoperecruiting.com.

Most companies fail at Lean because the people designing the process aren’t the ones living it every day.

Jared Paget, VP of Operations at ClearOne, explains how giving a voice to the people closest to the work leads to better decisions, smarter production, and a stronger culture.

What We Discuss:

00:00 Why you can't just build products and hope someone buys them — the S&OP foundation

01:32 Tying sales team compensation to forecast accuracy (and why it worked)

03:53 Every moment on the shelf is waste — the three types of waste to eliminate

04:09 The "most infant state" rule: Why customizing too early kills flexibility

05:26 The operator buy-in secret: Don't ask about efficiency, ask about ease

Connect with us:

SCOPE Recruiting | https://www.scoperecruiting.com/

Connect with Friddy | https://www.linkedin.com/in/fhoegener/

Connect with Evan | https://www.linkedin.com/in/evan-cave 

Connect with Jared Paget | https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaredpaget 

About Procurement Pulse: Real conversations with supply chain and procurement professionals who've been on both sides—building teams, solving problems, and staying ahead of what's coming next.

About SCOPE Recruiting: SCOPE Recruiting is a boutique supply chain recruiting firm where every recruiter is a former supply chain professional. Co-founders Friddy and Melissa, both ex-ABB global category managers, built the company after seeing how many “generalist” recruiters didn’t truly understand supply chain, procurement, or logistics roles. 

By hiring professionals first and teaching them recruiting second, SCOPE delivers better matches, higher retention rates, and faster hiring results across manufacturing, procurement, logistics, and supply chain leadership.
If you're building a supply chain team and the usual recruiting approach isn't working, check out scoperecruiting.com.

You cut inventory by 50% and achieve 99.8% on-time delivery. Impossible? One supply chain leader did exactly that, but not by implementing fancy software or hiring consultants.

The secret? Sitting on the factory floor with operators and asking one simple question: "How can we make your job easier?"

In this episode of Procurement Pulse, host and SCOPE Recruiting Co-Founder Friddy Hoegener and co-host Evan Cave sit down with Jared Paget, VP of Operations at ClearOne, who's driven operational excellence across multiple continents and industries.

They dig into why most companies fail at lean manufacturing (hint: it's not about the process), how to tell if a company is serious about change versus just checking boxes, and why the person doing the job eight hours a day knows more than any consultant ever will.

Jared also shares the counterintuitive truth about AI in supply chain - he's been using it for 20 years, just not the way most people think. And why those entry-level tactical jobs aren't disappearing as fast as everyone fears.

What We Discuss:

00:00 Welcome to Procurement Pulse

00:39 Why SNOP is the foundation of supply chain success

03:15 The Nuvea USA story: 99.8% delivery and 50% less inventory

07:22 Keeping inventory in its "most infant state"

10:45 The furniture manufacturing cautionary tale

14:30 How to get operator buy-in without mandates

19:12 "You're just doing this to make yourself look good" — handling resistance to change

23:47 The real KPIs that prove lean is working

28:33 How to tell if a candidate actually knows lean (or just has it on their resume)

32:18 What companies reveal when they can't answer "What's the 6-month roadmap?"

38:55 AI in supply chain: We've been doing this for 20 years

43:20 Will AI eliminate entry-level supply chain jobs?

47:02 The one skill that matters most in operations

Connect with us:

SCOPE Recruiting | https://www.scoperecruiting.com/

Connect with Friddy | https://www.linkedin.com/in/fhoegener/

Connect with Evan | https://www.linkedin.com/in/evan-cave 

Connect with Jared Paget | https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaredpaget 

About Procurement Pulse: Real conversations with supply chain and procurement professionals who've been on both sides—building teams, solving problems, and staying ahead of what's coming next.

About SCOPE Recruiting: SCOPE Recruiting is a boutique supply chain recruiting firm where every recruiter is a former supply chain professional. Co-founders Friddy and Melissa, both ex-ABB global category managers, built the company after seeing how many “generalist” recruiters didn’t truly understand supply chain, procurement, or logistics roles. 

By hiring professionals first and teaching them recruiting second, SCOPE delivers better matches, higher retention rates, and faster hiring results across manufacturing, procurement, logistics, and supply chain leadership.

If you're building a supply chain team and the usual recruiting approach isn't working, check out scoperecruiting.com.

Will AI replace your job, or make you irreplaceable?

Host Friddy Hoegener, Co-Founder and Head of Recruiting at SCOPE Recruiting breaks down what supply chain professionals need to do now to stay relevant as AI reshapes the industry.

The conversation reveals why learning to prompt AI is becoming as critical as knowing Excel, and why professionals spending 80% of their time on manual tasks need to level up fast. It also explores where AI still struggles - particularly with creative judgment in recruiting - and what that tells us about which human skills will remain irreplaceable in the years ahead.

What We Discuss:

00:00 Why learning to prompt AI is the new essential skill

01:54 The 80/20 rule: If you're spending 80% of your time on manual tasks, it's time to level up

02:27 Why AI still struggles with the creative side of recruiting (and what that means for you)

04:05 Why experienced recruiters can spot great candidates instantly (and AI can't replicate that yet)

Connect with us:

SCOPE Recruiting | https://www.scoperecruiting.com/

Connect with Friddy | https://www.linkedin.com/in/fhoegener/

Connect with Evan | https://www.linkedin.com/in/evan-cave 

About Procurement Pulse: Real conversations with supply chain and procurement professionals who've been on both sides—building teams, solving problems, and staying ahead of what's coming next.

About SCOPE Recruiting: SCOPE Recruiting is a boutique supply chain recruiting firm where every recruiter is a former supply chain professional. Co-founders Friddy and Melissa, both ex-ABB global category managers, built the company after seeing how many “generalist” recruiters didn’t truly understand supply chain, procurement, or logistics roles. 

By hiring professionals first and teaching them recruiting second, SCOPE delivers better matches, higher retention rates, and faster hiring results across manufacturing, procurement, logistics, and supply chain leadership.

If you're building a supply chain team and the usual recruiting approach isn't working, check out scoperecruiting.com.

Most supply chain teams obsess over vendor onboarding - vetting suppliers, negotiating contracts, setting up systems. But there's a critical blind spot costing companies millions: what happens after you stop working with a vendor?

SCOPE Recruiting Co-Founder Friddy Hoegener and co-host Evan Cave discuss the often-overlooked vendor offboarding process with Tiffany Bray, Independent Consultant at Risk Right LLC.

What We Discuss:

00:00 Why "out of sight, out of mind" vendor relationships create massive data security exposure

01:36 Real examples of what happens when offboarding goes wrong (hint: it's not just about data)

02:42 Why you need a business continuity plan for critical vendors (and what happens when you don't)

03:39 What COVID taught us about single-source vendor dependency

04:44 Why many industries are dangerously immature when it comes to risk management

05:22 How to turn your risk management into a competitive advantage and sales tool

Connect with us:

SCOPE Recruiting | https://www.scoperecruiting.com/ Connect with Friddy | https://www.linkedin.com/in/fhoegener/

Connect with Evan | https://www.linkedin.com/in/evan-cave 

Connect with Tiffany Bray | https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiffany-bray-mba-ctprp/ 

About Procurement Pulse: Real conversations with supply chain and procurement professionals who've been on both sides—building teams, solving problems, and staying ahead of what's coming next.

About SCOPE Recruiting: SCOPE Recruiting is a boutique supply chain recruiting firm where every recruiter is a former supply chain professional. Co-founders Friddy and Melissa, both ex-ABB global category managers, built the company after seeing how many “generalist” recruiters didn’t truly understand supply chain, procurement, or logistics roles. 

By hiring professionals first and teaching them recruiting second, SCOPE delivers better matches, higher retention rates, and faster hiring results across manufacturing, procurement, logistics, and supply chain leadership.

If you're building a supply chain team and the usual recruiting approach isn't working, check out www.scoperecruiting.com  

What happens when you force top talent to choose between their dream job and relocating to a specific city? You lose them to your competitors.

In this episode of The Procurement Pulse, host Friddy Hoegener, Co-Founder and Head of Recruiting at SCOPE Recruiting, sits down with David Heacock, Founder and CEO of Filterbuy, who learned this lesson the hard way when his attempt to centralize remote workers in Atlanta became a "largely failed experiment."

David shares how Filterbuy's $280 million manufacturing company discovered that the best candidates for niche roles often live in completely different zip codes, and why high-performing candidates will exclude companies that force in-office requirements from their job search entirely.

But this isn't just about remote work policies. David reveals his systematic approach to building authentic corporate culture in a distributed workforce, including his three-pronged framework for values that actually work: Model it, Articulate it, and Incentivize it. He also explains why quarterly in-person meetings are non-negotiable and how to hire and fire based on cultural fit even when it means letting go of high performers.

What We Discuss:

00:00 Why geographic hiring requirements limit your talent pool

00:45 The failed Atlanta office experiment

01:46 The difference between managing remote vs. in-person teams

02:08 The importance of quarterly in-person meetings

03:01 Building corporate culture with clear values

04:09 The three-pronged approach to authentic company values

Connect with us:

SCOPE Recruiting | https://www.scoperecruiting.com/ Connect with Friddy | https://www.linkedin.com/in/fhoegener/

Connect with Evan | https://www.linkedin.com/in/evan-cave 

David Heacock | https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidfilterbuy 

Filterbuy | https://www.linkedin.com/company/filterbuy 

About Procurement Pulse: Real conversations with supply chain and procurement professionals who've been on both sides—building teams, solving problems, and staying ahead of what's coming next.

About SCOPE Recruiting: Every recruiter at SCOPE is a former supply chain professional. Freddy and Melissa, both former ABB global category managers, started the company because they were tired of recruiters who didn't understand the roles they were filling. The result? Better matches, higher retention rates, and fewer headaches for everyone involved.

If you're building a supply chain team and the usual recruiting approach isn't working, check out scoperecruiting.com.