The Way We Source

On this episode, we’re joined by Vera Rozanova - a Procurement thought leader, award-winning speaker, CIPS lecturer, and former CPO at Royal Canin, British American Tobacco, Rusagro, and Procter & Gamble. 

Vera joins Sam for a great discussion about the future of Procurement, how to build new plans and frameworks, building strong Supplier Development Programs, the necessary skills for Procurement teams, new technology adoption, and more! 

(00:39) - Introducing Vera  

(01:32) - How did Vera get started in Procurement? 

(02:58) - What does Vera think Procurement is today and where is it going? 

(03:58) - How will Procurement teams look different under Procurement 4.0? 

(05:29) - What are Vera’s concrete tips to impact culture and building processes and frameworks quickly? 

(06:39) - What are Vera’s guidelines for building a plan and executing on it in a new organization? 

(08:17) - How does Vera source the best talent for Procurement when she’s hiring? 

(11:02) - What skills does Vera look for in a new hire besides soft skills & hard skills? 

(12:31) - Are there specialist Procurement roles that have emerged today which will stick around for the future? 

(15:01) - What is Vera’s approach to supplier development within a global multi-national? 

(17:25) - Does Vera use a specific segmentation model for suppliers or develop one based on the business? 

(19:04) - What type of team and skills are needed for a strong supplier development plan? 

(21:50) - When is it the right time to work with supplier learning and development? 

(22:24) - When is the wrong time to work with supplier development? What are the signs that it’s too early or late? 

(24:11) - Are supplier development programs only necessary for strategic suppliers or a certain level of maturity? 

(25:22) - Which Procurement tactics are not going anywhere and here to stay? 

(27:36) - Where are Procurement teams wasting time on manual tasks? 

(28:25) - Is there a reluctancy to adopt new technologies in Procurement? 

(29:18) - Vera answers our Kodiak Moment round of quick-fire questions

In this special episode, we’re joined by one of Kodiak Hub’s beloved partners - Denin Gigovic, Elektrobit’s Global Head of Procurement. 

Denin joins Sam for a great discussion about how Procurement can help power innovation together with suppliers, how to balance cost with innovation, building strong relationships between internal stakeholders and external suppliers, the future of Procurement, and more!

(00:39) - Introducing Denin

(01:10) - What does Sourcing & Procurement mean to Denin?

(03:48) - What are some of the keys to career development in Procurement? 

(09:32) - Denin talks about his Procurement role at Elektrobit 

(11:11) - How does the competitiveness of different industries affect the way Procurement teams act and react? 

(12:50) - How does Denin and Elektrobit balance cost with innovation? 

(13:52) - What supplier relationship tactics does Denin use to drive innovation and get the most value? 

(15:15) - How does Procurement mesh their relationships with internal stakeholders and external suppliers? 

(18:46) - How does Denin make sure to stay operational in the business and what tips does he have? 

(21:13) - Is there any way that Elektrobit is experimenting with AI? 

(25:04) - How does legislation and export control affect the way that Denin and Elektrobit source? 

(28:25) - Does Denin have any suggestions for how to be compliant with the recent legislative tsunami? 

(32:33) - What is a mistake or learning that Denin has had in his career? 

(34:12) - What are some Procurement tactics that Denin thinks are a thing of the past? 

(35:34) - Are there things that have changed with Denin’s supplier relationship strategies? 

(37:51) - Denin answers our Kodiak Moment quick fire round of questions

In this episode, we’re joined by Magnus Josephson, an accomplished Procurement expert and consultant with experience in both the private and public sectors. In his impressive career, Magnus has worked with over 600 companies and public entities in 12 countries and is one of Sweden’s top consultants in public Procurement. 

Magnus joins Sam to discuss the differences between public and private Procurement, the politics of public Procurement, how to build sustainable supplier relationships in the public sector, and more! 

(00:38) - Introducing Magnus

(01:08) - What made Magnus choose Procurement and what does it mean to Magnus?

(02:36) - What’s something that Magnus knows now that he wishes he knew at the beginning of his career?

(04:54) - What was an experience in Magnus’ career that was pivotal? 

(08:58) - What are the biggest differences between public and private Procurement?

(10:25) - How political does public Procurement get?

(13:23) - How does public Procurement maintain long-term relationships with suppliers than also have flexibility? 

(18:39) - Are there any Procurement tactics that Magnus thinks aren’t going anywhere and are here to stay?

(22:14) - How does public Procurement have external pressure to spend taxpayer money responsibly? 

(27:29) - Magnus answers our Kodiak Moment quick fire round of questions

This episode, we’re joined by Alex Evans, a procurement practitioner with a wide range of experience in the aerospace and defense sector – having previous sourced for Boeing, Leonardo, Vertical Aerospace, and Heart Aerospace before joining Elbit Systems UK as their Supply Chain Manager.

(00:39) - Introducing Alex

(01:03) - How did Alex start working in Procurement & Sourcing?

(01:50) - What makes Alex stay in Procurement and what does it means to him? 

(02:48) - How is Procurement in the aerospace and defense industry different from Procurement in other industries? 

(03:43) - What’s the biggest difference between working in Procurement for multinationals vs. startups? 

(05:44) - Is it hard for Procurement teams in startups to get things right?

(07:24) - Do multinationals have something to learn from startups?

(09:00) -  Where do you start with building a Procurement team in a startup? 

(12:00) - Does Procurement have playbooks and who should be responsible for creating them? 

(13:47) - Has Procurement won the trust of stakeholders? 

(15:37) - What is some advice that Alex can give for building trust with stakeholders?

(17:11) - Where does one start to build up a new supplier base?

(19:15) - How many suppliers should a Procurement professional have in their back pocket?

 (21:09) - How do you develop a supplier who isn’t delivering up to expectations? 

 (25:18) - What are some of the traditional Supplier Relationship Management tactics that are dead now? 

(26:24) - What are some SRM tactics that are here to stay? 

(28:05) - Alex answers our Kodiak Moment round of quick-fire questions

In this episode, we’re joined by Francesco Bassoli, an accomplished Procurement leader and practitioner with over 20 years of experience, having previously served as the CPO of Alcoa and the VP of Global Procurement at Amcor. 

Francesco discusses how his background in engineering has influenced his career in Procurement, how he’s transitioned to different industries during his Procurement career, his thoughts on how Procurement can drive Sustainability within their organizations, and more! 

(00:38) - Introducing Francesco

(01:36) - What does Sourcing and Procurement mean to Francesco?

(03:32) - Why has Procurement typically been seen as a secondary function within organizations even though it’s so vital? 

(06:10) - Has Francesco’s background as an engineer influenced his work in Procurement? 

(08:44) - How has Francesco taken lessons from each of the different industries that he’s worked in during his Procurement career?

(14:08) - Is it challenging to change industries as a Procurement practitioner? And does Francesco have any advice for doing so? 

(17:57) - What does Francesco think that the mega-trend of “Sustainability” means for Procurement and its practitioners? 

(22:56) - How can businesses practically lay the groundwork for sustainable development throughout their supply chains? 

(27:38) - How can Procurement convince their businesses that Sustainability brings a competitive edge? 

(31:28) - Francesco answers our quick-fire round of questions

In this episode, we’re joined by a household name and thought leader in Procurement – Peter Smith. With over 40 years (or make that 30 years) of experience, Peter has worked with Procurement as a practitioner, professor, Managing Editor of Spend Matters Europe, and author of the books “Bad Buying” and “Procurement with Purpose.” He joins us to discuss how he’s seen Procurement evolve during his career and where it’s going in the future, where Procurement is succeeding and “F’ing up,” how to avoid “Bad Buying,” and more! 

(00:40) - Introducing Peter

(02:25) - What does Procurement & Sourcing mean to Peter?

(04:40) - How has the role of Procurement evolved over Peter’s career and why has it changed? 

(08:36) - What topics does Peter see are most pressing for the next generation of Procurement in university? 

(11:45) - How well is the theory of Sustainable Procurement aligning with the actual practice? 

(12:52) - How do Procurement leaders go beyond just “ticking the boxes” and drive truly Sustainable Procurement?

(16:10) - Where does Peter see businesses succeeding and where are they F’ing up? 

(18:52) - How does Peter think that targets are actually influencing Procurement practitioners? 

(22:26) - How does Peter think that businesses are F’ing up? 

(26:13) - What are some steps that Procurement can take to avoid Bad Buying? 

(30:48) - Peter talks about the importance of investing in Contract Management

(34:20) - Peter answers our quick-fire round of questions 

In this episode, we’re joined by Lukas Wawrla, Co-Founder & Managing Director of Archlet. Lukas tells us about how he stumbled into sourcing & procurement with no prior experience while co-founding his sourcing platform in university, how Archlet broke into the sourcing space and found the success it has today, Lukas’s experience as an unexpected procure tech founder, and his thoughts on what the next trends in procurement and sourcing will be. 

(00:44) - Introducing Lukas

(01:30) - What does sourcing & procurement mean to Lukas?

(02:25) - How did Lukas get started in procurement?

(04:05) - What is the mission of Archlet? 

(05:48) - What is Archlet doing differently from other sourcing solutions so they could break into the space? 

(08:17) - How does Lukas think GenAI will change sourcing? 

(10:55) - Are today’s procurement teams digitally mature enough to adopt and utilize GenAI?

(13:45) - How does Archlet ensure that it delights its customers at every step? 

(16:55) - How does Archlet get over hurdles within user adoption? 

(19:27) - How does Lukas find the right balance between standardization and configuration? 

(21:17) - How will procurement get over the hurdles of adopting standardized new solutions? 

(23:00) - Why did Lukas decide to make Archlet with a more consumerized design? 

(25:40) - Why does Lukas think that founders have difficulty talking about losses? 

(30:23) - What tips does Lukas have for other ProcureTech founders or entrepreneurs? 

(32:44) - Lukas answers Sam’s quick-fire round of questions

This episode, we’re joined by a ProcureTech pioneer - Heiko Schwarz, founder & CEO of riskmethods. Heiko discusses his journey as a ProcureTech founder, how risk management has evolved over the last decade, the next big trends he sees coming in procurement, and more! 

(00:39) - Introducing Heiko

(01:11) - What does Sourcing & Procurement mean to Heiko?

(02:20) - How’s life for Heiko as a ProcureTech pioneer?

(03:47) - What does Heiko think will be the next big talent trends in Procurement? 

(05:58) - What products and solutions did Heiko develop with riskmethods? 

(10:44) - How has Heiko seen Supplier Risk Management grow in his career?

(17:10) - Did Heiko ever feel lonely as a founder?

(19:40) - What were the biggest changes that Heiko saw in his business throughout different stages of growth?

(24:11) - What was one of Heiko’s biggest learnings as an entrepreneur?

(27:35) - What was the journey to break into the US market like?

(31:08) - How did riskmethods get their first early-adopter clients in the US?

(33:55) - Heiko answers our quick-fire round of questions 

We’re thrilled to be joined by a household name in the Procurement space, Omer Abdullah - former Principal at A.T. Kearney, co-founder of The Smart Cube, and author of “Risk and Your Supply Chain: Preparing for the Next Global Crisis.” Sam talks to Omer about the changes he’s seen in Procurement in his 30-year career, the adoption of ProcureTech solutions and how it will transform teams in the future, whether the hype around GenAI is justified, and more! 

Timestamps:

(00:40) - Introducing Omer

(01:25) - What does Sourcing & Procurement mean to Omer?

(02:50) - What made Omer decide to work in Procurement?

(04:16) - What is “high performance intelligence” for Procurement in 2023?

(06:50) - Where does Omer think that Procurement teams are lacking intelligence? 

(09:20) - What does Omer think about the hype around GenAI in Procurement?

(12:31) - What Procurement roles will be most affected by GenAI?

(16:11) - What does the effects of technology on Procurement teams mean for ProcureTech vendors? 

(19:17) - Is the future of ProcureTech adoption bottom-up? 

(23:00) - Is the average Procurement team ready for the adoption of cutting-edge ProcureTech or is it still only for the digital natives?

(24:00) - Why is Procurement talking about GenAI so much if most teams aren’t ready to adopt it? 

(25:55) - How do we avoid leaving people behind with the adoption of ProcureTech? 

(27:55) - What’s one think Omer knows now that he wishes he knew at the beginning of his career?

(30:53) - Omer answers our quick-fire round of questions

This week, we’re joined by Fredrik Taube, Head of Procurement at Söderberg & Partners and former Head of Sourcing for Ericsson. Fredrik discusses how he began his career in Sales at Ericsson before transitioning to Procurement and leading Ericsson’s global Sourcing team. He shares some lessons that he’s learned from having sat on both sides of the table to develop a 360-Degree Procurement Mindset and his experience with building a Procurement organization from scratch. 

Timestamps:

(01:24) - What does Sourcing & Procurement mean for Fredrik?

(02:08) - How did Fredrik end up working in Procurement?

(02:54) - Fredrik talks about his current procurement role at Söderberg & Partners

(03:50) - What lessons from Fredrik’s career has he taken into his work today? 

(05:31) - What are the most important tools for a Procurement professional to successfully transition into a new organization? 

(06:41) - What can Procurement learn from Sales, and vice-versa? 

(07:55) - How can Procurement & Sales improve their understanding of each other’s perspectives and needs? 

(09:18) - How has Fredrik seen an evolution in Buyer-Supplier relationships during his career?

(12:47) - What was the most challenging aspect of transitioning to Fredrik’s current position? 

(16:45) - What advice does Fredrik have for someone with the opportunity to build up a new Procurement org? 

(20:00) - How does talent recruitment differ between different types of Procurement teams? 

(21:26) - How does Fredrik assure that he stays current and up-to-date throughout his career? 

(23:59) - What does Fredrik see his Procurement peers doing right and wrong? 

(26:10) - What tips does Fredrik have for staying close to the pulse of a business operationally? 

(27:10) - What else are Procurement teams getting right today? 

(28:40) - What is something that Fredrik knows today that he wishes he knew at the beginning of his career? 

(30:59) - Fredrik answers our round of quick-fire questions