Transformation Never Ends: Ken Smith on His Journey from Accenture to TekWissen

Dawn Tiura sits down with Ken Smith, Chief Transformation Officer at TekWissen. Ken spent 27 years at Accenture, where he built its contingent labor program and led procurement for North America and LATAM. He talks about why he joined TekWissen after retiring in 2024 and about his "one team" approach to transformation across the company's global offices. His advice to his younger self: step out of your comfort zone sooner.

Business transformation veteran Joe Postiglione, former CPO at Credit One and the NBA, joins Dawn Tiura to discuss his new book, Protecting Expected Outcomes in the Age of AI: Why Implementation Must Evolve and the Emergence of Commercial Control. Joe explains why AI implementations often fail to deliver results even when executed perfectly and introduces "commercial control" — building real-time monitoring into implementation plans so expected outcomes stay on track and issues get flagged before the business case falls apart. He'll be speaking on the topic at SIG's San Francisco One Day Event on October 1st at Box headquarters.  

AI is reshaping the workplace — and for most people, that shift brings equal parts excitement and fear. Kevin Surace, a Silicon Valley inventor with 94 worldwide patents and named CNBC's Top Innovator of the Decade, argues the two don't have to be at odds. Join Kevin at the SIG Global Executive Summit, taking place October 25–28 at Navy Pier in Chicago, as he introduces the Joy Success Cycle — a methodology built on the idea that joy isn't the reward for success, it's one of the forces that creates it. Kevin's keynote presentation will unpack how offloading joyless tasks to AI can free people up for the strategic, high-value work they actually love, and share practical tools for identifying "joy killers" and building more joy into everyday work. Attendees will leave with a new lens on AI: not as a threat to navigate, but as a force multiplier for the work — and the joy — that matters most. 

Everyone's talking about what AI can do — but almost no one is talking about how to actually roll it out with people, not just technology, in mind. In her SIG Summit workshop, AI Change Management for Leadership: Leading Organizational Transformation with Artificial Intelligence, Candiss Kumar, a veteran of sourcing and procurement leadership, will make the case for treating AI adoption as a leadership and business transformation challenge rather than a tech rollout. Drawing on decades of experience guiding organizational change, Candiss will explore why AI triggers a different kind of resistance than past tools — touching on identity, trust, and job security in ways prior technologies never did — and share practical strategies for rolling out AI top-down with clear communication and purpose. Attendees will leave with a framework they can apply to any transformative change effort, not just AI, and a clearer sense of how to bring people along rather than leave them behind.

Small dollar claims and disputes rarely move the needle on a P&L — but how they're handled can make or break supplier trust for years. Join Christine Kurtz at the SIG Global Executive Summit, taking place October 25–28 at Navy Pier in Chicago, as she unpacks the psychology behind why suppliers remember the small moments more than the big wins, and how a simple shift in approach — choosing not to pursue certain claims — can transform negotiations, speed up reimbursements, and build a lasting "ledger of trust." Attendees will walk away with a new lens on tail spend: it may be small in dollars, but it carries outsized influence on relationships, risk, and long-term supplier behavior.

In this engaging interview, Scott Conti, CEO of BB Merchant Services, shares insights into the world of merchant services, emphasizing the importance of transparency, fair market value, and strategic procurement. Discover how BB Merchant Services helps organizations optimize payment processing costs without switching providers and learn about the evolving landscape of payment solutions.

In this episode, host Dawn Tiura sits down with Gautam Pasari, Founder and CEO of True ValueHub, to explore how his 20+ years in manufacturing and supply chain led him to build a platform that gives procurement teams unprecedented visibility into cost, risk, and carbon — all in one place. Gautam shares how True ValueHub won SIG's inaugural Startup Pitch Competition in 2024, generating over 150 inbound leads in 30 days, and how the company has nearly doubled in size every four to six months since. The conversation also touches on navigating today's tariff volatility, the collapse of the traditional sourcing cycle, and why carbon is quickly becoming a bottom-line issue for manufacturers worldwide.

In this podcast episode, host Dawn Tiura interviews Future of Sourcing winner, Adrian Dragomir.  Adrian is a seasoned procurement professional with a diverse career spanning aerospace, retail, and financial services. Adrian shares his journey into procurement, the importance of leadership and team building, and his experiences transitioning between industries. He discusses the challenges and excitement of adapting to new environments, navigating regulations, and the role of AI in procurement. The conversation also highlights insights from the recent SIG Summit in India as well as his Future of Sourcing win at the past Global Executive Summit.  

Every procurement organization wants to add more strategic value to the enterprise—but not every organization needs a full-scale transformation to do so. Listen in as Jake Taylor, Managing Director for ProcureAbility, discusses how leaders can take a choose-your-own-adventure approach to strategic procurement, starting with an unbiased assessment of what's actually broken. From stakeholder misalignment and fragmented processes to outdated systems and unclear success metrics, progress starts with big-picture clarity. Jake explores how to assess whether your organization is ready for a bold transformation—or whether targeted tuning will deliver faster, more sustainable impact while building the business case and executive momentum for a broader future scope. His discussion with Dawn Tiura, CEO & President of SIG will include insights on: Diagnosing the Real Problem: How to move beyond generic improvement goals and clearly identify root causes—across stakeholders, processes, data, capabilities, and technology. Transform vs. Tune Decisions: When a holistic procurement transformation makes sense—and when focused, high-impact tuning is the smarter path. What Makes Transformation Possible: Why a clear business case and executive mandate are non-negotiable for large-scale change, and what to do when they don't exist.

In this podcast episode, Dawn Tiura interviews Stan Garber, co-founder and president of Levelpath, discussing the transformative impact of AI on procurement processes. They explore the differences between AI-native solutions and traditional tools, the barriers to AI adoption, and the potential for AI to enhance team collaboration and efficiency. Stan shares insights from his entrepreneurial journey and emphasizes the importance of integrating AI into workflows to achieve significant improvements in productivity.