Strategic Divestments: Turning Factory Closures into Supplier Innovation Opportunities W/ Alessandro Comerci

"The strategic rationale of selling is not really to make money. It's about preserving 200-plus jobs and making sure your colleagues have continuity in their lives." - Alessandro Comerci Strategic divestitures and factory closures have become more common as organizations reshape their portfolios and seek agility. For procurement, these aren't just commercial events: they affect livelihoods, brand trust, and supplier ecosystems. Navigating them well demands a broader set of skills, perspective, and empathy than most of us learn in our core work. In this episode, procurement veteran Alessandro Comerci draws on hard-earned experience negotiating large corporate divestments for Procter & Gamble. Alessandro reveals how job preservation, trust-rebuilding, and a nuanced understanding of local realities can drive better outcomes than straightforward cost calculations ever could.  If you've ever faced tough transitions or wondered how procurement leaders adapt to 'the other side' of the table, Alessandro's practical, candid insights will strike a chord. In this episode, Alessandro covers: How job preservation and trust-shaping drive strategic divestments How procurement skills translate to high-stakes selling Why supplier relationships outlast the deal and why that matters How divestments can spark unexpected supplier-led innovation Links: Alessandro Comerci on LinkedIn Subscribe to This Week in Procurement Subscribe to Art of Procurement on YouTube  

Procurement doesn't have a data problem. It has a data delusion. For 25 years, the function has told itself the same story: if we can just clean up our spend, we'll finally be in control. And yet here we are… swimming in the same dashboards, drowning in fields, and still struggling to answer a simple question: what do we spend? In this episode of Buy: The Way…To Purposeful Procurement, Jason Busch, founder of Spend Matters and now a self-described builder of AI "co-workers," returns to the podcast to pressure-test BuyLaw #5: "prioritize comprehensive, high-quality data." If procurement wants to operate in a world of AI employees, continuous validation, and P&L accountability, their data cannot remain partial, fragmented, or shaped by suppliers.  Jason draws a sharp distinction between the roles or entities that manage procurement data: copilots, agents, and what he calls digital co-workers (multi-agent infrastructures capable of executing complex work autonomously). But all that capability comes with a catch. When the marginal cost of activity drops toward zero, the absolute risk of bad data increases exponentially. Humans have the battle scars and the intuition to know when something isn't quite right with the data. AI doesn't, unless we explicitly teach it what 'right' looks like. That's where procurement's comfort with incomplete data becomes dangerous. For decades, the function has relied on narrow slices of information: negotiated price, historical spend, maybe a market index or two, but in an AI-enabled world, that's insufficient. Jason explains why context means everything – supplier financial health, commodity forecasts, tariffs, inventory signals, competitive pricing, risk data, contract performance signals, governance structures, and the cultural guardrails that determine how decisions are made. If procurement feeds incomplete, biased, or poorly governed data into increasingly autonomous systems, those systems won't just make mistakes faster; they'll actually end up institutionalizing them and making procurement's data problem unnecessarily worse. Jason's advice for procurement is pragmatic and urgent: set up a data governance committee tomorrow. Not to tidy historical spend, but to define what data matters, which sources are trustworthy, what tolerances exist for error, and at what point autonomous systems are allowed to act on that data. In a world of digital co-workers, incomplete data isn't a nuisance. It's a real, human liability. Links: Jason Busch on LinkedIn Rich Ham on LinkedIn Learn more at FineTuneUs.com  

"Procurement tools traditionally look at history. To make better decisions, we need to start looking forward." - Tomas Wiemer, Global Multi-Industry Procurement & Digitalization Executive Procurement teams are under pressure to contribute much more than just savings…  They're being asked to provide strategic intelligence, support faster decisions, and become true business partners. But as organizations look to digital platforms and unified data, many leaders find that legacy models and fragmented systems hold them back. In this episode, global procurement and digitization leader Tomas Wiemer joins Philip Ideson to discuss how procurement's role is changing and what leaders can do to keep up. Tomas shares lessons from building high-performing procurement teams across industries and continents, including why structured data and decisioning platforms are now essential for strategic influence. You'll hear what's working (and what's not) as procurement navigates the shift from transactional control to value-focused partnerships, and get practical ideas for where to start… even if your tech stack is limited or your organization is in the early stages of a transformation journey.  During their conversation, Tomas explains how to: Navigate the shift from transactional work to strategic sourcing focus Build the business case for investing in procurement technology and data Start with the right data and metrics, no matter your maturity level Use decisioning platforms to deepen business partnerships and speed action Links: Tomas Wiemer on LinkedIn Subscribe to This Week in Procurement Subscribe to Art of Procurement on YouTube

In this episode of the ProcureTech Insider Startup of the Week, host Jyothi Hartley speaks with Ricky Ho, Co-Founder and CEO of SourceReady, about how AI and big data are transforming global supplier discovery and sourcing strategy. SourceReady is building an AI-powered sourcing platform designed to automate the most time-consuming parts of the sourcing process – from supplier discovery to quote comparison and risk analysis. With access to 1.2 million suppliers across 100 countries, the platform helps procurement and sourcing teams uncover new suppliers, analyze risk, and streamline supplier communication. Ricky shares how his background in a family textile business and his experience building and selling a supply chain startup led him to create SourceReady. Together, they discuss the limitations of traditional supplier directories, the growing complexity of global sourcing, and how AI agents can help procurement teams focus on strategy rather than manual tasks. Links: SourceReady Provider Profile Download the 2025-26 ProcureTech100 Yearbook Subscribe to This Week in Procurement Subscribe to Art of Procurement on YouTube  

"The winners will be the people who make it happen themselves. The losers will be the ones that just bury their heads in the sand." - Andrew Daley, Managing Director, Digital Procurement and Supply Chain at Edbury Daley The AI revolution is transforming procurement faster than ever before. Whether you're upskilling your team or rethinking your operating model, the choices you make now will set the pace for your entire function tomorrow. In this episode, Andrew Daley, Managing Director of Digital Procurement and Supply Chain at Edbury Daley, returns to share what he's seeing on the front lines of talent acquisition and digital transformation.  He explains why intellectual curiosity is the most sought-after trait in the AI era, how leading CPOs are shifting their strategies, and what separates thriving professionals from those at risk of being left behind. His advice: don't just keep up… get ahead. Andrew's practical perspective and new research data will spark ideas for every procurement leader ready to make their mark. In this episode, Andrew covers: How to identify the mindset that sets top procurement talent apart in an AI-driven world What leading organizations are (and aren't) doing to upskill their teams How AI-driven change will impact future operating models New survey data on AI adoption and readiness in procurement Actionable advice for building an AI-capable team Links: Andrew Daley on LinkedIn Building a 'Dream Scenario' of Procurement Excellence Subscribe to This Week in Procurement Subscribe to Art of Procurement on YouTube  

Procurement's incentive problem doesn't stop at the contract. It gets worse after signature. In this Phil-Ins episode of "Buy: The Way…To Purposeful Procurement," Rich Ham and Philip Ideson are joined by Kelly Barner to unpack three "Buy Laws" at once, mainly because they're inseparable in practice. First: count only what hits the ledger. If the value doesn't show up in actuals, it doesn't count. That means moving procurement out of the projection business and into the results business… where the CFO lives. Second: stop counting only the good. The status quo lets category managers rack up credit for isolated wins while bad outcomes quietly pile up elsewhere. Procurement can't become more credible (or more strategic) if the scoreboard only records highlights. Third: fund a validation function. If you're going to demand that outcomes be real, you have to resource the work that proves it. Validation isn't optional. It's the bridge between negotiation and execution, the place where contract adherence, leakage, "technically compliant but avoidable" spend, and invoice-level reality either confirm the deal… or expose the fiction. Along the way, the conversation also confronts the uncomfortable tension at the heart of all three Buy Laws: procurement can't control everything that drives financial outcomes. But that can't be an excuse to keep rewarding imagined savings. The answer is a healthier system altogether, which should include clear carve-outs, smarter attribution, and a consistent discipline of asking the simplest kinds of questions procurement too often avoids: "this was supposed to be 12… so why is it 15?" If procurement wants to claim value, they have to stay involved long enough to validate it, and build a measurement system strong enough to survive contact with reality. Links: Rich Ham on LinkedIn Learn more at FineTuneUs.com  

"We compete with people's homes more than we do with other coworking locations because my job is to get people to want to come into my spaces, and that is what I focus on every single day." - Sarah Travers, CEO, Workbar The future of work is unfolding quickly, and procurement leaders who also own real estate decisions can't afford to ignore trends in co-working. Whether you need to unlock flexibility, attract top talent, or better control costs, new workplace models are rapidly replacing traditional long-term leases. In this episode, host Philip Ideson speaks with Sarah Travers, CEO of Workbar, a Boston-based coworking company that has built a flexible, community-focused model for organizations of all sizes. With more than two decades of experience shaping the category, Sarah shares the real reasons organizations pivot from headquarters to hub-and-spoke, how team-share memberships de-risk real estate, and what procurement teams should really look for beyond price per square foot. In this episode, Sarah discusses how to: Evaluate new coworking models to flex with your organization's needs Avoid long-term liabilities by shifting to on-demand and shareable passes Select the right mix of local and global providers to reduce risk Build workplace experiences that go beyond convenience to real engagement Links: Sarah Travers on LinkedIn Subscribe to This Week in Procurement Subscribe to Art of Procurement on YouTube  

"Sometimes you just need to recognize that getting from the baseline, whatever your baseline, to the next step… that's really significant." - Jyothi Hartley, Director of Digital Enablement, AOP Art of Procurement is proud to launch a brand-new podcast series: the ProcureTech Insider. The procurement technology market is evolving faster than ever, promising exponential transformation. But what actually works in the real world? ProcureTech Insider exists to take procurement leaders and decision makers beyond the hype. In this new series, we will bring you real-world intelligence from practitioners implementing technology, solution providers building next-generation capabilities, and experts and leaders evaluating what delivers impact in practice. In this first episode, Art of Procurement Founder and Managing Director Philip Ideson welcomes Jyothi Harley, AOP's Director of Digital Enablement, to discuss the vision behind the show and to explore what digital transformation can look like inside visionary procurement teams. With more than 25 years of experience across practitioner, transformation, and advisory roles, Jyothi shares why there is no one-size-fits-all blueprint for procurement technology success. Instead of chasing "big bang" transformation, she explains why incremental progress grounded in culture, timing, and organizational readiness often delivers the most sustainable impact. If you're navigating AI buzz, (re)evaluating your tech stack, or feeling pressure to transform faster than your team may be able to absorb, this conversation – and all of those that will follow it – will help you identify your best next step. In this episode, you'll learn: Why there's no universal playbook for digital procurement transformation How to assess your true starting point before investing in new technology Why incremental progress can be more powerful than sweeping change The role culture, adoption, and timing play in successful implementation How AOP's digital enablement practice bridges strategy and execution This episode also marks Art of Procurement's expanded coverage of the rapidly changing procuretech landscape through regular podcast episodes and the ProcureTech100. Links: Download the 2025-26 ProcureTech100 Yearbook Subscribe to This Week in Procurement Subscribe to Art of Procurement on YouTube  

"The procurement and supply chain professions are ever more relevant to the prosperity of nations and to businesses as we go into the future." - Ben Farrell, Global Chief Executive Officer, The Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS) Striking a balance between tradition and disruption is at the top of the agenda for today's procurement leaders. Whether it's shifting global dynamics, technology, or the push for greater influence, the function's boundaries (and its reputation) are up for grabs. Ben Farrell brings a perspective forged in the British Army, major retail, and boardrooms worldwide. Now, as Global CEO of The Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS), he is focused on driving procurement's global profile and advancing the profession for a new generation.  In this episode, Ben shares hard-won leadership lessons and makes his case for a more visible, empowered procurement function. This is a candid conversation about risk, advocacy, and the urgent need to rebrand procurement for the value-driven world. In this episode, Ben covers: Reframing leadership from constraint to empowerment Navigating risk while still pursuing big opportunities Raising the profile of procurement inside and outside of an organization Embracing new technology as a catalyst, not a threat Why CIPS – and procurement itself – may need a new name Links: Ben Farrell on LinkedIn Subscribe to This Week in Procurement Subscribe to Art of Procurement on YouTube

Procurement's biggest measurement problem isn't that "savings" is incomplete. It's that "savings" has become a substitute for truth. In the first Buy: The Way…To Purposeful Procurement episode of 2026, co-hosts Philip Ideson and Rich Ham unveil the first of the show's new procurement "Buy-laws." It's the one that almost every serious practitioner agrees with, but very few organizations are ready to operationalize: replace savings with defined value. That doesn't mean adding a few extra KPIs in addition to savings. It means removing the word entirely and replacing it with a primary metric that includes verified spend reduction and revenue generation, plus company-specific priorities like emissions reduction, process improvement, resilience, risk reduction, and anything else the business actually cares about.  To help map what this kind of "value" can and should include, Phil and Rich are joined by Omer Abdullah, co-founder of The Smart Cube and co-author of Risk and Your Supply Chain: Preparing for the Next Global Crisis. Omer has spent decades close to the function, advising teams, building intelligence services around procurement decisions, and now working at the intersection of startups, go-to-market strategy, and what he calls a "post-AI" future for procurement. The idea of "post-AI" matters more than it sounds. Omer isn't talking about a world where AI fades away. He's talking about the moment when AI becomes a hygiene factor – embedded, expected, and no longer a differentiator. The result is uncomfortable: once AI takes the transactional load, procurement doesn't automatically become "more strategic." Not unless leaders define what that actually means, what outcomes it should produce, and how to measure those outcomes without defaulting back to the simplest (and most misleading) number on the page. The conversation also goes straight at one of procurement's most corrosive incentives: short-termism. The function keeps making long-term sacrifices for short-term wins because the system asks it to. Rich calls it a "scourge," and Omer lays out what a healthier alternative could look like. He recommends a scorecard that includes in-year expectations, multi-year outcomes that reflect how value compounds over time, and a controlled level of discretionary evaluation to capture the contributions that matter but refuse to sit neatly inside a spreadsheet cell.  Underneath all of this is a truth that the episode doesn't dodge: none of it works without executive support. The CFO and CEO have to buy into procurement's expanded definition of value. Procurement can't wait to be understood; they have to be sold. Procurement is a business within a business, and the C-suite is its most important customer. If leaders don't see the function's potential, it's on procurement to advocate, educate, and prove (through better definitions and better scorekeeping) that the status quo isn't merely outdated. It's actively harmful. Links: Omer Abdullah on LinkedIn Rich Ham on LinkedIn Learn more at FineTuneUs.com