698: Optimizing Procurement’s Source-to-Pay Strategy w/ Baber Farooq

Procurement 6 is a short podcast from Art of Procurement that publishes in the Art of Procurement feed every Friday morning at 6am US Eastern Time. Presented by a member of the Art of Procurement team, each episode has 6 short segments that summarize the week in procurement. Segments range from procurement tips to podcast summaries, from details of events to news or overviews of blog posts that capture our attention.

Procurement teams within private equity firms manage hundreds of portfolio teams worldwide. They must prove the value they create with each program at any given moment. With precise, robust data not always available, these teams are left to determine supplemental ways to demonstrate cost savings, capex reductions, and cost avoidance to C-suite stakeholders. In this episode, Philip sits down with Paul Dhaliwal, Director of the U.S. Capstone Team at KKR, at the 2024 CoreTrust Conference in Tampa to discuss how GPOs play a key role in driving value and change across private equity portfolios. They also dive into how Paul and his team use GPO relationships to tell a clearer story with the data they have. Paul shares his insight on leveraging GPOs within private equity, including: The specific metrics and methods his team uses to measure procurement value across KKR’s portfolio How identifying critical areas of engagement with the right GPO partner empowers teams to leverage those relationships and drive results at scale Why private equity procurement teams need to track the right data points and build credibility so they can sell a specific story with greater ease. Links: Paul Dhaliwal on LinkedIn Subscribe to This Week in Procurement

Procurement 6 is a short podcast from Art of Procurement that publishes in the Art of Procurement feed every Friday morning at 6am US Eastern Time. Presented by a member of the Art of Procurement team, each episode has 6 short segments that summarize the week in procurement. Segments range from procurement tips to podcast summaries, from details of events to news or overviews of blog posts that capture our attention.

“A contract lifecycle management platform drives processes for you. That drives your price down, your risk down, and you get the best of all worlds like procurement wants." - Paul Bagley, Director of Commercial Contracting at Acosta Historically, procurement viewed contracts as a legal formality, something only to be referred to when things go wrong with a supplier.  This outdated approach leaves a goldmine of untapped value and insight on the table, and it’s time for procurement to have a mindset shift when it comes to the way they use, store, value, and leverage digital contracts. In this episode, Philip Ideson and Kelly Barner talk with Paul Bagley, Director of Commercial Contracting at Acosta, and Toby Laforest, Director of Product Marketing at Ironclad, about how procurement can leverage the full potential of digital contracts and the technology required to make it happen. They’ll explain:  Why digital contacts are strategic assets that can provide bottom-line value to the business Why most procurement teams are currently not taking advantage of AI and contract lifecycle management platforms to extract value from their contracts (and what that mistake is costing them) The myriad benefits procurement - and the business - will see when they normalize contract discussions and regularly refer to contract-based insights with suppliers and stakeholders Links: Paul Bagley on LinkedIn Toby Laforest on LinkedIn Watch on Demand: Connecting the Dots with Digital Contracts Subscribe to This Week in Procurement

Procurement 6 is a short podcast from Art of Procurement that publishes in the Art of Procurement feed every Friday morning at 6am US Eastern Time. Presented by a member of the Art of Procurement team, each episode has 6 short segments that summarize the week in procurement. Segments range from procurement tips to podcast summaries, from details of events to news or overviews of blog posts that capture our attention.

“You have to make investments in your supplier network if you want to be successful. The old days of ‘I have to win, and you have to lose’ are gone. We are so transparent. We are using technology. Relationships are key.” - Frank McKay, Chief Supply Chain & Procurement Officer, Jabil In 2023, Jabil conducted a 2023 Supply Chain Survey in collaboration with SIS International Research. In this episode, Philip Ideson sits down with Frank McKay, Chief Supply Chain & Procurement Officer at Jabil to discuss the results, which pinpointed things like cost reduction, customer satisfaction, communication, and visibility as some of procurement’s top-of-mind challenges.  In addition to sharing his own experiences as a practitioner for over 25 years, Frank also discusses his perspective on the evolving role of procurement and how they can better reduce supply chain operational costs, as well as how Chief Supply Chain Officers should be adjusting their strategies in response to rapidly shifting global supply chain dynamics and volatility.  In the episode, they also explore: How procurement should be integrating AI and machine learning technologies into their processes to elevate their function and drive greater impact The complex nature of managing global supply chains and how to meet these challenges How procurement can help build more resilient supply chains that can adapt to geopolitical tensions, market volatility, and rapid technological advancements  Links: Subscribe to This Week in Procurement

Procurement 6 is a short podcast from Art of Procurement that publishes in the Art of Procurement feed every Friday morning at 6am US Eastern Time. Presented by a member of the Art of Procurement team, each episode has 6 short segments that summarize the week in procurement. Segments range from procurement tips to podcast summaries, from details of events to news or overviews of blog posts that capture our attention.

“At the end of the day, we exist to try and help the procurement profession be more impactful. That’s the lens through which we look at everything.” - Philip Ideson, Founder and Managing Director of Art of Procurement In this milestone 700th episode, Art of Procurement Founder and Managing Director Philip Ideson has the tables turned on him as he’s interviewed by longtime friend and colleague Mark Holyoake, Owner and Managing Director of Holyoake Search.  In this special conversation, recorded face-to-face, Philip gets personal about his journey from an early career in automotive procurement to the motivations behind his decision to launch the Art of Procurement and how AOP’s evolution into a successful media and advisory company has challenged and strengthened Philip’s own leadership skills along the way.  Philip shares his insights with Mark on what it takes to succeed as an entrepreneur and how resilience, continuous learning, and embracing change are essential to that success.  Highlights from the episode include:  How a rocky entry into the procurement profession was buoyed by his passion for travel and learning about new cultures Recounting the evolution of Art of Procurement from its early days of content creation to the most successful, longest-running podcast in the industry, along with a growing advisory and consulting arm that connects practitioners with subject matter experts The essential skills that have helped Art of Procurement achieve success, including forward-thinking, relationship building, understanding ROI versus just cost, and resilience in the face of challenges.  Links: Subscribe to This Week in Procurement Mark Holyoake on LinkedIn Philip Ideson on LinkedIn AOP Episode 001: Welcome to the Art of Procurement, with Philip Ideson The Journey to 1 Million Downloads of the Art of Procurement Podcast w/ Philip Ideson and Kelly Barner

Procurement 6 is a short podcast from Art of Procurement that publishes in the Art of Procurement feed every Friday morning at 6am US Eastern Time. Presented by a member of the Art of Procurement team, each episode has 6 short segments that summarize the week in procurement. Segments range from procurement tips to podcast summaries, from details of events to news or overviews of blog posts that capture our attention.

“In some weird sense, as we see the power of technology, the more apprehensive we get about how much information it should have.” - Baber Farooq, Senior Vice President, Market Strategy, Procurement Solutions at SAP Procurement leaders face a number of challenges in optimizing their source-to-pay processes, and they are increasingly relying on AI tools to address those challenges.  In this episode, Philip speaks talks with Baber Farooq, Senior Vice President, Market Strategy, Procurement Solutions at SAP, about the positive and negative trends he is seeing across source-to-pay, including in spend analytics, data management and governance, category management, risk management, scenario planning, and AI integration.   Baber shares his insights on evolving trends in source-to-pay, including: How spend analytics has emerged as the number one technology imperative where AI can enable cost savings and risk management insights Why scenario planning is gaining importance in category management for better risk management amid increased volatility The skills and talent procurement will need to keep up with a shrinking labor force and growing digital demands Links: Subscribe to This Week in Procurement Baber Farooq on LinkedIn [Pod] Bridging the Confidence Gap to Achieve the Best Business Outcomes w/ Baber Farooq [Pod] Helping Procurement Push the Envelope w/ Baber Farooq