At the recent Long View Systems #ActivateDigital2018 Conference, I had the opportunity to meet with some of the most notable thought leaders from the high tech industry and beyond. In what is the first of eight podcast interviews I did with amazing individuals such as Microsoft’s new President Kevin Peesker, NetApp’s Jon Mellon, and HPE’s new Vice …

At the recent Long View Systems #ActivateDigital2018 Conference, I had the opportunity to meet with some of the most notable thought leaders from the high tech industry and beyond to talk about digital transformation and its impact on everything from business, to the economy and even gender from the standpoint of the pressing need for more women in…

Back in April I welcomed Ivalua SVP Sales and Business Development Amol Joshi to the show to talk about the company's big win Arizona, as well as successes with Quebec Hydro, Toronto’s Cadillac Fairview, and other notable account wins including US Foods, Honeywell and Credit Suisse. To say that Ivalua is a company on the rise may be an understateme…

In October I had the privilege of moderating two panels featuring international industry experts discussing some of our industry's most pressing questions. I am pleased to provide you with this PI Window On The World exclusive broadcast of one of those discussions which were on supplier risk assessment and mitigation. INNOVATION TRACK (Lafitte Room…

Okay, so I took some liberties with the famous Mark Twain, and Charles Dudley Warner joke about the weather and made it about risk. However, and different from the weather, procurement professionals can do something about risk, but for whatever reason choose not to. At least this is what one study reported when it was disclosed that while 80 percen…

On April 10th, 2017, I received a press release announcing that Spend Matters released its first SolutionMap, an essential tool for procurement executives and their teams to assess and understand vendor capability on an ongoing basis. In today's segment, I am joined by Spend Matters' Chief Research Officer Pierre Mitchell to talk about SolutionMap,…

Okay, so I took some liberties with the famous Mark Twain, and Charles Dudley Warner joke about the weather and made it about risk. However, and different from the weather, procurement professionals can do something about risk, but for whatever reason choose not to. At least this is what one study reported when it was disclosed that while 80 percen…

The Procurious Big Ideas Summit that is scheduled to take place on September 28th in Chicago promises to bring across the pond the same energy and insights as last years event in the UK. To do this, the organizers have lined up an impressive array of speakers, one of whom will be joining me today. Over the next 30-minutes, I will be talking with IB…

The Procurious Big Ideas Summit that is scheduled to take place on September 28th in Chicago promises to bring across the pond the same energy and insights as last years event in the UK. To do this, the organizers have lined up an impressive array of speakers, one of whom will be joining me today. Over the next 30-minutes, I will be talking with Am…

The Procurious Big Ideas Summit that is scheduled to take place on September 28th in Chicago promises to bring across the pond the same energy and insights as last years event in the UK. To do this, the organizers have lined up an impressive array of speakers, one of whom will be joining me today. Over the next 30-minutes, I will be talking with Si…

PROACTIS, the Wetherby-based provider of spend management solutions, recently completed the reverse takeover of US-based Perfect Commerce, LLC for an aggregate consideration of up to $132.5 million (approximately £102.4 million). It has been reported that the acquisition will significantly "accelerate PROACTIS’ growth strategy and its geographic fo…

Everycs, a data and software engineering company focused on product intelligence, has just joined forces with environmental consultant GreenDelta to connect their Makersite platform with the world's life-cycle data, augment it with other information, and enable faster, distributed collaboration for procurement professionals. Joining me today to tal…

Today I will be joined by Ivalua’s SVP Sales and Business Development Amol Joshi to talk about the upstart company's big win with the State of Arizona. Ironically, the use of the term upstart is somewhat deceiving, because Ivalua has been around for 15 years. The moniker, however, is appropriate because the win with Arizona as well as with Cadillac…

One top public sector procurement expert suggests that the additional $2 million that Santa Clara County is going to pay to KPMG to review its procurement practice makes absolutely no sense. Or as he put it, there is no amount of service or insight that KPMG – or any consulting firm for that matter, can provide that would come close to justifying n…

The partnership between THOMASNET.com (formerly the Thomas Register), a company that is more than 100 years old, and Dun & Bradstreet (a company that is more than 150 years old) to protect supply chains against disruption due to unforeseen risks, is a potential game changer. Today I will be joined by THOMASNET President and CEO, Tony Uphoff, to tal…

Procurement is a cornerstone of a sound supply chain and overall business strategy. Procurify recognizes the importance of innovation and excellence in the profession and is committed to rewarding those organizations and individuals showing leadership and dedication to driving it forward, impacting their teams, organizations, communities and the wo…

Last month I welcomed to the show Procurious' Tania Seary to talk about the state of our industry and the then upcoming Big Ideas Conference. Today, I am once again joined by Tania Seary, to not only revisit some of the questions we discussed last time, but to learn about any new revelations that resulted from the event, including their impact on t…

In this advanced briefing of their presentation at the upcoming ISM2016 conference titled "Why Buyers Find it Tough to Connect with SMB Suppliers and What They Can Do About It"?, I am happy to welcome to the show Tom Greco, vice president, THOMASNET.com, and Travis Sherbine, vice president, marketing and product management, THOMASNET.com.…

Nicole Verkindt is a frequent commentator on Canadian news outlets CBC's Exchange, "The Round Up", and is a "Dragon" on CBC's "Next Gen Dragons Den" focused on investing in early stage technology start ups. She is also the founder of OMX (theomx.com), an online platform that helps organizations "buy local" by pushing out opportunities to organizati…

Today I am pleased to wlecome to the show this year's Top 30 Under 30 Megawatt Winner Amy Georgi to talk about not only her participation in the ThomasNet/ISM Top 30 Program, but also about a profession that is going through a major transformation, and the role GenerationNext professionals will play in shaping the future. In this regard, I am going…

Back in 2013, our expert panel identified Market Dojo as one of the first New Wave Companies to watch. Here we are in 2016 and we want to know how the has company fared during a time of significant change and transformation. Today I will be joined by executives from Market Dojo as I ask them the following three questions: How has the company evolve…

If knowledge is indeed power, is the ability to access people and information faster, cheaper and conveniently anytime, from anywhere, the definitive game changer in the procurement world? Joining me today to talk about her vision that became Procurious is Tania Seary. During this 30 minute segment I will be asking her the following questions: 1. I…

The Hackett Group's Chris Sawchuk joins me to talk about the agile procurement practice and why it is important in today's volatile market. In today's segment, we will focus on the following key points: In the upcoming Procurious' Big Ideas Summit on April 21, you are going to be talking about the need for procurement to be agile in a volatile mark…

“I’m literally trying to think through and just imagine what the possible justification for this could be. First of all, to do tens of millions of dollars in contracts without shopping around to get the best deal, and then secondly to keep that a secret. What possible justification can there be for that?” – Todd MacKay, Canadian Taxpayers Federatio…

Joining me today to talk about this year's Top 30 Under 30 Awards Program - which acknowledges the up and coming young superstars of the procurement world, are M.L. Peck Senior Vice President, Program and Product Development at ISM and, Donna Cicale, Director of Audience Development from ThomasNet. During this segment we will be focusing on the fol…

Procurement and social media . . . is it a pairing made in heaven or the other place? In this month's Point - Counterpoint discussion, Kelly Barner and Jon Hansen talk about the impact that social media has (and ultimately will) have on our profession.

It is that time of year again, when the chill in the air and the warmth in our hearts lead to the lifelong memories of Christmas lights and sugar cookies, stockings hung and the excitement of Santa's imminent arrival. So kids of all ages, both young and old, take a seat by the fire and the twinkling lights of your tree as we celebrate the Festive S…

It is no secret that press releases about new contract wins, and bold proclamations of increasing market share stir up the media. That said, there is there is a world of difference between winning a contract and actually delivering the expected outcome. The problem is that rarely do we hear about the latter with has much fanfare as the former. In t…

This week our guest audio excerpt is from an unusually entertaining video from Next Level Purchasing Association President Charles Dominick on traditional vs non traditional approaches to recruiting. The video was posted to YouTube on November 9th, so here is what I'm guessing happened. Right after the NLPA Halloween party, Charles found a box of l…

This week's guest audio excerpt is from a recent ProcureChange webinar on 'Applying Outsourcing Best Practices to Improve the Performance of your Internal Procurement Group.' In this event, ProcureChange founder Phil Ideson walked through ten best practices, but he focused in depth on three: putting formal statement's of work in place, investing in…

According to an October 8th, 2015 article in the Portland Business Journal, The Oregon Supreme Court “sided with the state and denied Oracle America’s attempt to dismiss its top brass as defendants in the state’s lawsuit.” In today's segment I am joined by Buyers Meeting Point's Kelly Barner to talk about the consequences of this seminal decision a…

This week's guest audio excerpt features Rita Gunther McGrath, the author of The End of Competitive Advantage. She was interviewed by CREW Network CEO Gail Ayers before speaking at their 2015 Network Convention and Marketplace. The whole interview is only 10 minutes long, and covers a number of topics including advanced strategic planning, challeng…

Today our guest audio excerpt comes from a recent Procurify webinar featuring Procurious Founder Tania Seary. The event, titled 'Global Networks and Disruptors in Procurement' addressed everything from innovation to the war for talent, and of course, social media. The webinar is available on demand here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_swIQIz8QA …

In this week's guest audio, BCG Consulting's Robert Tevelson offers up three ways procurement can drive value for the business. Tevelson has headed up BCG's procurement practice for the last ten years, and prior to that he was a Vice President at A.T. Kearney. In this two-minute excerpt, we'll hear two lists of three. The first list of three is the…

This week's guest audio takes on the topic of collaboration, including why it is becoming more prevalent than it has been in the past. The video this comes from – and which is available on YouTube, was produced by NEC Contracts, a provider of product and service contract frameworks used primarily by the Construction industry in the UK. The conversa…

Jon Hansen and Kelly Barner are the co-authors of ‘Procurement at a Crossroads: Career Impacting Insights into a Rapidly Changing Industry’ (November 2015) takes a close look at the field of procurement during a time of extraordinary transition. In the book, the authors identify nine key questions critical to those in the profession and then presen…

In this week's guest audio, we look at procurement from a particularly illuminating perspective – and that is the sales perspective. Elliot Epstein is the CEO of Salient Communications and as a sales professional he has partnered with CIPS to bring sales and procurement professionals to better understand each other. In this excerpt he addresses wha…

This week's guest audio touches on the dark side of collaborative business relationships – the fallout for all parties if and when they fail. It was recently reported that Suzuki and Volkswagen have finally completed their 'divorce' or the breakup of their 2009 partnership that was supposed to bring market, manufacturing, and technical expertise to…

This week's guest audio comes from Dustin Mattison. His Future of Supply Chain podcast series offers weekly interviews with leading supply chain thought leaders. The podcasts can be seen on YouTube and his blog is part of the Kinaxis Supply Chain Expert Community. In this podcast Mattison interviews Julio Franca, a Director at the global, boutique …

Panel Discussion on The Politics of Procurement This week's guest audio comes from a panel discussion moderated by Code for America. They create open source solutions and facilitate a collaborative community around their use. Code for America also hosts an annual summit that brings together public sector innovators and the organizations that collab…

This week our guest audio comes from Acquire Procurement Services, a consultancy based in Australia specializing in establishing and re-negotiating contracts across sectors. Their video is titled 'Why do we treat employees and suppliers differently?' and is available on their YouTube channel.In it, they draw a contrast between the information compa…

While part of ISM2015 is celebrating the past 100 years, it’s more about focusing on the 100 years ahead. Thomas W. Derry, ISM CEO, made that focus front and center during his press conference to launch the ISM Mastery Model. The ISM Mastery Model is a major step forward in training practitioners and growing the profession. Joining me today to talk…

Procurement Career Development - Is MBA vs. Certification a False Choice? This week our audio comes from a Financial Times conversation with Ian Clarke, Dean of the University of Edinburgh Business School. The core question in the discussion is whether MBA programs provide professionals with the skills and knowledge they need to have competitive ca…

Since January, we have been airing a series of what you could call informal, off the cuff interviews with a number of executives and experts from various areas of the procurement world, regarding what I would consider to be the three most important questions in our industry for 2015. While there are certainly more questions regarding the procuremen…

With sources indicating that trouble is brewing with the Government of Ontario's implementation of the Bravo Tendering platform, the company's VP Dan Warn joins us up close to set the record straight. About the show's up close format: My up close series follows a casual format - there isn't even my usual intro music. It is in essence a real heart-t…

In this Procurement Perspectives Podcast, Kelly Barner shares guest audio from the ThomasNet and ISM 30 Under 30 supply chain rising stars program. They hosted a panel-style interview and discussion with some of the 2014 award recipients at this year's ISM conference. The excerpt I am going to share now starts with a question from Supply Chain Mana…

In this Procurement Perspectives Podcast, Kelly Barner shares guest audio from Tim Cummins, CEO of ISM, speaking at a recent NEC seminar. In it, he talks about the changes in approach companies will need to make to how they facilitate collaboration through contracts given the increases in complexity and uncertainty. The full interview can be viewed…

In this Procurement Perspectives podcast, Kelly Barner shares guest audio from the Cranfield School of Management featuring Rob Maguire, a partner at Maguire Izzat. In it, he talks about the skills vs. results paradox that is affecting both sales and procurement organizations today. The full interview can be viewed on YouTube here: https://www.yout…

In this Procurement Perspectives podcast, Kelly Barner shares guest audio from a recent CBS Evening News broadcast about the Lumber Liquidators laminate flooring scandal involving their overseas suppliers. The sudden resignation of their CEO last week serves as an interesting case example of Proxima Group's recent research findings about consumer r…

In this Procurement Perspectives podcast, Kelly Barner shares guest audio from Marie Meliksetian, CEO of Reliance Solution Services, from a recent Procurement Unplugged interview. In this excerpt she talks about how every part of our approach (mindset, skillset, and processes) need to change in order for us to become truly collaborative. If you wan…