“I understand that tension between procurement and legal could happen, but it really is a disservice to each other. It's like two brothers fighting. It doesn't make any sense.” - Paul Bagley, Director of Commercial Contracting, Acosta Group

Procurement and legal often find themselves at odds, despite the fact that they’re usually working toward the same goals for the business. We can usually trace this tension back to a few key areas like contract cycle times, risk management approaches, decision-making processes, or contract negotiations. But, when procurement and legal are true collaborators and combine their expertise, they can create measurably better outcomes for the business.

To get to that point, both sides need to get to the root of the tension and develop workable processes and expectations that leverage the strengths of both teams without creating bottlenecks or roadblocks… for anyone.

In this episode of Art of Procurement, Philip Ideson speaks with Paul Bagley, Director of Commercial Contracting at Acosta Group. Paul has a unique perspective as both an attorney and an experienced procurement professional. Because of that, he is able to directly challenge the notion that conflict between procurement and legal is inevitable, and he advocates instead for a more collaborative, supportive approach between the two.

In this episode, Paul explains:

• How effective category management is the key to creating alignment between procurement, legal, and business stakeholders
• The importance of empowering procurement with clear contract guidelines and fallback provisions so legal doesn’t become unnecessarily overinvolved
• Best practices for working with outside council or third-party legal teams
• Practical ways procurement can level-up their knowledge about legal’s role, improve their contracts, and stay current on what risks to look out for

Links:

• Paul Bagley on LinkedIn
• The Future of Digital Contract Management
• Subscribe to This Week in Procurement
• Subscribe to Art of Procurement on YouTube

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’re not going to be able to completely eliminate your tariff exposure. There are three frames under which to think about tariffs: How will you mitigate in the short term? How will you think about it in the medium term from your customer's perspective and pricing? And how will you think about a long-term realignment of supply chains?” - Richeek Maitra, Director, AlixPartners

With tariffs dominating the news cycle and sending global markets on a wild ride, procurement is scrambling to figure out the practical implications of tariffs on global supply chains and their own organization’s procurement strategy.

In this timely Art of Procurement podcast episode, host Philip Ideson welcomes Richeek Maitra, a Director at AlixPartners and an expert on tariffs and their effects on the global supply chain and procurement operations. As Richeek advises, procurement shouldn’t (over) react to every single news story about tariffs, but everyone should be planning both short- and long-term strategies to safeguard their organizations from negative tariff-related fallout while still maintaining a competitive advantage.

In short, procurement shouldn’t act as if the sky is falling, but they shouldn’t stick their heads in the sand and pretend it’s just business as usual either.

In this episode, Richeek explains:

• How procurement should interpret new tariff announcements and estimate potential impacts on specific spend categories and supplier relationships
• A practical response framework to tariffs that includes immediate tactical moves (like duty engineering) to long-term supply chain restructuring
• How to adopt a rational approach to China sourcing decisions that balances global trends with company-specific circumstances

Links:

• Richeek Maitra on LinkedIn
• Subscribe to This Week in Procurement
• Subscribe to Art of Procurement on YouTube