“If you want to be a customer of choice, it's not going to come down to the contract, it's going to come down to the relationship, even at the individual level.” - Oliver Jones, Director (Procurement) for H&Z Management Consultancy

Procurement may be a highly tech-driven function – and growing ever more so by the day – but at its core, the quality of procurement’s relationships with internal stakeholders and suppliers ultimately determine their success or failure for the business.

In this episode, Philip Ideson speaks with Oliver Jones, Director (Procurement) for H&Z Management Consultancy, about why the “relationship” part of supplier relationship management (SRM) is vital for procurement’s ability to deliver value to the business. He also shares his perspective on how procurement can overcome some of the more common obstacles to creating strong relationships, but why, in the end, it’s well worth the effort – for procurement, for suppliers, and for the business in general.

They also discuss:

• How multiple metrics of procurement’s success – like risk management, ESG, or value beyond savings – are all tied back to (and dependant on) supplier relationship management
• Why the ‘center-led’ operating model is the optimal framework to enable successful supplier relationship management
• Best practices for dividing procurement’s focus and prioritization among tier 1, tier 2, and tier 3 suppliers

Links:

• Subscribe to This Week in Procurement
• Oliver Jones on LinkedIn

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.

“Every procurement journey is unique, and now we have the tools and technologies that allow us to be a lot more flexible in how we build procurement operating models so that we can truly adapt to exactly what the business needs.” – Philip Ideson, Founder and Managing Director, Art of Procurement

In the hustle and bustle of end-of-year reporting, wrap ups, and planning for the year to come, it’s important for procurement to take a pause – even a very brief one – and think about how they should be reacting to some of the ‘bigger picture’ forces impacting the function and the business in general.

In this episode, Philip Ideson and Kelly Barner take a look back at the recent Mastermind LIVE 2024, one of AOP’s most popular digital events of the year, where we considered some of the most important, even challenging, issues facing procurement today. They debrief each of the 6 sessions and tease out the most important insights, surprising and unexpected moments, and tactical call outs that procurement should keep in mind as they plan for 2025 and beyond.

Kelly and Philip add their own perspectives to the session topics, including:

• How procurement is positioning themselves for success in 2025 and how procurement operating models should evolve to clear the way for success
• What kinds of changes – both good and bad – we can expect to procurement roles in the coming months or years, and which jobs are least likely to survive AI
• How procurement can build a tech roadmap that maximizes stakeholder adoption and user satisfaction
• And much much more!

Links:

• Watch Mastermind LIVE 2024 on demand
• Philip Ideson on LinkedIn
• Kelly Barner on LinkedIn
• Subscribe to This Week in Procurement
• Subscribe to Art of Procurement on YouTube