"I believe if you can define it, you can source it. And if you can source it, you can auction it." - Adam Collins, Head of Sales, Esker

Procurement teams are navigating unprecedented global disruptions, from tariffs and geopolitical tensions to supply chain instabilities that refuse to settle.

What if these chaotic conditions actually present procurement's greatest opportunity to demonstrate strategic value?

In this episode, Philip Ideson and Kelly Barner are joined by Adam Collins from Esker to explore how procurement can leverage fundamental strategic sourcing techniques to not just survive but thrive in turbulent market conditions.

Adam’s procurement technology experience is predominantly focused on source-to-contract capabilities that offer practical ways to turn market chaos into competitive advantage.

In this episode, Adam discusses:

• Why transparency with suppliers during market engagement drives better outcomes than secrecy
• The critical importance of being proactive rather than reactive when markets are unstable
• How to challenge traditional definitions of "addressable spend" and uncover hidden opportunities
• Strategic approaches to payment timing that support working capital while serving as negotiating levers
• Why keeping a calm head and making fact-based decisions separates successful procurement teams from the rest

Links:

• Adam Collins on LinkedIn
• Watch: Sourcing Strategically in Chaotic Conditions
• Subscribe to This Week in Procurement
• Subscribe to Art of Procurement on YouTube

There is no template for transformation. You have to build transformation for the organization that you're in. Go and learn as much as you can about the organization and then pivot where you need to.”
- Tanya Roach, Director of Procurement, Federated Co-operatives Limited

Building procurement from scratch is never easy… let alone within a 90-year-old organization, during a pandemic, and with business demands changing faster than ever. Resilient, adaptable team members are the key to overcoming challenges and creating lasting transformation.

In this episode, Tanya Roach, Director of Procurement at Federated Co-operatives Limited, speaks to Philip Ideson at the 2025 Supply Chain Canada National Conference.

Tanya shares her transformation journey: from assembling a new team during COVID to designing processes with flexibility, and the lessons learned from steady, people-centered change.

In this candid conversation, she details how picking the right talent, using technology as a true enabler, and upskilling for AI set the stage for procurement success in a complex cooperative model.

Whether you’re leading a transformation or shaping day-to-day change, Tanya’s story offers practical strategies:

• How to build and scale procurement teams amid uncertainty
• Why adaptability, curiosity, and resilience trump job titles in transformation
• How to introduce technology and AI in ways that add lasting value
• The essentials of aligning stakeholders in a distributed organization

Links:

• Tanya Roach on LinkedIn
• Subscribe to This Week in Procurement
• Subscribe to Art of Procurement on YouTube

Halfway through their journey toward purposeful procurement, the co-hosts confront a fundamental question: if procurement drives value in so many ways beyond cost savings, why do incentive structures ignore virtually everything else?

In this episode of "Buy: The Way...To Purposeful Procurement," Philip Ideson, Rich Ham, and Kelly Barner discuss insights from their recent conversations with Martin Chilcott and Paul Polizzotto to explore a troubling pattern: procurement consistently creates value despite their flawed incentive structures, not because of them.

The conversation maps procurement's hidden value drivers… from supplier-enabled innovation that harnesses R&D capabilities many times larger than any single organization, to supplier diversification efforts that identify alternatives but rarely get implemented, to risk mitigation strategies that could free companies from incumbent supplier traps.

The hosts also examine why procurement tends to abandon innovation initiatives precisely when they're most needed, creating self-defeating cycles that damage supplier relationships. Kelly adds a practitioner's perspective into the mix, pointing out the frustration of extensive supplier qualification work that gets shelved due to entrenched decision structures, systematically wasting value creation that never appears on any scorecard.

The episode also sets up the series' next phase: conversations with executives who've successfully broken the mold on traditional incentive structures, proving that purposeful procurement is achievable at any scale.

Links:

• Rich Ham on LinkedIn
• Learn more at FineTuneUs.com

“Deglobalization is a nice soundbite, but the reality is, we need more focus on risk management and mitigation.” – Philip Ideson, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Art of Procurement

Deglobalization is a hot topic right now, but behind the big headlines and boardroom buzzwords, real change is proving to be slow, complicated, and deeply influenced by geopolitics and regulation.

Are companies really bringing supply chains home, or is the story much more nuanced?

In this episode, Art of Procurement co-hosts Philip Ideson and Kelly Barner get candid on what’s behind deglobalization: from shifting away from China and the reality of “diversifying in name only,” to why risk management and local expertise matter now more than ever.

They discuss why many global supply strategies often move in cycles, and what procurement leaders can do to shape smarter, more resilient portfolios (despite increasing uncertainty).

In this episode, Philip and Kelly cover:

• How to reframe deglobalization beyond the headlines and signal real risk
• Why China +1 isn’t always the diversification strategy it seems
• The value of local presence in mitigating global risk
• How to connect cost, optionality, and stakeholder alignment for practical deglobalization
• Which supply chain trends are actually moving (and which are just noise)

Links:

• 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.

"I think we have hit a tipping point where procurement has become a pretty complicated practice. There's so many options and choices and optimizations with concepts that are just so alien to the typical user." - Jason Kim, Senior Director of Product Management, Coupa

The procurement technology landscape demands solutions that work for both power users and occasional requesters, yet many organizations struggle with platforms that create friction rather than facilitating smooth workflows. Usability isn't just about the user experience. It’s about adoption, compliance, and ultimately the strategic perception of procurement itself.

In this episode, Jason Kim, Senior Director of Product Management at Coupa, explains how AI, integration capabilities, and user interface design are reshaping the procurement experience for everyone from seasoned buyers to infrequent requesters.

Jason shares practical insights on designing systems that eliminate cognitive overhead, the critical importance of transparency in procurement workflows, and how meeting users where they are (rather than forcing them into rigid interfaces) drives better outcomes for procurement organizations.

Jason also discusses:

• How the procurement technology landscape has evolved from suite-based to point solutions and back again over the past decade
• Why successful procurement platforms must meet users in their existing workflows rather than forcing context switches
• The critical difference between designing for power users versus infrequent requesters (and why both matter)
• Why eliminating cognitive overhead is essential for user adoption and spend management compliance
• The evolution from centralized to truly decentralized procurement models enabled by intelligent orchestration
  

Links:

• Jason Kim on LinkedIn
• 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.

“Businesses are wasting more money than they're making.”

This stark assessment from serial entrepreneur Paul Polizzotto frames a provocative question: what if procurement's greatest untapped opportunity lies not in negotiating better prices, but in redirecting the millions corporations already squander on ineffective sales and marketing spend?

In this episode of "Buy: The Way...To Purposeful Procurement," Paul Polizzotto, founder of Community AI and former CEO of EcoMedia (which was sold to CBS), joins co-hosts Philip Ideson and Rich Ham to explore how procurement can transform transactional moments into powerful engines for social impact - without paying a penny more for goods and services.

Paul's track record speaks for itself: at EcoMedia, he redirected over $600 million of incremental advertising revenues toward community projects, powering solar installations on schools and city halls (including making Miami's City Hall the first major municipal building powered entirely by renewable energy), while making CBS more profitable. The secret? Tapping into the 10-30 percent of gross revenues that Fortune 500 companies routinely waste on ineffective SG&A expenses.

The conversation reveals a fundamental misunderstanding about social impact procurement.

While procurement teams worry about paying extra for "do-good" initiatives, Paul demonstrates how suppliers can fund meaningful community projects from their existing – and often wasteful – advertising, marketing, and event budgets. These are dollars that currently provide zero value, yet can be redirected to create measurable local impact while strengthening supplier relationships.

As Paul notes, 92 percent of CEOs surveyed by BCG believe that embedding social impact in procurement significantly elevates the function's importance and relevance within their organizations. If procurement seeks to demonstrate value beyond traditional cost savings, community impact offers a measurable, strategic pathway to C-suite relevance.

Links:

Paul Polizzotto on LinkedIn
Rich Ham on LinkedIn
Learn more at FineTuneUs.com