Talent Talks Podcast

Committing to procurement transformation that earns buy-in from the board is a hurdle made far easier to vault with the help of one key asset - the right people structure.

It’s a foundational part of …

“Good people, regardless of function, generally have a choice. We've worked hard to get our hiring managers in a mindset that, when they go into the interview, it is a two-way thing.”

The market for n…

“From a recruitment perspective, it's one of the first questions candidates ask us now: What is that business's sustainability agenda?”

With the well-publicised COP26 bringing sustainability ever clos…

“We're trying to get value for money, but we still use the word savings. We've got to change our language accordingly to sell procurement.”

Welcome to a very special episode of Talent Talks, recorded …

“We need to be hot on our game to ensure that suppliers are meeting ethical standards, and that we're operating in an ethical and compliant way ourselves.”

Procurement is bestowed with a power to join…

“You have to be relevant, and to be relevant you need to understand where the business is trying to get to.”

Creating transformation in procurement that actually makes a tangible impression on a busin…

When looking at the educators inducting our future procurement professionals, it’s always reassuring to see a wealth of experience behind them - Paul Alexander is exemplary in this, with decades in t…

“I love transformation, because you can make a profound difference to organisations if you get it right.”

With broad industry experience that proves he’s no one trick pony - BA, Three, Estee Lauder an…

“Leading with a discussion around sustainability and an organization's overall impact on the planet and on society is a way of opening doors.”

The Sustainable Procurement Pledge has an ambitious goal …

“The structure being put in place that hasn't been there before, around all the components that sit within social value, is enabling an acceleration of the whole agenda around social value.”

There’s a…

“I always think procurement’s like a really good joke; it’s about timing.”

Innovation is a keyword thrown around in business like a well-loved frisbee, and perhaps with that it’s easy to lose sight of…

“The next stage of the stakeholder understanding of what value could be for procurement is unlocking new things that they haven't already thought of.”

Procurement is an ever evolving world, and with s…

“What is procurement to an organization? Always come back to that.”

The power of business partnering is an often unfulfilled potential which can massively improve a procurement function’s impact on a …

“It's not just about just ripping cost out for the sake of it, but it's actually doing it in a more intelligent way that says ‘We’ll create value’.”

It can take a number of months or years to set up a…

“Globalisation is very much determined not by the organisation, but by how it serves its customers.”

“Globalisation is very much determined not by the organization, but by how it serves its customers.…

“Marketing is an investment, and we are guardians of that investment, and we can drive the value for that investment.”

If there’s one category within procurement that we haven’t yet really dived into …

“I think that women are more cautious about putting themselves out there in case of failure, where I think that men are much more willing to take that risk, and can see themselves succeeding, where w…

Where most businesses’ motivations are generally financial, one needs to take a different approach in the more philanthropic not-for-profit sector. The value added comes from a completely different o…

“Once stakeholders are on board with e-procurement systems, they find it much more efficient. They're more enthusiastic about being involved in procurement processes.”

Like the digitisation of most th…

“Ultimately, unless you're joining a start-up, then it's not ever really a greenfield site. There's going to be existing practices.”

Generally a greenfield project can be considered one where the proc…