Episode show notes
“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 supply chains in a way that nobody else can, so we need to be hot on our game when it comes to sustainable procurement.
Sustainability is not just about carbon emissions – former CPO EMEA JLL and current SPP Ambassador Rob Alexander also holds a much-needed focus on key issues around child labour and modern slavery, all activities which procurement possesses a power to prevent.
Rob joins Martin Smith this week to consider the importance of aligning corporate goals with the common goal of sustainability, and how to educate senior directors that a move towards sustainable supply chains is as much about commercial value as it is about ethical practice…
This episode of Talent Talks covers:
“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 supply chains in a way that nobody else can, so we need to be hot on our game when it comes to sustainable procurement.
Sustainability is not just about carbon emissions – former CPO EMEA JLL and current SPP Ambassador Rob Alexander also holds a much-needed focus on key issues around child labour and modern slavery, all activities which procurement possesses a power to prevent.
Rob joins Martin Smith this week to consider the importance of aligning corporate goals with the common goal of sustainability, and how to educate senior directors that a move towards sustainable supply chains is as much about commercial value as it is about ethical practice…
This episode of Talent Talks covers:
- Why sustainability is more present in today’s agenda than ever before
- Aligning supply chains with the common goal of sustainable procurement
- The far-reaching impact of sustainability both for businesses and for teams
- What can be done to improve supply chains that are behind the times
- How the sustainable agenda is affecting value-based business decisions
This episode of Talent Talks is sponsored by 4C Associates – a leading European procurement and supply chain consultancy, who work collaboratively with forward-thinking clients to deliver real business value across a wide range of transformation and cost optimisation service offerings. Visit https://www.4cassociates.com/ for more information.
Episode highlights
“We need to be hot on our game, to ensure that those suppliers are meeting ethical standards, and that we’re operating in an ethical and compliant way ourselves. For me, it’s an exciting agenda. It’s a personal agenda, as well as a work agenda. I don’t think any of us should ignore it. It’s absolutely critical.” – 4:00 – Rob Alexander
“Quite often, when you start speaking to clients who speak to suppliers, they’re actually more advanced than yourself in certain elements. They’ve got better ideas that move things faster in certain spaces. It’s how you collaborate with clients as well as suppliers, to make sure that you bring together a whole sustainability agenda going forward.” – 7:05 – Rob Alexander
“It really starts out with a corporate goal. There needs to be a corporate agenda, a strategic goal from the business in place if you’re going to be super successful. I think most organisations have grasped this and are actually making public statements about what they want to achieve. Then it’s about how do you actually translate that into a procurement & supply chain goal?” – 11:00 – Rob Alexander
“We were looking for people that absolutely loved the sustainability agenda, understood what was happening, but had the passion, had the soft skills around partnering, had the soft skills around being inquisitive, asking how we take this agenda and actually make it work with our supply chain.” – 16:45 – Rob Alexander
“It is a global agenda item. We have a lot of global businesses, and those global businesses will drive change, and will pull these countries up. It’s not acceptable for governments to stick their heads in the sand anymore.” – 21:15 – Rob Alexander
“Anyone that’s sort of starting out on this, absolutely get your goals, your policy, your training, your communications, but decide which categories would have the biggest impact on your agenda and deliver where you want to get to first. Quite a lot of categories are not that important, or have limited impact on the sustainability agenda.” – 25:50 – Rob Alexander
“If you think about senior directors, their number one thing is to drive revenue in the business. Most of them are sales focused; ‘let’s get out there, speak to clients’ etc. You need to make them aware that the whole supply chain sustainability agenda will make a difference as they’re selling things. The clients out there are choosing who they want to partner with depending on how good they are at managing this agenda.” – 27:30 – Rob Alexander
“If people don’t invest in this space, and absolutely embrace it, they’re going to be out of business. So in the next 10 years… Well, we haven’t got 10 years.” – 30:40 – Rob Alexander
Links & References
- Rob Alexander
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ralexanderchiefprocurementofficer/
- The Sustainable Procurement Pledge
https://www.linkedin.com/company/sustainable-procurement-pledge/
- Martin Smith, Founder & Director of Talent Drive
https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinsmith2009/
