Episode show notes
“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 live at last month’s Talent Talks event in central London! We were lucky enough to bring together a panel of wonderful procurement professionals to discuss some of the burning issues facing the industry today, with questions from a live audience.
Visa’s Sarah-Jayne Aldridge, DS Smith’s Alex Jennings, and 4C Associates’ Jeremy Smith shared their collective wealth of experiences as we touched on where hybrid working promises to evolve how we collaborate, creating opportunities that satisfy the demands of procurement’s upcoming candidates, and how we can promote supply chain stories so that they’re heard by the wider business world.
This episode of Talent Talks covers:
- The types of skillset needed in modern procurement professionals
- Guiding a move towards return on investment over pure cost-saving
- Satisfying the demands of procurement’s next generation
- How hybrid work promises to change how our industry operates
- Unapologetically keeping our seat at the C-suite table
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
“When you say what you do for a living, you still have to explain what procurement is – we still say ‘We buy stuff’ don’t we! It’s such a shame because it is hard for people to find a career that’s like ours.” – 7:00 – Sarah-Jayne Aldridge
“It’s about selling procurement, and explaining that it’s not ‘savings’ anymore, we’re trying to get value for money. That’s really what we’re doing. We still use the word savings, and we’ve got to change our language accordingly to sell procurement. So we’ve got a lot of work to do as leaders as well, but for me it really is about getting them confidence.” – 15:35 – Sarah-Jayne Aldridge
“The value isn’t in the price of a bucket of ink in our business, it’s looking at that ink and saying ‘I’m prepared to pay £1m more a year if that ink means I can turn the ovens down and save £5m in energy. These are the things that we need to be thinking about, not the price of the bucket of ink.” – 17:00 – Alex Jennings
“If you go on a date, it’s not just about one person. If you don’t ask any questions the other way, you’re in a bit of trouble to be honest. So I think you have to take that opportunity to sell the company to job candidates. What is it that they’re going to gain from that company?” – 25:10 – Alex Jennings
“We’re having to be cognizant that different people in different generations have different views on going back to the office. We’re not forcing anyone, as I doubt many people are forcing anyone, but we’re definitely trying to set it up to enable people to be more innovative in the way they talk.” – 27:35 – Jeremy Smith
“I think the sorts of things that procurement people have to think about are: Can they react quickly? Can they do crisis management? And can you actually get the team together to try and know what to do about it? ” – 33:27 – Sarah-Jayne Aldridge
“There’s gonna be a lot more collaboration between businesses and suppliers in the first year, but also down that supply chain. I think they’re going to become more agile, more integrated, and more collaborative, because I think when COVID and Brexit have their moments – and they’re not finished yet – we realise that we actually need each other.” – 35:40 – Jeremy Smith
“There’s some great stuff going on within the procurement world. We all get to see the exciting things that are going on – I’m not sure how much reach has outside of the procurement world. Do people who aren’t involved in procurement see or hear it?” – 43:35 – Alex Jennings
“From a recruitment point of view, you’ve got that supply vs demand conundrum, and any sector will see it. Demand is incredibly high at the moment, higher than I’ve ever seen in my 12 years, and supply is low for high calibre candidates. Everyone’s wanting the same thing.” – 47:00 – Martin Smith
Links & References
- Alex Jennings, CPO at DS Smith
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ralexanderchiefprocurementofficer/
- S.J. Aldridge, Senior Director of Sourcing at VISA
https://www.linkedin.com/company/sustainable-procurement-pledge/
- Jeremy Smith, Partner at 4C Associates
https://www.linkedin.com/company/sustainable-procurement-pledge/
- Martin Smith, Founder & Director of Talent Drive
https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinsmith2009/
