“Globalisation is very much determined not by the organization, but by how it serves its customers.”
Jayesh Joshi joins us this week to discuss how he has managed to boost the profile of Procurement as an industry through many great initiatives including the APAC CPO Forum he created and how Procurement can do more to share best practice and help highlight Procurements importance to businesses.
Having managed an incredible portfolio of contracts (Vodafone, Barclays, Capita and many more), and serving as BT’s Global VP for 3 years now, Jayesh has a wealth of experience that offers a truly worldwide perspective on procurement.
Joining Martin Smith for an episode of Talent Talks, rich with insights from all aspects of the procurement world, Jayesh shares his take on solving procurement’s ‘identity crisis’, increasing the strength of bonds between larger companies and SMEs, and how procurement can be a real force for good.
This episode of Talent Talks covers:
- Procurement’s current perception in the market
- Procurement as a strategic enabler and a force for good
- The growing focus on SMEs
- Globalisation in procurement, and its dependence on client needs
- Pace of evolution of procurement in tech vs other sectors
- Jayesh’s route into procurement, and why you should choose it
This episode of Talent Talks is sponsored by Suppleye – a free to access platform that provides fresh insights, breaking news and unique sentiment scores on the companies that interest you. Know your suppliers inside and out by visiting https://www.suppleye.com/ and signing up in less than 2 minutes.
Links & references
- Jayesh Joshi, Global VP at BT
- BT
- BT Procurement Roles
- Martin Smith, Founder & Director of Talent Drive
Episode highlights
“If you work for a company like Johnson & Johnson where I was before BT, a healthcare company, there’s a very strong sense of purpose about everything that you do, about serving patients et cetera. If you compare that to the banking industry, you’ll see people that are very highly qualified, highly skilled, but there’s lots of compliance hoops to get through.” – 3:45 – Jayesh Joshi
“What’s really good about the APAC CPO Forum is that it’s a very open discursive environment with senior leaders, and the spirit of the group is particularly good. So that’s certainly something that I’d encourage people to do if it doesn’t exist.” – 8:40 – Jayesh Joshi
“A key part of what procurement leaders should be doing is to bring external insight into the organization, and also to bring information that’s key for external parties about the organization external as well.” – 10:30 – Jayesh Joshi
“Procurement as a function has had an identity crisis over years. When it’s working well, it should be a strategic function, but it’s not about having its standalone strategy as an island. It has to tie in with what the business wants. ” – 12:00 – Jayesh Joshi
“The thinking was that the innovation comes from big companies. It is true that a lot of innovation does come out of big companies, but actually, most critical innovations that are coming out that we’ve seen in the last decade have come from very small companies that come from nowhere, and they rapidly expand.” – 20:23 – Jayesh Joshi
“There’s been a huge move towards globalization. But if you really want to affect local jobs, then if you’re only using a supplier that’s based in, say, the US if you’re a British company, then what opportunities does that create in the UK where you’re based, if that’s where your market is?” – 28:56 – Jayesh Joshi
“Uber is very much a global company, but its suppliers are the drivers. I know you have other tech that’s global, but it’s local suppliers that are self employed, and drivers that are doing it from country to country. So it’s very much determined not by the organization, but by how it serves its customers.” – 31:39 – Jayesh Joshi
“The pace when I was in healthcare was rapid. Drug development is a long process, but if you look at what’s happening now with the vaccines, it’s about how you move as quickly as possible, getting as many clinical trials down as possible to get through those gates so you can help as many people in society as possible.” – 36:52 – Jayesh Joshi
“It took me a long time to be honest, mind, to realise that I am actually in procurement. That’s what I do.” – 40:38 – Jayesh Joshi
“You can create your own base, your own specialism, your own happy career within procurement, and I think that’s really good because in a way you don’t have to choose in the same way that you might do if you choose something that might be a bit more purist.” – 44:25 – Jayesh Joshi
