Episode show notes
“People make the world go round. If you ever have a problem, it’s often the people that you’ve won over who will back you up or help you out.”
Whether it’s through his own procurement leadership roles or rich experience in consulting and training, Oliver Jones knows the key to presenting procurement’s value.
Return on investment extends beyond numbers, and when it’s time to get people on board, Oliver’s emphasis on people is not to be overlooked…
The Managing Consultant with Elixirr joins us on Talent Talks to discuss C-suite engagement, ‘keeping the exec out of jail’, winning over stakeholders, and how tech can’t solve all our future challenges.
This episode of Talent Talks covers:
- How procurement’s ROI should be measured more holistically
- Key differences between sectors, and the need to adapt your style of communication
- The power of winning over key stakeholders to become your ambassadors
- Taking people on your procurement transformation journey
- IQ vs EQ in leadership roles
Episode Highlights
“The reality is, you don’t need a seat at the table or a mandate if you can argue that you’re driving value for the business at all levels, and you’re getting that good stakeholder feedback. If you can fix the ROI and drive it up, then it will deal with a lot of your problems.” – 3:50 – Oliver Jones
“There isn’t always an angle on savings, as much as an angle on vendor supplier risk, how to manage that, avoiding big regulatory fines and sanctions and things like that. So actually return on investment needs to be holistic.” – 6:25 – Oliver Jones
“You can’t do things on your own. Procurement has always had the same challenge – you don’t own the budgets, the purse strings, typically. You need to take stakeholders on a journey.” – 13:30 – Oliver Jones
“We often do one stakeholder set or one area of the business first. Win them over and use them as a really solid case to say to everybody else, ‘Look, it’s working. So trust us, okay’. It makes life easier in the long run. ” – 22:00 – Oliver Jones
“People make the world go round. If you ever have a problem, it’s often the people that you’ve won over, that will back you up or help you out.” – 31:20 – Oliver Jones
“Everybody thinks tech will just fix the problem, but the reality is that technology is often there to automate, expedite, and enhance various things. Some module aspects are no-brainers, but those that say they do the whole thing end to end, they do have problems.” – 36:40 – Oliver Jones
“Finding new ways to learn new things after you are fully qualified will be big for procurement professionals as well, or sideways moves; going into other areas and expanding their skill set and knowledge would be good too.” – 40:30 – Oliver Jones
Links & References
- Oliver Jones, Managing Consultant at Elixirr
https://www.linkedin.com/in/oliver-jones-mcips/
- Elixirr https://www.elixirr.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/elixirr/
- Martin Smith, Founder & Director of Talent Drive
