Episode show notes
“We have all these other things that we can do, but the end game that the Chief Executive wants is the value that you’re giving them.”
The procurement industry is ever-evolving with shifting skillsets, constrained talent pool and a new age of technology & automation – it’s on us to evolve with it.
We hosted an incredible Talent Talks Live event at Landsec in September, where we delighted in a panel with Visa’s S-J Aldridge, Specsavers’ Carl Ferrand and Aztec Group’s Jonathan Patrick.
Join us for this live podcast episode where they touch on reframing our value, strategy vs tactical operating, and ChatGPT’s role in procurement’s future.
This episode of Talent Talks covers:
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- Our value in procurement, and whether we need to reframe/market that value better
- Crafting procurement as a more strategic function, shedding transactional activities
- How the talent pool has shifted, particularly post-pandemic
- The balance of technical skill vs commercial skill
- AI’s uses in the future of procurement
The Talent Talks Podcast is proudly sponsored by Staverton Consulting. Staverton Consulting delivers tangible and sustainable cost reduction as well as reducing business risks throughout the supply chain for private equity backed businesses, SME’S and growth companies. For more information please head to stavertonconsulting.com.
Episode highlights
“We have more skills in our toolbox than we’ve ever had before. One of my challenges is making sure that the business and leaders understand we can do a lot more than just savings.” – 9:40 – S-J Aldridge
““Rather than saying I’ll save some money, I linked it to revenue and profit, so our Chief Exec fronted our whole transformation programme.” – 17:30 – Jonathan Patrick
“Provided you’re involved in the strategic planning process, that’ll flow down into the tactical work that needs to be done.” – 24:00 – Carl Ferrand
“We, now, as a procurement function have all these other things that we can do. But the end game that the chief executive wants is what’s the value that you’re giving me.” – 31:10 – Jonathan Patrick
“Looking forward into our profession, it’s on us now to lead your teams to bring new people in, and that’s something that we’ve tried to do in our organisational design.” – 39:40 – Carl Ferrand
“I actually think we should have our own legal team and tax experts if you’ve got a big enough procurement team. I’ve got to look after 37 countries, so if I had somebody who could answer questions just like that, it’d be amazing.” – 45:40 – S-J Aldridge
Links & references
Jonathan Patrick – https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-patrick-1a04882/
Carl Ferrand – https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlferrand/
S-J Aldridge – https://www.linkedin.com/in/indirectprocurement/
Martin Smith, Founder & Director of Talent Drive – https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinsmith2009/
