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The Conversations That Transform How We Think About Talent
This week’s article follows the talk Tara King and I gave at Advancing Construction this week about recruiting and retaining procurement talent. We asked the audience questions, discussed the results, and shared best practices Topics include:
Sourcing Talent
Interviewing and Onboarding
Developing Teams
Training Talent
I also talk about my favorite topics/frameworks for one-on-ones that aren’t simply a status update. These include belonging, improvement, choice, equality, predictability and significance.
Say the Quiet Part Out Loud
When you hear “e-auctions,” what do you whisper to yourself or your colleague in the desk next to you? What are you afraid to voice out loud?
For today’s article, let’s say the quiet part out loud. I talk about a few of the objections to e-auctions I keep hearing whispered, and have some thoughts on each. The ones I hear most often are:
I Prefer to Negotiate With My Incumbent Supplier
We Don’t Run Competitive Bids
We Run E-auctions, But Call Them Something Else
E-auctions Are Best for our Direct Materials
E-auctions Work Better in Europe
I also touch briefly on some times recently when I haven’t stuck hard enough to my principles and the results aren’t as good as they could be.
Thank Your Past Self
Today’s article is in the spirit of US Thanksgiving and talks about thanking your past self: how Past You, Current You, and Future You are three different people, why it’s important to thank your past self, and how it can actually make you a better leader.
Profit, Power, and Quadrants: Classic Matrices Still Drive Modern Value
Today’s article talks about using matrices in helping determine sourcing strategies. We explore a generic 4-box model, the Kraljic Matrix, and the Kearney Chessboard, discussing their differences and uses in the supply chain world. The article also discusses how to use these matrices to maximize value for your business.
Thrive as an Introvert in an Extrovert’s World
Are you an introvert or extrovert? How does that affect your life and career?
My introvert self ran straight into my professional self this week when a volunteer event completely drained me. So today’s article talks about
How being an introvert affects me:
1. I can only socialize with strangers for so long.
2. I hate picking up the phone and calling suppliers.
3. I can only do about two days of a conference.
4. I have a very narrow circle of friends.
Pitfalls of the holiday season:
1. Holiday Gatherings.
2. Kid Concerts/recitals/plays/championship events.
3. Shopping crowds.
And how I cope:
1. Plan ahead on downtime.
2. Reward myself for doing the hard things.
3. Schedule time for what I can handle (boundaries!).
4. Take a moment when needed.
5. Say yes to coffee.
Pitfalls of a New Supply Chain Leader
The delightful and insightful Chandhrika Venkataraman published a post in August calling out the first four pitfalls:
1. Trying to prove value too fast
2. Treating suppliers as subordinates
3. Assuming spend authority is decision rights
4. Dismissing value-driven Procurement as vague (or worse, soft)
Today’s article takes those four and adds:
5. Managing up while kicking down
6. Not listening to their team or stakeholders
7. Not delegating to the team
8. Not making time for their team (and not doing one-on-ones regularly and frequently)
9. Thinking they don’t have to “play politics”
Profit Levers: Where to Find Value in Uncertain Times
Today’s article is about three profit streams (employees, customers, and suppliers), the role procurement plays in them, and how our current global unpredictability is affecting businesses.
What I’ve Learned in Two Years on my Own
Today’s article is about my journey in starting Passwall Solutions over the last two years. It’s amazing to me it’s been two years already, of course, but many days also felt like a long struggle. Bonus: at the end of this article I talk about where the name Passwall comes from and what it means.
SIG|ORG Fall Summit 2025: Bucket list goals, Agentic AI, and the Iron Triangle
Today’s article is a roundup of topics from the SIG|ORG Fall Summit last week: a keynote on achieving your bucket list by Seb Terry, a discussion of agentic AI implementation at Motional using Zip by Joe Fox and Patrick Eckhert, and a workshop on spotting a company’s focus on the iron triangle with Erin McFarlane of Fairmarkit.
It’s Not Category Management without a Category Strategy
Today’s article is about what a category strategy is (and is not), what goes into a category strategy, and how to maintain a strategy’s relevance as part of a larger supply chain ecosystem. A category management approach isn’t true category management without strategies that drive value.
Know Your Award Scenario
Today’s article is about potential award scenarios, when they are useful, and pitfalls of each option, including winner takes all, cherry picking, by subcategory, and allocated percentages. I also give some overall thoughts on award scenarios and the importance of knowing them ahead of a negotiation or e-auction.
Notes from ProcureCon East 2025: Leading Teams and Tariff Strategies
Today’s article is my notes from ProcureCon US Indirect East – including thoughts from the keynote panel on managing procurement teams through uncertain time, bullet points from a session on concrete tariff mitigation strategies, and my general musings on the conference.
Contract Negotiation Tactics: Templates, Redlines, and Careers
Today’s article talks about the tactical implications of contract management: templates, how negotiating terms works, some best practices, and how contract managers fit into your organization. I also have some notes on approval best practices (how many is too many?).
Contracts: Critical for Risk Mitigation and Building Value
Today’s article talks about why _your_ business needs contracts (beyond POs) and specifically where you can push for value with your suppliers. I also tell a little story about purple streetlights and how that relates to contract clauses. (Have you seen any of those purple streetlights anywhere?)
Enjoy Your Holidays
Today’s article talks about what you need to be doing to plan, execute, and celebrate before the end of 2025. All the credit goes to Mathew Schulz for inspiring today’s post, and his post that inspired it is linked in the article. There are a lot of things you can do today to ensure peaceful holidays (and less chaos!) in December.
We Can’t Do The Things Without the Stuff
Today’s article is inspired by an exclamation in a recent conference call: We can’t do the things without the stuff. Let’s talk about the stuff supply chain needs, what things we can do when we get it, and how we can get what we need so we can succeed. Incidentally, this article also ends up being a pretty good summary of supply chain and how to rock at being a supply chain professional.
Advanced E-auction Tools: Bid Transformation
Today’s article talks about bid transformation: What it is, how it works, applications, and concrete things to think about when using it. We’re deep into e-auction geekiness today, but all of these things also apply to complicated bids where we need to consider our Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).
Today’s article talks about bid transformation: What it is, how it works, applications, and concrete things to think about when using it. We’re deep into e-auction geekiness today, but all of these things also apply to complicated bids where we need to consider our Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).
Vendor-managed Inventory (VMI): Trusted Suppliers, Real Pitfalls, and Best Practices
Today’s article talks about vendor-managed inventory (aka VMI), including common VMI suppliers, VMI pitfalls (especially a little-known one that shows up with the most common VMI supplier with the iconic blue vending machines), and concrete best practices for a good VMI program.
Why Direct and Indirect Spend Aren’t Just Jargon (and Why You Should Care)
Today’s article talks about direct and indirect spend – what is this categorization, why this classification (or a similar one) matters, and the skill sets needed in each to succeed. I also dig a little into one of the Great Procurement Debates: which indirect categories should the business unit manage vs. the procurement team manage? I’ll also tell you which one is my personal favorite and why.
No Software, No Problem: A Quick and Dirty Spend Analysis
Today’s article is a step-by-step guide to running a quick-and-dirty spend analysis using only Excel. Are there better tools out there? Sure. But if you just need a decent view of your spend by supplier, category, and part number, a spreadsheet will get you there. I also cover concrete questions to ask about your spend analysis, whether you use my method or another. A spend analysis is only useful if you then DO something with it!
Don’t Start from Zero: When and How to Use Procurement Wrap Agreements
After a hard-fought battle, you finally have contract terms and conditions with a supplier. Awesome! But now you want to use that same supplier for a different material or different scope of work, and the idea of renegotiating that contract again is daunting. It’s...
Build Value in Supply Chain by Thinking Like an Engineer
Like most supply chain/procurement professionals, I definitely didn’t start here. I was going to be an engineer, climbing the expected chain from Design Engineer to Project Engineer to Engineering Manager and then maybe VP of Engineering. It was going to be organized,...
Lump Sum vs. Unit Price: Procurement Lessons from 30,000 Feet
On a call with a client today, they asked me how a “lump sum” bid is different from a “unit price” bid. This led to a larger discussion about risk vs. cost in a supply chain and this client team said to me, “You should write an article about this topic.” So here we...
Lessons Learned from Eight Small Midwest Manufacturing Supply Chains
A few months ago, I had the immense privilege of working with the team at Iowa State University’s Center for Industrial Research and Service (CIRAS) to assess the supply chains at eight small Iowa-based manufacturers. The lessons we learned and their common threads...