Did you know that each Friday Art of Procurement releases a special, short-form podcast called the Procurement 6? In six segments, a rotation of hosts will get you up to speed on the week’s new conten...

As we start the first full month of November, it is impossible to ignore the reality that the end of the year is just weeks away. At most there are only 6 full work weeks left in the year. 2024 is jus...

Sometimes a post on social media connects with people such that it takes on a life of its own. That happened this week in the wake of the Ivalua NOW event in Paris.

Philip Ideson shared a picture of Duncan Jones from Forrester Research sharing a striking statistic about procurement’s self-assessed v. actual maturity. You can see the image above, but here are the raw numbers:

• Procurement organizations who self-assess as at the beginning of their maturity curve: 4%
• Procurement organizations who are actually at the beginning of their maturity curve: 60%

• Procurement organizations who self-assess as advanced: 65%
• Procurement organizations who are actually advanced: 16%

While it is fair to ask questions about the Forrester methodology and maturity framework that might explain away some of the discrepancy, the fact remains that procurement’s perception of our own maturity is significantly skewed from reality. As a profession, we are significantly overestimating our organizational maturity by a huge margin.

This week I added two of the traditional procurement conferences to the calendar: Procurement Leaders’ Americas Congress and World Congress. Both are a combination of in-personal and virtual events, w...

In my opinion, realizing you enjoy Thanksgiving more than Christmas is one of the first real signs you’ve reached adulthood. Thanksgiving has all of the food, family, and tradition without the stress ...

Big News – Art of Procurement Mastermind LIVE Fall is officially open for registrations! This event, which will take place on October 26th and 27th from 10am – 1pm ET, will give you all the tools you ...

This is only the 6th day of September, and there are already over 20 events in the calendar for this month – not to mention the ones I’ve already listed for October. We’re also going into a window of ...

As we creep out of the summer, it is becoming apparent that everyone has been working behind the scenes all summer to plan events. I added a dozen new events to the calendar last week that extend into...

Thanks to everyone who joined us for Dial P for Procurement on Supply Chain Now last week. Scott Luton and I had an amazing conversation about risk, resiliency, and agility with Gartner’s Koray Kose a...

In a new Art of Procurement podcast series, Philip Ideson and I will  stop each month and take a look back at the podcasts, news, and topics of the previous four weeks. You can hear the January episode here:  Leveraging Storytelling To Better Connect With Your Stakeholders.

It’s interesting how different an idea can look when you consider it in the context of other information. Most of us read a few articles and posts and listen to a podcast of two during the month. When you have to look back at them, two things quickly become apparent:

1. Even the best ideas fade from your memory much faster than you might expect. Something you read four weeks ago will practically seem new if you read it again.
2. The best ideas live in the space between pieces of content. When you compare, contrast and summarize, you end up with an independent point of view that is much more valuable than any one source piece.

The links to this month’s podcasts are below, but here are some of the insights I found ‘in between’…

With the first (annual?) Procurement Revolution under our belts, Phil Ideson and I have spent the last few days looking back on everything that was shared, asked, and exchanged.

By all measures, the Procurement Revolution was an unmitigated success. Over the course of 5 days, 40 Revolutionaries delivered 5 live webinars and over 50 unique pieces of audio, video, and written content. We were able to cover a wide range of topics, including competitive advantage, globalization, autonomous cars, and digital commerce. Each piece was created as something fresh and new – shared just because it could be rather than because it was commissioned or promotional. The resulting Twitter discussion, using the hashtag #ProcureRev, created over 1.7 MILLION impressions.

In addition to this week’s webinar recommendations, the Supply Chain Next conference is taking place in Chicago, IL on Monday and Tuesday. If you are looking for a longer term webinar recommendation, I suggest Planning for 2020: Executive Outlook from Supply & Demand Chain Executive and BSI on December 10th.

BTW: If you haven’t already, sign up for our mailing list to be sure you get my weekly recommendations in your Inbox each Monday.

I don’t mean to alarm anyone, but it is officially November. Knowing that there are only 8 weeks left in the year – even before serious cutouts for holidays – is much scarier than anything we saw last week for Halloween.

In addition to this week’s webinar recommendations, CFO Summit XXXVIII is taking place the 7^ththrough the 9^thin Irving Texas.

If you are looking for a longer term webinar recommendation, I have two for you. The first is an update: the AOP Live session scheduled for October 29^thhad to be rescheduled because the primary speaker, Joseph Yacura, and his family were evacuated from their home in California due to the massive wildfires out there. The Current State of Digital Readiness: Mastering the Supply Chain Data Challengewill now take place on November 20th. 

And we have a new AOP Live on the calendar, From Isolated Zero to Enterprise Hero: Best Practices for Managing Holistic Procurement Performance with Pierre Lapree and Jason Trieda will take place on November 12^th. Both events are live, broadcast with video and likely to lead to highly engaged discussions.

BTW: If you haven’t already, sign up for our mailing list to be sure you get my weekly recommendations in your Inbox each Monday.

This week’s long term webinar recommendation is a special one – it comes with good news and it is the culmination of a lot of hard work. Readers of this blog know that I spend a lot of time working with Philip Ideson at Art of Procurement. Next week, we’re launching AOP Mastermind, a completely new way for procurement professionals at all levels to collaborate, network, benchmark and learn from peers and outside subject matter experts. AOP Mastermind will deliver an in-person experience through a virtual, facilitated environment.

We’re hosting four webinars on launch day: June 18th. Check out the registration page and select the one that works the best with your schedule.

BTW: If you haven’t already, sign up for our mailing list to be sure you get my weekly recommendations in your Inbox each Monday.

If you look at the April events calendar, we have a funny dynamic shaping up this month. Nearly all of the webinars are on Thursdays! In fact, there is even one more event I’ll be adding to an April Thursday shortly. If you happen to be an event host or organizer, how about showing Tuesdays and Wednesdays a little love? You’ll have less competition, that’s for sure!

If you are planning your webinar schedule beyond this week, I recommend ‘Your Contracts Are A Goldmine’ from IACCM and ContractPodAi on April 9th at 11am ET.

BTW: If you haven’t already, sign up for our mailing list to be sure you get my weekly recommendations in your Inbox each Monday.