An Unplugged Conversation with the Authors of Supply Market Intelligence for Procurement Professionals

Last month, my co-author Jeanette and I had a conference call scheduled with Jon Hansen for an introductory conversation about our book, Supply Market Intelligence for Procurement Professionals (shameless plug here). For some reason, Jon’s Canadian location prevented him from using my conference call account and we ended up in the virtual green room of his Blog Talk Radio studio. What that means is that, for better or worse, the call was recorded. (You can listen to it here.)

After the conversation, Jon proposed sharing it as is – a scary suggestion for Jeanette and I as we both have an affinity for 90 degree angles and tied up loose ends (not to mention dotted ‘I’s and crossed ‘t’s). But I learned a long time ago to trust Jon on these things. He is constantly pushing me out of my comfort zone, but has never steered me wrong (yet).

Here is what you get from this interview that you wouldn’t have gotten from a typical buttoned up Q & A:

Jeanette and I are completely open. We don’t have all the answers to the current challenges facing the procurement profession, and aren’t afraid to say so. If you’ve never been interviewed by Jon, I can assure you that you never quite know what to expect. He never asks the tired, rote questions you might expect: “So, tell the audience why you’ve decided to write a book…” Instead, he ensures the audience gets to hear something interesting and unique.

You get to hear something of the balance between our styles and backgrounds that I believe led to the success of our book. Jeanette is a research professional who specializes in helping procurement. I’m a procurement person with enough formal research experience to be dangerous (but do no real harm). She is very calm – absolutely to be trusted – and I’m a little more high strung, but very enthusiastic.

If that isn’t enough of a reason to listen, Jon took the idea and started a whole ‘Procurement Unplugged’ series on Blog Talk Radio. You can also hear him discuss his “Three Most Important Questions for 2015” with Kate Vitasek (Vested Outsourcing), Phil Coughlin (Expeditors International), and Alan Veeck (Denali Sourcing Services), and more in the coming weeks.