Libsyn Directory

855: Coworking Trends Every CPO Should Watch W/ Sarah Travers

Release Date: 03/02/2026

Strategic Divestments: Turning Factory Closures into Supplier Innovation Opportunities W/ Alessandro Comerci

Art of Procurement

“The strategic rationale of selling is not really to make money. It’s about preserving 200-plus jobs and making sure your colleagues have continuity in their lives.” - Alessandro Comerci Strategic divestitures and factory closures have become more common as organizations reshape their portfolios and seek agility. For procurement, these aren’t just commercial events: they affect livelihoods, brand trust, and supplier ecosystems. Navigating them well demands a broader set of skills, perspective, and empathy than most of us learn in our core work. In this episode, procurement veteran...

BTW EP 27: Data or Delusion? Procurement’s Future Runs on Truth

Art of Procurement

Procurement doesn’t have a data problem. It has a data delusion. For 25 years, the function has told itself the same story: if we can just clean up our spend, we’ll finally be in control. And yet here we are… swimming in the same dashboards, drowning in fields, and still struggling to answer a simple question: what do we spend? In this episode of Buy: The Way…To Purposeful Procurement, Jason Busch, founder of Spend Matters and now a self-described builder of AI “co-workers,” returns to the podcast to pressure-test BuyLaw #5: “prioritize comprehensive, high-quality data.” If...

857: How Decisioning Platforms Reshape Procurement Strategy W/ Tomas Wiemer

Art of Procurement

“Procurement tools traditionally look at history. To make better decisions, we need to start looking forward.” - Tomas Wiemer, Global Multi-Industry Procurement & Digitalization Executive Procurement teams are under pressure to contribute much more than just savings… They’re being asked to provide strategic intelligence, support faster decisions, and become true business partners. But as organizations look to digital platforms and unified data, many leaders find that legacy models and fragmented systems hold them back. In this episode, global procurement and digitization...

EP 02: Startup of the Week: SourceReady W/ Ricky Ho

Art of Procurement

In this episode of the ProcureTech Insider Startup of the Week, host Jyothi Hartley speaks with Ricky Ho, Co-Founder and CEO of SourceReady, about how AI and big data are transforming global supplier discovery and sourcing strategy. SourceReady is building an AI-powered sourcing platform designed to automate the most time-consuming parts of the sourcing process – from supplier discovery to quote comparison and risk analysis. With access to 1.2 million suppliers across 100 countries, the platform helps procurement and sourcing teams uncover new suppliers, analyze risk, and streamline supplier...

856: Building an AI-Capable Procurement Team: What CPOs Need to Know W/ Andrew Daley

Art of Procurement

“The winners will be the people who make it happen themselves. The losers will be the ones that just bury their heads in the sand.” - Andrew Daley, Managing Director, Digital Procurement and Supply Chain at Edbury Daley The AI revolution is transforming procurement faster than ever before. Whether you’re upskilling your team or rethinking your operating model, the choices you make now will set the pace for your entire function tomorrow. In this episode, Andrew Daley, Managing Director of Digital Procurement and Supply Chain at Edbury Daley, returns to share what he’s seeing on the...

BTW EP 26: The Phil-Ins: Stop Counting Wins Start Counting Outcomes

Art of Procurement

Procurement’s incentive problem doesn’t stop at the contract. It gets worse after signature. In this Phil-Ins episode of “Buy: The Way…To Purposeful Procurement,” Rich Ham and Philip Ideson are joined by Kelly Barner to unpack three “Buy Laws” at once, mainly because they’re inseparable in practice. First: count only what hits the ledger. If the value doesn’t show up in actuals, it doesn’t count. That means moving procurement out of the projection business and into the results business… where the CFO lives. Second: stop counting only the good. The status quo lets category...

855: Coworking Trends Every CPO Should Watch W/ Sarah Travers

Art of Procurement

“We compete with people's homes more than we do with other coworking locations because my job is to get people to want to come into my spaces, and that is what I focus on every single day.” - Sarah Travers, CEO, Workbar The future of work is unfolding quickly, and procurement leaders who also own real estate decisions can’t afford to ignore trends in co-working. Whether you need to unlock flexibility, attract top talent, or better control costs, new workplace models are rapidly replacing traditional long-term leases. In this episode, host Philip Ideson speaks with Sarah Travers, CEO of...

EP 01: Introducing the ProcureTech Insider: A New Art of Procurement Podcast

Art of Procurement

“Sometimes you just need to recognize that getting from the baseline, whatever your baseline, to the next step… that's really significant.” - Jyothi Hartley, Director of Digital Enablement, AOP Art of Procurement is proud to launch a brand-new podcast series: the ProcureTech Insider. The procurement technology market is evolving faster than ever, promising exponential transformation. But what actually works in the real world? ProcureTech Insider exists to take procurement leaders and decision makers beyond the hype. In this new series, we will bring you real-world intelligence from...

854: Transforming Procurement from the Inside Out W/ Ben Farrell

Art of Procurement

“The procurement and supply chain professions are ever more relevant to the prosperity of nations and to businesses as we go into the future.” - Ben Farrell, Global Chief Executive Officer, The Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS) Striking a balance between tradition and disruption is at the top of the agenda for today’s procurement leaders. Whether it’s shifting global dynamics, technology, or the push for greater influence, the function’s boundaries (and its reputation) are up for grabs. Ben Farrell brings a perspective forged in the British Army, major retail,...

BTW EP 25: The S-Word: Why Procurement Must Stop Saying “Savings” (and What to Replace it With)

Art of Procurement

Procurement’s biggest measurement problem isn’t that “savings” is incomplete. It’s that “savings” has become a substitute for truth. In the first Buy: The Way…To Purposeful Procurement episode of 2026, co-hosts Philip Ideson and Rich Ham unveil the first of the show’s new procurement “Buy-laws.” It’s the one that almost every serious practitioner agrees with, but very few organizations are ready to operationalize: replace savings with defined value. That doesn’t mean adding a few extra KPIs in addition to savings. It means removing the word entirely and replacing it...

More Episodes

“We compete with people's homes more than we do with other coworking locations because my job is to get people to want to come into my spaces, and that is what I focus on every single day.” - Sarah Travers, CEO, Workbar

The future of work is unfolding quickly, and procurement leaders who also own real estate decisions can’t afford to ignore trends in co-working. Whether you need to unlock flexibility, attract top talent, or better control costs, new workplace models are rapidly replacing traditional long-term leases.

In this episode, host Philip Ideson speaks with Sarah Travers, CEO of Workbar, a Boston-based coworking company that has built a flexible, community-focused model for organizations of all sizes. With more than two decades of experience shaping the category, Sarah shares the real reasons organizations pivot from headquarters to hub-and-spoke, how team-share memberships de-risk real estate, and what procurement teams should really look for beyond price per square foot.

In this episode, Sarah discusses how to:

Evaluate new coworking models to flex with your organization’s needs
Avoid long-term liabilities by shifting to on-demand and shareable passes
Select the right mix of local and global providers to reduce risk
Build workplace experiences that go beyond convenience to real engagement

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