Libsyn Directory

865: Confidence, Cost, and Compliance: Insights from the Economist Impact Report W/ Gordon Donovan

Release Date: 05/11/2026

878: Building Procurement as a Strategic Growth Engine W/ Travis Hodge

Art of Procurement

“Procurement’s future is bright, when we continue to do it the right way for the right reasons.” - Travis Hodge, Director of Enterprise Sourcing & Procurement at nVent Procurement is no longer just a back-office function. As business models shift and digital transformation accelerates, procurement leaders face more pressure (and more opportunities) than ever to become true business partners. Supplier experience, strategic talent, and AI-enabled efficiency are fast becoming the new playbook for teams aiming to drive results in hyperscale markets. This episode features Travis...

877: Building Trust for Digital Supply Chain Success W/ Mohit Ahuja

Art of Procurement

“Visibility is not the end goal. The end goal is how does that visibility enable me to make a quick decision.” - Mohit Ahuja, Strategy & Transformation Leader, Caterpillar Business leaders can no longer afford to think about digital procurement as “plug and play.” This is especially true in manufacturing, where the risks of disruption run deep. Legacy systems, change-weary teams, and rapid-fire market shifts all raise the stakes for today’s CPOs. In this episode, Mohit Ahuja, a strategy and transformation leader at Caterpillar, shares what it takes to navigate these challenges....

EP 12: Provider of the Week: Una

Art of Procurement

“It's amazing how you can rise to the top just by doing what you say you're going to do and being honest about what you can't do.” - Anthony Clervi, Managing Partner, Una Procurement teams today are under intense pressure to deliver savings, manage risk, and do more with less… all while digital transformation reshapes the landscape. For many, group purchasing organizations (GPOs) sound good on paper, but open questions about control and fit. What does it take to find a true partner in this space? In this Provider of the Week episode, Anthony Clervi, Managing Partner at Una, joins...

876: AI with Purpose: Designing Procurement's Next Chapter W/ Gaël De Martelaere

Art of Procurement

“If you build AI on top of weak foundations, you're going to have a very broken system.” - Gaël De Martelaere, Chief Procurement Officer, Hexion AI is driving enormous change in procurement, but success relies on more than just new tools. The real challenge is rebuilding the foundations (data, process, and team mindsets) while still delivering results for the business today. In this episode, Gaël De Martelaere, CPO at Hexion, joins Philip Ideson to share how his team is moving beyond traditional procurement and redefining value for both customers and stakeholders. Gaël brings decades of...

875: How to Transform Every Procurement Partnership W/ Kate Vitasek

Art of Procurement

“When you have a great partnership, the value that you can create is unbelievable if you know how to do it.” - Kate Vitasek Despite the best intentions, nearly 70% of business partnerships unravel within three years. Why is it so difficult to build relationships that deliver value, and what are the practical steps procurement leaders can take to break the cycle? Kate Vitasek, pioneering researcher and author of the Vested series of books, joins host Philip Ideson to share hard-won lessons from decades in the field. Her new book, The Vested Way: Five Rules for Achieving the...

EP 11: Provider of the Week: Valdera

Art of Procurement

Chemical procurement’s complexity isn’t news, but the pace of change – and risk – is climbing fast. With AI sweeping through every corner of the business, leaders charged with sourcing chemicals and raw materials have reached a fork in the road: modernize, or fall behind. Dheev Arulmani, COO and co-founder of Valdera, brings deep chemical and consulting experience to this Provider of the Week episode of the ProcureTech Insider podcast. He shares how Valdera’s AI-powered sourcing platform is transforming the end-to-end procurement workflow, empowering both seasoned category managers...

874: Building Resilience Beyond Tier One: Hard Truths About Risk and Visibility W/ Harald Nitschinger

Art of Procurement

“Resilience doesn't mean a supply chain that doesn't see risk. That's impossible. It means setting yourself up to withstand shocks and disruptions.” - Harald Nitschinger, Co-founder and CEO, Prewave Today’s supply chains operate in a world of constant shocks, but the risks that matter most rarely show up on procurement’s tier one dashboard. Often, the real trouble is buried further downstream, so procurement leaders have to redefine how and where resilience is built and risk is monitored. In this episode, host Philip Ideson speaks with Harald Nitschinger, CEO and Co-founder of Prewave....

873: Creating Capacity for Complex Problem Solving W/ Israel Santiesteban

Art of Procurement

“We need to evolve from procurement professionals into business leaders with procurement expertise.” - Israel Santiesteban, Former Chief Procurement Officer and Head of Supply Chain The next evolution of procurement is about so much more than cost savings. With new digital tools and relentless business change, leaders are being asked to deliver value in new ways and, as a result, develop talent for roles that didn’t exist a few years ago. In this episode, Philip Ideson speaks with Israel Santiesteban, a former CPO and supply chain leader with experience across Danone, Kraft Heinz,...

EP 10: Supplier Management as a Connected Discipline W/ Jesse Lee

Art of Procurement

“If your business is getting bigger, then supplier management is going to be ever more important to you.” - Jesse Lee, Co-founder, CEO of Brooklyn Solutions Procurement’s role in managing suppliers is transforming fast: scope is growing, expectations are higher, and the risks are real. Getting supplier management right is essential to business resilience, especially when the entire organization depends on partners and external providers. In this episode, Brooklyn Solutions CEO Jesse Lee joins ProcureTech Insider host Jyothi Hartley to zero in on today’s big challenges and the practical...

872: Beyond Automation: Accelerating Agentic AI Transformation in Procurement W/ Vishal Patel

Art of Procurement

"The future of procurement isn't actually AI. It's people using AI to improve business outcomes and improve their own value add." - Vishal Patel, SVP Product & Customer Marketing at Ivalua Many procurement teams have adopted AI in some aspect, but only a few have figured out how to turn those early experiments into sustainable, scalable business value. With market expectations rising and teams overstretched, leaders are being challenged to translate AI's potential into measurable outcomes. In this episode, Philip Ideson speaks with Vishal Patel, SVP of Product and Customer Marketing at...

More Episodes

“Right now, procurement needs to define their future role in the business. Procurement needs to drive that for themselves, because if we don't, then someone is going to drive it for us, and that could drive us out.” - Gordon Donovan, Vice President Research - Procurement & External Workforce, SAP

Business models are being disrupted, and so is procurement. This year’s Economist Impact report reveals a sharp drop in C-suite confidence, a dramatic return to basics on cost and compliance, and AI taking center stage as both opportunity and challenge.

Amid these changes, how can CPOs set a strategy that’s fit for tomorrow, not just today?

Gordon Donovan, VP of Research for Procurement and External Workforce at SAP, returns to the show with exclusive data and a candid view on industry shifts. Gordon breaks down what really matters in this year’s survey: the operational realities behind AI, the new direction for category management, and why rethinking old processes is the only way forward.

In this episode, Gordon discusses:

Why procurement confidence shrank up to 18% globally
The importance of zeroing in on cost and compliance as resurgent priorities
Rethinking category management for a complex new landscape
How to pinpoint where AI delivers and the barriers still holding teams back
Why now is the time to reinvent, not just digitize

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