Procurement & Supply Chain Live ends day 2 at Tobacco Dock
What tech should you invest in to build resilience, what is a digital ecosystem and just what is the Amazon logo - an optimistic arrow or Jeff Bezos’ grin?
All this and more was discussed on Day 2 of Procurement and Supply Chain Live.
Take a look a look at the list of speakers from the day and find out how you can sign up for the region-specific day of the event.
On the Main Stage
Vikram Singla
Working with business leaders, Vikram Singla, Senior Strategy Director at Oracle, is focused on empowering companies to transform their supply chain functions. Singla’s appearance on stage brought valuable insights from Oracle, as he discussed some of the key drivers and challenges in the deployment of supply chain analytics. Singla also explained that there are other variables that will limit some companies when adopting analytics. ‘You can’t get everyone to the same level of maturity’, says Singla. ‘It depends on the criticality of those suppliers and whether they can afford those manual processes’.
David Loseby
David Loseby, Chief Procurement Officer at Barkers, brought to the stage his experience in global private and public sector markets, where he discussed the importance of cognitive diversity in the supply chain and procurement sectors. Loseby cited research, which suggests that businesses experienced 30% less risk and 20% more innovation, resulting from cognitive diversity. On the subject of diversity, Loseby talks about how hiring employees with disabilities can add value to organisations, but require input from leaders to incorporate them into the correct industry setting.
Alex Jennings
As the Chief Procurement Officer at DS Smith (sustainability packaging supplier), Alex Jennings discussed circular procurement, pulling insights from his experience in end-to-end global supply chain management. Jennings also touched on diversity in the workforce as he believes that more diverse skillsets and career backgrounds are instrumental in driving supply chain innovation. ‘I don’t want people to be the same as me. We’d have great fun, but we’d get nothing done’, says Jennings.
Fraser Hill
Who better to talk about digital transformation than Fraser Hill, General Manager Digital Transformation at Shell, with over 13 years of experience with the company, working in business development, operations leadership and contract management, Hill took an interest in technology and has worked to empower Shell’s employees with digital tools, and encouraging changes to workplace culture. ‘I would like to see human beings taken out of activities that they don’t need to be involved in. Finding the balance between humans and machines is what I would like to do’, Hill says.
David Wylie
David Wylie, Chief Procurement Officer at Thames Water, began his talk by explaining how easy it is to source what you need, as a result of the modern supply chain capabilities. The development of supply chains and the complexity of processes lead Wylie to consider it more like a supplier ecosystem, which is supported by the data obtained through continuous supply chain insights. According to Wylie, ethics is also becoming a huge talking point in the industry, which is sparked the changing mindset of other generations that enter the supply chain sector.
Ruji Mahmud
Ruji Mahmud, Vice President and Head of Procurement at Johnson Matthey, touched on the importance of procurement in modern supply chain processes and how institutions should incorporate this into the educational systems. In order to provide more opportunities for young people to enter the procurement workforce, businesses also play instrumental roles in encouraging entries into the industry.
Kuda Kadungure
Kuda Kadungure, Head of Procurement at the UK Parliament, gave an in-depth look into the challenges that the construction industry currently faces, including price volatility—in terms of materials and labour, the general shortages and disruptions to logistics. Along with the government's role in this issue, Kadungure also explained how suppliers, contractors and customers affect the overall disruption.
David Wylie, Ruji Mahmud, Scott, Sheldon Mydat - Risk and Resilience
The supply chain panel for risk and resilience featured our previous speakers, Ruji Mahmud and David Wylie, joined by Sheldon Mydat, Chief Executive Officer of Suppeco, to answer questions regarding the current and future states of resilience in the supply chain, with the understanding that supplier risks directly impact the risks of buyers. Mydat contributed his extensive knowledge while explaining how Suppeco supports large-scale organisations to mitigate risk through data management.
On the Procurement & Supply Chain Stage
Soroosh Saghiri
Independent lecturer
The future of supply management was detailed by Saghiri, from micro-uncertainties to the KPIs, such as innovation, supplier evaluation, value creation and risk management.
“In the future, product design will be supplier-led”, explained Saghiri.
Carl Thompson
Medius
“Public IT failures are very public”, said Thompson. “But it’s great to have skills and scars to show clients.”
In an example of effective digital ecosystems, Amazon’s was explored.
“A digital ecosystem of one company includes everything its users are connected to, for Amazon, this includes platforms such as Twitch and AWS.”
There was an audible sigh of understanding from a few in the audience as the full meaning of ‘digital ecosystem’ was explained - it’s about the user.
David Loseby, Carl Thompson & Ross Garrigan - Supply Chain Digitalisation Panel
David Loseby
Barkers
A small applause arose from the panel discussion with Loseby and Thompson, as the researcher firmly stated his beliefs on supplier relations: “Respect and ethics on both sides of the equation.”
John Calder
Baringa
Calder discussed working with the F1, the hard work of the NHS and what tech those in supply chain and procurement should invest in, in order to build resilience within their companies.
“Track and trace, supplier connectivity, network design and accelerated automation can reduce risk”, he said.
More to Come…
Procurement & Supply Chain Live moves into its next line-up of talks on day 3—September 30—bringing you more global insights, focusing on region-specific talks. Whether you are attending from EMEA, APAC or North America, don’t miss the final day, which will be held on the virtual platform.
Register now for day three, of Procurement & Supply Chain Live where you can hear from supply chain and procurement professionals, such as Jonathan Wright, Global Managing Partner, Finance & Supply Chain Transformation at IBM, Mark Bromley, Director, Sourcing & Supplier Management at Mastercard, Daniel Weise, Managing Director and Partner; Global Business Line Leader Procurement BCG, and many more.
