Nine Pieces of Advice from Award-Winning Procurement Execs

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Procurement and Supply Chain executives shared their advice at Procurement and Supply Chain LIVE London 2024
Discover a scope of incredible advice from award- winning execs at the Global Procurement & Supply Chain Awards

On 24 September, the inaugural Procurement and Supply Chain Awards took place at the end of day one of Procurement and Supply Chain LIVE London Global Summit. The awards celebrated the individuals, companies and startups that consistently ensure that innovation and excellence lie at the forefront of their work.

Across 14 categories, the awards acted as a platform to showcase the inspirational achievements that are taking place across the industry, whilst also helping to catalyse change for the future, too.

The procurement and supply chain industries experience change constantly, with developments in AI, machine learning and sustainability impacting the future of our industries. As a result of this, it has never been more important than now to stay alert to the state of the field and embrace change as it occurs to maintain a competitive advantage.   

After the award ceremony, we caught up with some of the award winners as they shared their advice for those wanting to take their first steps in the industry.

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1. Nita Nair

Organisation: Emirates NBD

Award: Procurement Transformation Award

Her industry advice: “Just do it and keep the end in the mind. Think of where you want to reach and draw up your path and you can be there.”

Nita Nair, Head of Procurement at Emirates NBD

2. Deborah Bode-Harrison (accepted the award on behalf of Daniel Bahia)

Organisation: Anglo American

Award: Executive of the Year Award

Her industry advice: “understand the marketplace and category management in its true and purest form and bring something new and innovative to the table.”

Deborah Bode-Harrison, Global Category & Corporate Businesses Manager at Anglo American

3. Lauren Allen

Organisation: Exiger

Award: Supply Chain Innovation

Her advice: “be open to expand- we were known from a compliance perspective, but we've really expanded how we look at risk and supply chain in the last couple of years.”

Sam Perry, Vice President, Enterprise Solutions Sales, EMEA at and Laura Allen, irector - Growth + Retention (EMEA) at Exiger

4. Simon Knowles (representing SGS Maine Pointe)

Organisation: SGS Maine Pointe

Award: Global Logistics Award 

His advice: “it's all about the customer delivering results and what they need, whilst being responsive in order to deliver a great customer experience that the customer will actually be very proud of.”

Simon Knowles, a representative for SGS Maine Pointe

5. Ninian Wilson

Organisation: Vodafone Procurement and Connectivity Company

Award: Lifetime Achievement Award

His advice: “be yourself. Don't ever try and be someone that you're not - always stretch yourself for higher targets and higher achievement, whilst thinking about transformation as the way of doing business.”

Ninian Wilson, CEO of Vodafone Procurement

6. Michael Long

Organisation: Jabil

Award: Procurement Technology Award

His advice: “Really think outside the box. We got this award for our digital adoption platform, which in itself isn't a procurement technology tool. It's all in the way you use it, in the way you apply it. So we put it (the digital platform tool) on top of our business spend management platform, which is Coupa. It's amazing in itself - you put them together and they amplify each other and allow us to bring a lot more value to the company.”

Jabil Executives

7. Chris Powell

Organisation: Argon & Co

Award: Procurement Consultancy Award

His advice: “make sure you invest time in the relationship with your suppliers because you can run the best procurement process in the world, but unless you've got the support of the suppliers you're working with, it's not going to deliver the results.”

Chris Powell, Associate Partner at Argon & Co., Gosia Gower, Lead Consultant at Argon & Co and Team

8. Kris Spriano

Organisation: Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council

Award: Social Enterprise Award

Her advice: “don't go it alone. Large organisations are doing this, small organisations are doing this, and if we work together, we can make it better for the next generation and the world.”

Kris Spriano, Vice President of Programs and Development at the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council

9. Alex Grundy

Organisation: Spendkey

Award: Start- Up Award

His advice: “Believe in yourself and be persistent. Don't give up. I think it's important that any start-up journey has it's peaks and troughs, so you have to be very resilient and keep going.”

Akshay Upadhye, CTO and Alex Grundy, CEO and Co-Founder of Spendkey

Essential diary dates for 2024 and 2025…

Procurement & Supply Chain LIVE continues to expand its repertoire of events, with more to come in 2024 and 2025. Discover our essential diary dates below.

2024 diary dates:

2025 diary dates: 

 



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