August 11, 2025 • 8 mins
Procurement Says No - the world's best procurement podcast - gets lots of questions from our listeners all around the world.
So we thought, let's put all of those questions into a series of mini bite-sized podcast chunks. Like dog food.
In episode 12 you ask for help on creating a procurement 90 day plan (which you definately will stick to); how to save money on fuel buying; and whether using e-auctions is still a thing.
All of the procurement questions, all of the time.
www.procurementsaysno.com
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/procurement-says-no--5886102/support.
So we thought, let's put all of those questions into a series of mini bite-sized podcast chunks. Like dog food.
In episode 12 you ask for help on creating a procurement 90 day plan (which you definately will stick to); how to save money on fuel buying; and whether using e-auctions is still a thing.
All of the procurement questions, all of the time.
www.procurementsaysno.com
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/procurement-says-no--5886102/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to ask, Rich, and Ed from Procurement says, no,
we get a lot of listener questions which we love
to answer with insightful views and advice.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Ooh nice.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Let's see what questions we've got this time.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Ed, Well, Rich, will they be fatuous or in name
or insightful? Let's make it real.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Boom And there's lots and lots of questions this time, Ed,
and they're quite hard ones.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Oh crackers, do.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
You want to go first?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
So this is from Lauren mustappen in Melbourne in Australia. Rich,
you've done this a few times. I think, what advice
would you give to a new purchasing leader joining a
new employer? What would be your ninety day plan? What
have you done in the same position?
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Yes, you're right, Ed, I've done that a couple of times,
and I've actually written notes about this in the past.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Look at this notes with pictures and everything. Well, but
it looked very comprehensive.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Che Yes, So I've done ones which were sixty days,
ninety days, one hundred and twenty days. This one's one
hundred and twenty day one. It says not to sixty days. Acclimatization.
The main thing is meeting people, getting data, information performance.
Visit key functional areas and sites. Understand issues and opportunities
in the category areas. Understand the broad strategy and culture
at the business. Look at the existing initial planning or
(01:25):
category strategies. Look for potential quick wins. Understand the team
scope sixty two, one hundred and twenty days. Have a
full review of the category spend areas with the team.
Understand the category managemed approach. Look for opportunities and options
in category areas for the tier one, two three spend
whatever that is.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Have a look at.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Spy base and your supply performance. Have a look at
implementing further quick wins. Set up a SWAT team to
all more complex areas, develop targets and specific KPIs and slas,
and look for some stakeholder feedback. Developing overall category strategies,
spire performance SRM processes, contract management, supply chain mapping, resilience
(02:04):
specification development, people development, plan, stakeholder mapping, process review, blah
blah blah blah blah, great stuff, all that stuff. Basically,
find out as much as you can because you're going
to get knocked off course. You'll have a ninety day plan,
but actually you'll only get about half of it done. Probably. Yeah,
stuff will happen that you have to just get on with.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Wise words, rich wise words. I like the fact that
you said at the start is about sort of feeling
the climate, feeling the culture of the organization, getting you know,
not driving straight in and putting your agenda on everything,
but sort of listening and looking as well. If people
talk about listening school, sometimes you're looking around, seeing what
you see and see the way that it works. You know,
what's the pace like, what's the culture like?
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Is it soft?
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Is it hard? How driven is it? Et cetera. I
think it's quite important, brilliant.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
I remember when I joined one company that you'll remain nameless,
my first week there and I asked for some spend
information and the procumity team didn't have any. Oh we
don't have spend information.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
What would you want that for? Oh, right, you've got
the answers. No you're fired anyway, Yeah, perfect, great question
about to spend. When I first worked in procurement, I
love to know how much I spent because it was
like a mark of success, size of your ego, all
that sort of stuff. But it was quite important.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
It's bizarre not to know what you spend is anyway right?
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Anyway question to Edward.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
And this one is from a Jason Button in Canterbury
and Kent in the UK. We operate a big fleet
of vehicles for our service and maintenance engineers in the
UK and spend about five pounds a year on fuel.
I've been asked to identify opportunities to save costs.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
What do you suggested, Well, I think there's a big
opportunity here. I think a lot of people in procurement
think that fuel can't be influenced. There are organizations out there, intermedia,
intermediary organizations that can help you with fuel cards. I
won't name the companies that have deals with many, not all,
of the petrol or gas fore courts in the UK
(03:59):
for it sample, because we're talking about the UK here,
including motorway services. So when you're on the motorway and
you think, oh my lord, that costs a fortune, I
don't want to fill up there. I'd rather take the
risk of running out of fuel. You don't need to
if you have a fuel card because you get the
best market deal through your card provider. So I think
the first thing i'd do is I'll take your spend
to a bunch of the fuel card providers and see
(04:20):
what they can do for you. Do you know what ed?
Speaker 1 (04:22):
I put that first on my list too excellent.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
And then beyond that is there's a whole range of
things I think. I think telematics is put that next
on my list as well. Well. Like twins, I think telematics,
I think a lot of cars give you data on
how they're doing from a fuel consumption point of view.
If you've got some sort of commonality in your fleet,
you can look at how heavy footed your drivers are
and start to see what's going on. Look at the
fuel usage, look at Myles per Gallon, Clumbus Pagallon, look
(04:48):
at what the patterns look like. But you can analyze
all sorts of factors in the usage. The second thing
is having a look at a little bit of look
at the vehicle fleet itself. Is it maintained? Well?
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Oh, I was next on my li just as well.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
This is like a test, isn't it. This is a
panel in hey, what do you know about fuel bio?
And then then looking at the vehicles themselves, and I
think you know, obviously with battery technology there are some
thoughts about whether you could save money there, but five
million is a lot, and I think you could probably
save five to ten percent possibly. Yeah, well, yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Yeah, Well I've put field cards, telematics, maintenance of fleet,
check engine, check engine, check engine, training and efficient driving.
You said about training, so lorry drivers, you don't drive
up the arts of the car in front, driving smoothly,
speed regulation, stop start, engines, don't idle all that stuff.
And then another one I've put on the end of
my list was about roots scheduling and root optimization software,
(05:39):
so you're not driving around the country side.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Well, it's demand management. Really, isn't it good to see
that we're thinking like full seldom differ. Yeah, it's like groupthink.
Don't believe a word we say. Next one I got
from Sebastian Vettel in Vienna, Austria. I'm pressed to use
our electronic auction tool with our suppliers. It's not named
which tool it is, and have been set a target
of running at least two auctions a month. What do
(06:02):
you recommend, rich Gold.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
That's a bit of a throwback, isn't it that it
was the very in thing to do, wasn't it? What
ten years ago. Auction everything just auction. It doesn't happen
so much now, does it really? Are we over the
auction auction auction auction thing?
Speaker 2 (06:17):
I don't know so well.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
It depends what you look after, Sebastian. Maybe you look
after I don't know, racing car parts example, But it
depends what categories you look after, Sebastian. Some are more
suited than others, though all things can be auctioned just
with care. I would say best focus is probably on
those things with low risk commodity items the old Kraalgic matrix,
(06:42):
which we've talked about before. Look at the leverage stuff,
you know, basic stuff, offer supplies, some FM stuff, electrical components,
the RS components, CEF type stuff. But I have heard
of people auctioning more complex stuff like legal services. Was
it somebody from UNILBA or someone like that said they
had auction and legal services, which can go down badly
(07:02):
with the stakeholders. You're seen to be commoditizing something which
they are holding very gear to them in terms of
professional services.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
But yeah, you know what, I think, what do you think?
Measure outcomes, not the process, So saying two auctions a
month is meaningless yeah, okay, so I absolutely agree with
all the stuff you said, Rich, But telling somebody they
must rent so many events is managing a part of
the process activity, it's not the outcome. I think I'd
be much more inclined to say, as a target, I
(07:31):
want to see a saving from auctions of X, have
a think about what's best, and then drive towards a
target number as a measure of value, not a number
of activities.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
And there's some things where you can just auction and
auction just time, a monthly auction if it's just a
really commoditized item. But you've got to be careful on
this stuff.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Yeah agreed, good answer, and that's.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
That's the end. Tuper duper all answered beautifully, So you
next time.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Bye bye y
Welcome to ask, Rich, and Ed from Procurement says, no,
we get a lot of listener questions which we love
to answer with insightful views and advice.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Ooh nice.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Let's see what questions we've got this time.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Ed, Well, Rich, will they be fatuous or in name
or insightful? Let's make it real.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Boom And there's lots and lots of questions this time, Ed,
and they're quite hard ones.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Oh crackers, do.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
You want to go first?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
So this is from Lauren mustappen in Melbourne in Australia. Rich,
you've done this a few times. I think, what advice
would you give to a new purchasing leader joining a
new employer? What would be your ninety day plan? What
have you done in the same position?
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Yes, you're right, Ed, I've done that a couple of times,
and I've actually written notes about this in the past.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Look at this notes with pictures and everything. Well, but
it looked very comprehensive.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Che Yes, So I've done ones which were sixty days,
ninety days, one hundred and twenty days. This one's one
hundred and twenty day one. It says not to sixty days. Acclimatization.
The main thing is meeting people, getting data, information performance.
Visit key functional areas and sites. Understand issues and opportunities
in the category areas. Understand the broad strategy and culture
at the business. Look at the existing initial planning or
(01:25):
category strategies. Look for potential quick wins. Understand the team
scope sixty two, one hundred and twenty days. Have a
full review of the category spend areas with the team.
Understand the category managemed approach. Look for opportunities and options
in category areas for the tier one, two three spend
whatever that is.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Have a look at.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Spy base and your supply performance. Have a look at
implementing further quick wins. Set up a SWAT team to
all more complex areas, develop targets and specific KPIs and slas,
and look for some stakeholder feedback. Developing overall category strategies,
spire performance SRM processes, contract management, supply chain mapping, resilience
(02:04):
specification development, people development, plan, stakeholder mapping, process review, blah
blah blah blah blah, great stuff, all that stuff. Basically,
find out as much as you can because you're going
to get knocked off course. You'll have a ninety day plan,
but actually you'll only get about half of it done. Probably. Yeah,
stuff will happen that you have to just get on with.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Wise words, rich wise words. I like the fact that
you said at the start is about sort of feeling
the climate, feeling the culture of the organization, getting you know,
not driving straight in and putting your agenda on everything,
but sort of listening and looking as well. If people
talk about listening school, sometimes you're looking around, seeing what
you see and see the way that it works. You know,
what's the pace like, what's the culture like?
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Is it soft?
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Is it hard? How driven is it? Et cetera. I
think it's quite important, brilliant.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
I remember when I joined one company that you'll remain nameless,
my first week there and I asked for some spend
information and the procumity team didn't have any. Oh we
don't have spend information.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
What would you want that for? Oh, right, you've got
the answers. No you're fired anyway, Yeah, perfect, great question
about to spend. When I first worked in procurement, I
love to know how much I spent because it was
like a mark of success, size of your ego, all
that sort of stuff. But it was quite important.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
It's bizarre not to know what you spend is anyway right?
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Anyway question to Edward.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
And this one is from a Jason Button in Canterbury
and Kent in the UK. We operate a big fleet
of vehicles for our service and maintenance engineers in the
UK and spend about five pounds a year on fuel.
I've been asked to identify opportunities to save costs.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
What do you suggested, Well, I think there's a big
opportunity here. I think a lot of people in procurement
think that fuel can't be influenced. There are organizations out there, intermedia,
intermediary organizations that can help you with fuel cards. I
won't name the companies that have deals with many, not all,
of the petrol or gas fore courts in the UK
(03:59):
for it sample, because we're talking about the UK here,
including motorway services. So when you're on the motorway and
you think, oh my lord, that costs a fortune, I
don't want to fill up there. I'd rather take the
risk of running out of fuel. You don't need to
if you have a fuel card because you get the
best market deal through your card provider. So I think
the first thing i'd do is I'll take your spend
to a bunch of the fuel card providers and see
(04:20):
what they can do for you. Do you know what ed?
Speaker 1 (04:22):
I put that first on my list too excellent.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
And then beyond that is there's a whole range of
things I think. I think telematics is put that next
on my list as well. Well. Like twins, I think telematics,
I think a lot of cars give you data on
how they're doing from a fuel consumption point of view.
If you've got some sort of commonality in your fleet,
you can look at how heavy footed your drivers are
and start to see what's going on. Look at the
fuel usage, look at Myles per Gallon, Clumbus Pagallon, look
(04:48):
at what the patterns look like. But you can analyze
all sorts of factors in the usage. The second thing
is having a look at a little bit of look
at the vehicle fleet itself. Is it maintained? Well?
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Oh, I was next on my li just as well.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
This is like a test, isn't it. This is a
panel in hey, what do you know about fuel bio?
And then then looking at the vehicles themselves, and I
think you know, obviously with battery technology there are some
thoughts about whether you could save money there, but five
million is a lot, and I think you could probably
save five to ten percent possibly. Yeah, well, yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Yeah, Well I've put field cards, telematics, maintenance of fleet,
check engine, check engine, check engine, training and efficient driving.
You said about training, so lorry drivers, you don't drive
up the arts of the car in front, driving smoothly,
speed regulation, stop start, engines, don't idle all that stuff.
And then another one I've put on the end of
my list was about roots scheduling and root optimization software,
(05:39):
so you're not driving around the country side.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Well, it's demand management. Really, isn't it good to see
that we're thinking like full seldom differ. Yeah, it's like groupthink.
Don't believe a word we say. Next one I got
from Sebastian Vettel in Vienna, Austria. I'm pressed to use
our electronic auction tool with our suppliers. It's not named
which tool it is, and have been set a target
of running at least two auctions a month. What do
(06:02):
you recommend, rich Gold.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
That's a bit of a throwback, isn't it that it
was the very in thing to do, wasn't it? What
ten years ago. Auction everything just auction. It doesn't happen
so much now, does it really? Are we over the
auction auction auction auction thing?
Speaker 2 (06:17):
I don't know so well.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
It depends what you look after, Sebastian. Maybe you look
after I don't know, racing car parts example, But it
depends what categories you look after, Sebastian. Some are more
suited than others, though all things can be auctioned just
with care. I would say best focus is probably on
those things with low risk commodity items the old Kraalgic matrix,
(06:42):
which we've talked about before. Look at the leverage stuff,
you know, basic stuff, offer supplies, some FM stuff, electrical components,
the RS components, CEF type stuff. But I have heard
of people auctioning more complex stuff like legal services. Was
it somebody from UNILBA or someone like that said they
had auction and legal services, which can go down badly
(07:02):
with the stakeholders. You're seen to be commoditizing something which
they are holding very gear to them in terms of
professional services.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
But yeah, you know what, I think, what do you think?
Measure outcomes, not the process, So saying two auctions a
month is meaningless yeah, okay, so I absolutely agree with
all the stuff you said, Rich, But telling somebody they
must rent so many events is managing a part of
the process activity, it's not the outcome. I think I'd
be much more inclined to say, as a target, I
(07:31):
want to see a saving from auctions of X, have
a think about what's best, and then drive towards a
target number as a measure of value, not a number
of activities.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
And there's some things where you can just auction and
auction just time, a monthly auction if it's just a
really commoditized item. But you've got to be careful on
this stuff.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Yeah agreed, good answer, and that's.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
That's the end. Tuper duper all answered beautifully, So you
next time.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Bye bye y
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