Here's your weekly update on the latest thought leadership, networking events and training with SIG.
This Month at SIG
Make some time in your calendar this month to benchmark with your peers, find solutions to your biggest challenges or upskill your team with a SIG University certification.
Gain exclusive access to a chapter highlight from Coupa’s annual benchmark report, where they look at 3 KPIs across the source-to-contract process to gauge your organization’s progress and optimize your spend strategy.
The first installment of this two-part article underscored the importance of collaboration between procurement and IT operations. Part two of the continues with more emphasis on collaboration, but in this case, the collaboration is in terms of working with your IT colleagues.
The SIGInnova Product Forum is today at 3 pm. Buy-side attendees will interact with the latest sourcing technologies and see how they can drive strategic impact, improve profits and mitigate risk. Participants will be exposed to innovative and disruptive products that can help shape the future of Procurement.
It was the very best one-day event I have attended in my life! The Midwestern Regional SIGnature Event, held on March 6 at the Minneapolis Central Library, was attended by 66 extraordinary third-party risk management and sourcing professionals. Not only was the agenda amazing, but every speaker delivered insightful content and engaged the audience. At the Executive Roundtable, we had thoughtful conversations about many issues. Tom Lutz from U.S. Bank led a “day in the life” discussion that lasted almost 45 minutes because so many people wanted to discuss what he was doing, and it prompted other conversations as well.
In our opening session, Linda Tuck Chapman, a Sourcing Supernova Hall of Fame inductee, knocked it out of the park by delivering an interactive workshop on third-party risk management. People said that their two hours of training FLEW BY. When the group joined back together, we had an incredible presentation by Rohan Ranadive from BB&T about building an AI-powered digital workforce which prompted so many questions, I had to stop them to stay on agenda! Then we had an absolutely inspiring one-hour talk by Nancy Brooks, the CPO of Best Buy. Nancy shared that she had declined previous invitations to speak, because she doesn’t care for speaking engagements, but she agreed to speak at SIG’s event because she had a story that needed to be shared about her team. We are thrilled that she joined us. She engaged everyone with Best Buy’s story the entire time and Nancy’s team was so proud to be there.
Here's your weekly briefing of thought leadership, networking events and training. We hope to see you at one of our new Regional SIGnature Events taking place across North America this year. Can't make it to an in-person event? Join us online for a webinar covering the latest trends, topics and solutions.
A Turn of Events in 2019
The new Regional SIGnature Events are designed as exciting, one-day “mini-Summits” to help you connect to one another on a deeper level, learn from each other and grow your professional network beyond your city limits. These events are always free for buy-side members and are built around team engagement. Director-level and above attendees will participate in an Executive Roundtable while your team spends the morning in a deep-dive learning exercise with an expert on a top-of-mind issue. Visit our website to learn more about what to expect, see who's speaking and when we'll be in a region near you!
When critical supply chain partners are financially weak, they become more likely to be the source of unpleasant surprises. Such supplier problems can damage a company’s brand reputation and sales. To avoid surprises, companies can leverage risk management strategies and predictive analytics to gain visibility into latent supply chain risks.
SIG’s Fall 2018 Global Executive Summit in Rancho Mirage, California, is less than three weeks away! That means it’s time to kick things into high gear and prepare yourself and your team for the most innovative and thought-provoking sourcing event of the year.
With more than 350 delegates in attendance, numerous educational sessions and workshops, plus how-to labs, speed networking, a CPO Roundtable Program and a charity golf scramble, there is a lot to prepare for! Navigating such a vast event may seem overwhelming at first, but don’t fret. I’ve outlined four tips that will have you walking into the Summit like a seasoned vet.
1. Plan Your SIG Summit Agenda with the new SIG Events App
One thing you’ll want to do before you depart for Rancho Mirage is to create your Summit agenda. This fall, with 100+ speakers, 50+ educational sessions, panel discussions, networking receptions, keynote presentations, how-to labs and fun entertainment, there is a lot to do in just four days! Even if you’re a longtime Summit attendee, planning your agenda goes a long way. To make this easy on delegates, we have a new app with a built-in schedule planner tool.
There are multiple ways to download the SIG events app to your smart device:
Kevin Nash is the Vice President Chief Procurement Officer at Health Care Services Corporation, a Blue Cross Blue Shield Company. As an experienced executive in procurement, sourcing and supply chain operations, Kevin manages over 100 people who oversee a wide range of functions from sourcing and contracting to regulatory requirements. Kevin shares his tips to keep a large team organized, his outlook on the growing role of procurement in organizations, and his advice for those looking to be better procurement professionals and team leaders.
Can you talk about your background and education--how did you get involved in procurement?
Like many procurement professionals, I stumbled upon procurement early in my career and found it to be an interesting and exciting area to work. After graduating with a degree in engineering, I started my career at GE supporting a manufacturing process. While in manufacturing, I began to focus on supply chain because we were experiencing frequent supply chain and inventory issues that were significantly impacting the ability to meet the production schedule. After finishing my MBA and leaving GE, I joined a consulting firm and continued to focus on supply chain with an emphasis on procurement. While in consulting, I transitioned from focusing on the supply chain for direct material to supply chain and procurement in service-orientated companies.
It's been a busy news cycle and a busy summer at SIG. We are implementing a lot of changes to bring delegates the latest news, thought leadership and professional development opportunities to help you and your team stay sharp and informed.
Here's a look at the latest news and opportunities for SIG delegates in August.
Future of Sourcing
Originally launched in 2005, Outsource Magazine has built a strong reputation of quality thought leadership among the sourcing, outsourcing and procurement community. The digital content has continued to grow through its vast collection of contributors and with it, our audience. For this reason, it was decided that Outsource Magazine needed a transformation to better represent the thought leaders in the global sourcing community.
Today we present to you Future of Sourcing, a digital publication that will continue to provide you with unparalleled insight into the trends, best practices, challenges and opportunities facing the industry.
If you're already an Outsource Magazine subscriber, your subscription will be carried over to Future of Sourcing and you will continue to receive our bi-weekly email newsletters. If you're not a subscriber, we encourage you to sign up to receive the latest articles directly to your inbox. And don't worry, we won't spam you with unnecessary emails and never share your information.
We hope you like the new look! Check out some of our latest articles in the Future of Sourcing:
"April hath put a spirit of youth in everything" -- William Shakespeare
It's the start of another new quarter and many teams are reinvigorating their strategies to make bigger and better gains in Q2. The economy is also making gains – the latest ADP National Employment Report data show that private sector companies added more workers in March than initial forecasts predicted.
At SIG, we’re charging into Q2 with a renewed sense of optimism, excitement and momentum to tackle obstacles and challenges with transformational approaches that we learned at the SIG Global Executive Summit in Washington, D.C. Here's what SIG delegates need to know this month.
FUTURE OF SOURCING AWARDS
SIG CEO Dawn Tiura recently announced the inaugural Future of Sourcing Awards to recognize and celebrate individuals and organizations that show innovation, leadership and transformation in areas that are critical to the sourcing industry. This event will bring together some of the brightest minds, the best insights and the most relevant topics to create a truly remarkable experience.
We just concluded our Washington, D.C. spring Global Executive Summit and it was fabulous. From the beautiful hotel (the Omni Shoreham is a grand old lady) to the incredible speakers and leading-edge content, to wonderful networking and connections made all week long, the Global Summit was incredible. We had leadership keynotes from Steve Ford, son of former President Gerald (Jerry) Ford and David Rowan, editor of WIRED magazine in the UK and columnist for GQ…and industry keynotes on everything from how to incorporate digital technologies into our daily jobs to learning from our successes (and failures). Forty-plus breakout sessions supplemented the plenary events with both groundbreaking ideas and tangible takeaways. And the Wednesday night entertainment was widely touted as being one of the best ever!
This Global Summit was also the kickoff for the SIG Innovation Accelerator where “short-listed” providers presented cutting-edge technologies to a room of 55 buy-side executives. The feedback from those in attendance was phenomenal, with input on how to make the technologies more relevant to those in sourcing/procurement and 59 requests to learn more (many chose more than one). Visit www.SIGInnova.com for more information.
2018 is already shaping up to be a busy year for SIG and we don't anticipate slowing down. In fact, we're accelerating!
SIG INNOVATION ACCELERATOR
SIG recently announced the launch of the SIG Innovation Accelerator (SIA), which offers a portfolio of services to help develop and improve the innovation pipeline for Source through Supply Chain (SSC) and related functions.
The SIA was created to help SIG’s buy-side companies--and ultimately other Fortune 500/Global 1000 companies--capitalize on their combined knowledge, experiences and buying power to facilitate innovation and improve profits while simultaneously reducing risk for both buy-side companies and product providers.
Becoming an SIA Colleague is the first way for a provider to participate in and benefit from SIA’s services. Benefits of becoming an SIA Colleague include:
Eligibility to nominate a product for review and consideration for SIA’s Acceleration Program
Opportunities for product focus groups with procurement executives to get feedback on product and marketing/sales strategies
Discounts for online certification programs or courses offered by SIG University
A Leadership Council comprised of approximately 24 CPOs and select other executives from SIG’s buy-side member companies will lead SIA's initiatives. All of SIG’s buy-side members are eligible to participate in various SIA activities and benefit from its services. SIA is managed and staffed by SIG and Creatze, which is led by SIG’s founder and former CEO Barry Wiegler.
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SIG Speaks Weekly Briefing - September 3
Here's your weekly update on the latest thought leadership, networking events and training with SIG.
This Month at SIG
Make some time in your calendar this month to benchmark with your peers, find solutions to your biggest challenges or upskill your team with a SIG University certification.
Benchmark & Optimize Your Spend Strategy
Gain exclusive access to a chapter highlight from Coupa’s annual benchmark report, where they look at 3 KPIs across the source-to-contract process to gauge your organization’s progress and optimize your spend strategy.
Future of Sourcing Articles
Carlos Melendez discusses the benefits of using offshoring and nearshoring to aid in the implementation of AI into your organization.
The first installment of this two-part article underscored the importance of collaboration between procurement and IT operations. Part two of the continues with more emphasis on collaboration, but in this case, the collaboration is in terms of working with your IT colleagues.
Northeastern Regional SIGnature Event
On November 14 in Toronto, Ontario join sourcing industry leaders for a day of networking and thought leadership!