Episode 13: The 4 Ps That Will Future-Proof Your Procurement with Milind Tailor

Milind Tailor – 00:00:00:

To me, business is all about people. So I would say the first and the most important one would be to start with your own people. The change has to happen first at the procurement. And we need to believe in ourselves. We need to believe that we can create value. We need to believe that we have the right skill set, the right people, the right attitude, and the right approach to be having that seat at the table. So that’s how I would start with is with our own people.

Intro Ad – 00:00:24:

The Powering Procurement Podcast is brought to you by Atamis, source-to-contract software designed to save you time and money. 

Intro – 00:00:30:

Hello and welcome to Powering Procurement, a podcast by Atamis, where we unpack the world of procurement and supply chain management with the help of industry leaders. I’m your host, Sian Lloyd, and this is our resident expert, Gareth Burch. Hi, after 20 years in procurement, I may be billed as an expert, but believe me, I’m here to learn too. Each episode, together with our expert guests, we’ll dive into specific challenges and opportunities facing the procurement industry today. And we’ll explore easy wins and longer-term strategies to help you rise to the challenge of driving value through your work while showcasing the power of procurement. So let’s get going.

Sian Lloyd – 00:01:15:

Welcome to Powering Procurement. Now, we’re switching things up a bit this time. As Gareth, my usual co-host, is away, I’m joined by Travis Crouch. Now, Travis is the perfect co-host because he’s previously been a guest on the podcast, and now he works for Atamis. So it’s going to be great working with you on this, Travis, but I’m going to head straight to introduce our main guest this time. And we are joined by Milind Tailor, a global procurement leader who’s transformed procurement into a strategic powerhouse. As Global Head of Resale Products and Services Procurement at Diebold Nixdorf, he oversees operations across more than 60 countries, managing in excess of a $1 billion spend while driving efficiency, resilience, and innovation.

Travis Crouch – 00:02:05:

Milind is also a thought leader in AI, supply collaboration, and the future of procurement. Today, we’ll dive into the evolving role of procurement professionals through the lens of Purpose, People, Planet, and Performance, and explore how AI is freeing teams from manual tasks to focus on strategy and impact.

Sian Lloyd – 00:02:23:

It’s great to have you on the podcast, Milind. Really looking forward to speaking with you today and to hear more about those four Ps that Travis was introducing. But before we get into that detail, it would be really lovely to just rewind the clock a little bit and to find out about where your journey in procurement began. What first drew you into this sphere?

Milind Tailor – 00:02:46:

Yeah, so it’s a very interesting, I would say, story. Because when I was doing my engineering, I was, you know, during my engineering days, actually, I was doing an apprentice at an electronics manufacturing company in India. So one day, something that I witnessed on the shop floor actually changed the trajectory of my career forever. I was on the shop floor, and I found out that the production line had come to a screeching halt. I thought it might be some machine issue, might be some people issue, as always, you know, which happens. But to my surprise, what I found was it was a single component that was missing, and that kind of derailed the entire operations. And the impact was so instant and brutal, right? You can imagine we have customer escalations, missed deadlines, financial losses with production line coming to a halt. And more importantly, growing frustration across the team. And that to me was like my eureka moment. I realised that the supply chain, or operations, as it used to be called 20 years ago, is not something of a back office operation but a lifeline of the business. But at that point in time, I would say 20 years ago or 25 years ago. And then even today, if I see finance, marketing, and sales are considered as more sexy career paths than operations, which kind of hurts me to a great extent. But at the same time, I think we all need to realise that operations has the power to make or break the company, right? So with that Eureka moment, I went ahead and I did my research around what supply chain is all about. How can I pursue it in more detail? And that kind of drove me to pursuing a master’s in supply chain and operations. So that’s how I started my career in procurement and supply chain. So the engineering background gave me the strong analytical foundation. And then the master’s in operations and supply chain gave me the strategic accumulation needed to be into this field.

Sian Lloyd – 00:04:30:

That is so interesting because, Travis, remember it’s the same on your podcast. You were saying people somehow tend to fall into procurement, don’t they?

Travis Crouch – 00:04:39:

Absolutely. I was just literally thinking that myself, thinking if I mentioned that again, it won’t be the first time I’ve said it on this podcast. It’s great to hear that kind of you, you know, you saw it from, you experienced something, and you realised, actually, there’s something I can do, something I can add some value to this process. And, you know, straight away, you could see, you know, the effectiveness of good supply chain management. So it’s really good to hear.

Milind Tailor – 00:05:02:

Absolutely. And as you said, Travis, I think the biggest challenge I see is with our field is, you know, as you said as well, and I keep saying this, that a lot of people in supply chain and procurement are by accident, whereas I am in this field by design. And we need a lot more people in this field who are in this field by design and not by accident.

Sian Lloyd – 00:05:22:

Fantastic. Thank you. And thank you for sharing that with us. If I just take that one step further, then perhaps ask what shaped your approach to procurement leadership, as you told us about that moment when you sort of first got into procurement, but what about procurement leadership? What shaped you there?

Milind Tailor – 00:05:38:

I would say it’s not about one single moment that didn’t end up defined it, but it’s basically the series of experiences all throughout my last 21 years of career that has reinforced my belief in the power of procurement and supply chain. So if I go back, I started off my career in contract manufacturing that helped me to understand the real impact of what business process outsourcing is. From there, I moved into demand planning, sales and operations planning, that kind of helped me to understand how cross-functional collaboration can drive success. Further down the line, I started doing supply chain solutions, and then I ended up doing supply chain sales solutions selling as well. And to me, that was one critical moment in part of my career because I strongly believe that sales and procurement are two sides of the same coin. And having done the sales myself, it helped me to be a good procurement professional because I can now think like a sales guy, because more often than not, procurement guys end up dealing with the sales guys when we are doing any negotiation. So that was a very critical part of my experience. And then I ended up handling spare parts operations. And finally, all of that culminated into me handling the end-to-end supply chain and into the current procurement leadership role. But all throughout, I would say each role has only strengthened my conviction that procurement is not just about cutting costs, right? It speaks about resilience; it’s about agility, and it’s about creating long-term value for the organisation. Unfortunately, procurement was and still at times dismissed just as a support function. But to me, it’s a powerful driver for business success. One that can shape the strategy, that can mitigate risk, and at the same time fuel the growth for the organisation.

Sian Lloyd – 00:07:15:

Melinde, it’s been fascinating to hear about your career and how that’s evolved over the past couple of decades. How do you see procurement as having evolved over that time? Has it really undergone a transformation, would you say?

Milind Tailor – 00:07:29:

So let me give you a real-life story to make my point. Maybe you have heard it already. The story is about Captain Charles Plumb. Captain Charles Plumb was a U.S. Navy pilot. And after 75 combat missions, his plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb had to eject, and he parachuted into the enemy’s hands. So he was captured, and he spent seven years in Vietnam as a prisoner of war. He survived the ordeal, and now he kind of lectures on lessons learnt from that experience. What happened was, many years later, when Charles Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a gentleman came to his table and said, You are Plumb. You flew a jet fighter plane in Vietnam, and you were shot down. And Plumb was like, How is it that this guy knows so much about me? He asked, How in the world do you know all about this? And his answer was, I packed your parachute. Plumb was kind of surprised and, of course, had gratitude. The man said, I guess it worked. And Plum’s answer was, yes, it did. Else I wouldn’t have been sitting here, right? So how does it? If we re-imagine this story from a business context perspective, the CEO of the organisation is Charles, right? So the job of the pilot is to take the company to new heights, driving growth, managing risks, and taking critical decisions. The organisation is the plane, right? It’s the CEO and his leadership team. Their job is to take the organisation to their goals. But like any aircraft, it’s vulnerable to turbulence. And turbulence is enough, and I can talk about it for hours. Economic downturns, disruptions, sun force and risk, and you can keep going on and on and on, right? And the third element is procurement in this, which is the parachute packer. Like Charles Plumb, the CEO probably doesn’t even know what the procurement is doing, you know, behind the scenes. But when something goes wrong and someone has to eject, like Charles Plumb had to eject, the parachute has to work, right? And that’s what our role is. So the CEO can keep making bold decisions. But if procurement is not securing supply, is not making the supply chains more resilient, managing the risk, then the organisation can come crashing down, right? And that’s what the difference is. Today, with all the geopolitical tensions, the market volatility, rapid technological advancements, shifting consumer preferences, with all of this happening, the companies are realising the importance of a parachute packer. That’s procurement, right? So it’s no longer to me a back office function, but it’s become more of a strategic enabler, enabling business continuity, resilience, and elevation, right? And that’s what is the change that I see. And just as businesses are evolving, so do procurement professionals also have to evolve, right? We need to stay relevant. We need to adapt. We need to upskill. And we need to embrace technology so that we can engineer for a faster or a safer, smarter, and more sustainable landing for the organisation if there is a need. So that, to me, is the biggest change that I see happening from the last 20 years, where procurement from not being known to now being known and getting into a seat where people really look forward to procurement and supply chain to make strategic decisions and drive the business agenda.

Sian Lloyd – 00:10:43:

What a great story, Milind. You know, you are a great storyteller. And actually putting the point across in that story is so impactful. Thank you. It’s made me think of, well, you’re saying that people need to adapt and leaders need to adapt. Are there any particular practical points or tips or suggestions about how exactly these procurement professionals need to adapt?

Milind Tailor – 00:11:06:

I would say one, of course, is in terms of skills, right? If we talk about the business environment today, it is very dynamic. It is changing every single day, you know, especially today when we talk about, you know, the new government in the US with Mr. Donald Trump. You know, every day is a new day. Every day is a new challenge in terms of tariffs, in terms of how to redesign your supply chain. So to me, while our standard procurement, or standard skills, which is contract negotiation, you know, cost optimisation, and we talk about supplier management, all these are critical and important. But from a people’s perspective or from a skill perspective, we need to transition to become professionals which are more visionary; we are more technologists and more collaborators, right? So orchestration, digital fluency, leading the change, and influencing are the four, I would say, main skills that we as procurement professionals need to develop to be able to stay ahead of the game. Else, there is a very high chances that we will be left behind and the companies are at risk.

Sian Lloyd – 00:12:16:

Thank you. That’s really, really good advice and given us plenty to think about. Milind, each of our guests brings something different every week. And, you know, we try to focus on a specific area. I know that you talk about the four P’s of procurement. So we’d love to delve into that concept. If you can give us an overview to start off with, and then, like an onion, we’ll perhaps peel back the layers and look at each in a bit more detail.

Milind Tailor – 00:12:42:

Yeah, so I’m sure we all have heard about the four Ps of marketing from Mr. Philip Kotler, right? The famous marketing guru. Price, product, place, and promotion. These four Ps transformed how businesses think about delivering value to the customer. They kind of revolutionised how businesses also think about the customers in general, right? And from there, actually, this concept of the four Ps of procurement kind of came to my mind in terms of Purpose, People, Planet, and Performance. Because supply chain procurement is not just about products or not about services, buying services, or delivering services. It is also about taking care of the environment, and it is also about taking care of the overall performance of the organisation. So having a right purpose with the right set of people, taking care of the Planet will help us deliver performance, right performance for the organisation. So that’s the whole philosophy of the four P’s of procurement that would help organisations leading to a more sustainable, equitable, and an innovative world.

Sian Lloyd – 00:13:44:

So, Milind, if we take Purpose, first of all, and already you’ve spoken about elevating procurement from cost saving to value creation and how that really is how procurement has been evolving. Tell us what you see as being procurement’s true purpose today. What shift in mindset and indeed in strategy do procurement leaders need to drive long term business impact in this area?

Milind Tailor – 00:14:10:

Let me give you a startling fact in the world of aviation. 80% of the aeroplane accidents happen due to human error, not mechanical failure. So it’s not the technology or the aircraft itself that fails, but rather it’s the breakdown of communication, alignment, and coordination between the cockpit crew and the air traffic control at times that leads to this disaster. What’s at stake for the pilot, co-pilot, and the air traffic control? All three of them have one single goal, and that’s to ensure the safe journey of the passenger from the origin to the destination. But if even one of them operates in isolation or ignores the other one, leads to disaster. As a result, what is expected is all three of them work seamlessly to get the passengers safely to their destination. So how does this relate to our procurement purpose, right? Surprisingly, businesses also operate in a very, very similar way. And when I say in a similar way, organisations can have the best of the technology, we can have the best of the robust operations, greatest of the suppliers, but without a strong alignment and coordination, especially between procurement and the other departments, they’re setting themselves up for turbulence, right? And to me, procurement… Like the cockpit crew holds the power to guide the businesses safely towards the goal. And for this, we have to work in harmony with every part of the organisation. And to me, that’s the true purpose of procurement: to serve as a strategic co-pilot for the business, not just managing costs but actively navigating towards a competitive advantage. And for this, it requires a very, very fundamental shift from being transaction processors to becoming business advisors. Someone who understands what is the organisation’s destination, what is it that the goal that the company is trying to achieve, and help chart the optimal course to get there. Secondly, we also need to keep or get away from the mindset of being a spending gatekeeper. I’ve heard this number of times in my career where someone says, Procurement is the policeman in the organisation. Yes, we are, but that’s not the only job. The job is to turn ourselves into a cross-functional value accelerator. We have to reframe our matrix beyond cost savings. We have to include innovation catalysed. We have to include risks that are averted, sustainability which has been advanced, and growth that has been enabled. Right? By positioning our teams at these critical strategic intersections within the business, we would be having a seat at the table when the decisions are made and not after the flight plan has been fed off, has been five or more often than not. You would see procurement just go and do this, right? We’ve taken this decision; go and execute it. We need to get from that reactive mindset into a more proactive mindset where we can make the adjustments upfront and not after the decisions have been taken. And to me, that’s the purpose. That’s the purpose of how we can achieve procurement excellence and enable competitive advantage for the organisation.

Travis Crouch – 00:17:26:

Thanks, Milind. That’s great. I myself have seen the shift over the last 10, 15 years as to how procurement teams have tried to become strategic partners within organisations. And, you know, the same things like you mentioned, you know, both of these, you said like, you know, not just talking about savings, talking about value, you know, now I have value, measuring value, and also, you know, embedding procurement business partners, for instance, within the organisation to try and make sure they’re part of that pipeline and understanding what the future requirements are and actually helping them get ready. So What-—From that, what would you say was the most important thing that the procurement team, who is trying to kind of make that change, what was the most important thing that you think they should focus on straight off the cuff to get them into that shift change?

Milind Tailor – 00:18:11:

I will too. One of the most important would be People. At the end of the day, it’s all about people, right? And that’s one of my four Ps as well; it’s all about people. It’s not the organisations that do business. It is people doing business with people. So it’s all about people. To me, business is all about people. So I would say the first and the most important one would be to start with your own people. You know, the change has to happen first at the procurement. And we need to believe in ourselves. We need to believe that we can create value. We need to believe that we have the right skill set, the right people, the right attitude, and the right approach to be having that seat at the table. So that’s how I would start with, is with our own people. And once you do that, once you have the right people on board, as they say, you have the right people on the bus, then you can start your journey. Because if you don’t have the right set of people, of people who don’t believe in themselves, people who do not have that willingness to learn, willingness to adapt technology, then you are setting yourself up for failure.

Sian Lloyd – 00:19:16:

So what does that future-ready talent look like, Milind?

Milind Tailor – 00:19:20:

Yeah, so as I kind of alluded onto this previously, if I talk about the procurement skills, yes, they are given, right? We all need to have cost optimisation skills. We need to have contract negotiation skills. We need to have supplier management skills. That’s given, right? That’s our bread and butter. We need to do that. But is that enough? No, I don’t think they are enough. Why? Because the businesses are changing. The market environment is very changing. The expectations from the business are changing. And as a result, it requires us to be more visionary. It requires us to be more technologists. And it requires us to be collaborators. Because if the true purpose is to act as a co-pilot, then we should be able to collaborate and orchestrate stuff for the carpenter within the organisation. So to me, as I said, orchestration, digital fluency, leading the change, and influencing are the four most important skills that we need to develop. If we need to… If we need to achieve our purpose. And if I could kind of elaborate briefly on each four of them, talking about podcastration, I think it’s emerging as a key skill because we are talking about… As a co-pilot, right? So which means you have to orchestrate a number of things. It is our ability to manage and synchronise multiple moving parts, not just within the supply chain and procurement but within the organisation, right? So you need to have that capacity to ensure that all the components in the organisation, in terms of people, process, technology, suppliers, they all work in harmony and deliver value. So that to me is orchestration. Second, when we talk about digital fluency, it’s all about moving away from being reactive to proactive. With the level of complexity of the supply chains that we have today, it’s not possible with the old-fashioned way, right? You cannot work on Excel sheets and PowerPoints to be here to be more proactive. And that’s where technology and digital fluency comes into picture. Digital fluency helps you to drive faster decisions, make risk predictions faster, better, and get deeper insights that would empower procurement to make decisions that are faster and agile and resilient, right? When we talk about digital fluency, there is, again, I’m not getting into AI and RPA and blockchain—there are all of these, and it’s a continuously evolving field, but it’s important to understand these technologies. It’s important to see how we can use this technology into our day-to-day job, right? And that’s the key. And that’s what I mean as digital fluency. I’m not saying that we, all of us, should have masters in technology. That’s not the task. It’s about how we can understand technology and make it to our use in day-to-day purpose, in our day-to-day jobs. And that, combined with our continuous mindset will help us to continuously drive the improvements. The third element is about leading the change. I think we as procurement have for too long taken the backseat. Not even the co-pilot seat. I think we’ve just taken the backseat or the passenger seat. You know, we’ve just gone with the flow. Now is the time for us to dream as change leaders. Why? Because there is so much change happening. There is so much pressure on the business to deliver and to perform. And that gives us the opportunity. And the challenges are more towards the supply chain side. And if you see the discussions that are happening today, they are all driven in and around supply chain. If we talk about geopolitical tensions, the tariffs that Trump is talking about, again, it’s all going to impact the supply chains. And that’s where the role of the parachute packer comes into picture. So companies who have not done their homework are going to get impacted. And that’s where I would say the opportunity for us is to lead the change. And that will ensure success for the organisation. But more importantly, it will also refine the perception of procurement as a transformative force. And lastly, it’s about influencing. And influencing—when I say influencing, it’s not about having direct control or having all the people reporting into procurement, but it’s about inspiring action. It’s about building trust and aligning people towards a common vision, a shared vision for the organisation. It’s about building trust with the suppliers and advocating, even advocating procurement value to the SISU. That’s all part of influencing. And with the emotional intelligence, data-driven storytelling, and our key skill set of strategic negotiations, we can achieve this, we can achieve this very well. So to me, these four skills that I mentioned about, in addition to the procurement skill set, they are not standalone capabilities. But to me, they are highly interlinked and interconnected facets of a procurement professional who can turn into a strategic leader, right? And that’s by embracing these things, by embracing these skills, we can add more value and be a driving force for business success. And that’s, again, all about people, right? It’s at the end, all of these are people. And none of these are, if you see, none of these are hard skills. These are more of it are more on the soft skills. But we as procurement guys, are more focused always on the hard part, hard skills, which is negotiations, contracts, right? I mean, we are all focused on that element. And as a result, we neglect some of these softer skills, which are very, very important in today’s business environment.

Travis Crouch – 00:24:37:

Milind, a question from me on that. So that’s, that is, you know, really interesting that you’re looking for a really well-rounded individual there to get kind of, you know, to get the organisation, not necessarily an individual, a team of individuals, right? I understand. Is there any around, obviously, thinking about recruitment and developing people? What are your views on using things like apprenticeships and, you know, graduates and those sorts of things to kind of try and train and develop those people to become these rounded individuals to be those strategic partners?

Milind Tailor – 00:25:06:

No. So very much, I think what we as a company also do is we do hire a lot of apprentices, not as much in the UK, but we have a big workforce in our plant in Germany. So we do have a lot of apprentices in Germany in our plant. And from there, a lot of these kids get into the GED program as well. I have on my team a couple of them who are kind of just joined last November and are progressing well. In addition to that, we also focus a lot on developing internal talent, you know, growing internal talent, doing job rotations, and giving opportunities to people to look at different aspects and facets of the business and then decide where is it that they want to kind of, you know, get into over a period of time. But that’s the best way to kind of nurture talent and give by giving them opportunities in different fields and giving them the opportunity to shine.

Sian Lloyd – 00:25:59:

That’s really interesting. Thank you for developing that with us. Just breaking into some, a little bit conscious on time as we approach our last sort of quarter of the podcast. We can go over a little bit, but we want to get through Planet as well and Performance. So I’m going to take us on to Planet. And Milind, tell us about the pillar of Planet, you know, how that is driving presumably procurement sustainability agenda. There are challenges perhaps for the sector there as well. Tell us about your thoughts in connection with the professionals’ role in ESG and sustainability.

Milind Tailor – 00:26:36:

Let’s accept one thing: that today the organisations are facing tension between sustainability commitments and business imperatives. No good thoughts about it. Businesses are facing pressure from the investors, from regulators, and consumers as well, who are demonstrating, asking the companies to demonstrate progress on their sustainability goals. And as a result, the way I see it is procurement teams stand at a critical nexus of challenges and opportunities. So from a procurement perspective, it’s no longer about securing the best price. It’s about balancing the cost, balancing the risk, and the impact of embedding sustainability into every sourcing decision. But as like you said, making this into a reality is a real challenge, is a real difficulty, because I see it as three major challenges. One is the profit versus the Planet dilemma. Sustainability costs more, at least in the short term, you know, given. Right. And that makes life all the more difficult for people. Whether we talk about ethical suppliers, we talk about recycled materials, carbon neutral logistics, everything comes as a premium.

Travis Crouch – 00:27:47:

Right.

Milind Tailor – 00:27:48:

So. The challenge is how do you convince the CFO and how do you convince the management that sustainability is not an expense, but it’s an investment? And for that? We need to shift from a total cost mindset to a total impact mindset. And what do I mean by that is… We should be in a position to quantify the impact of these unsustainable practices that are currently in place in terms of the regulatory fines, in terms of the reputational damage, in terms of the risk that it comes in. And that’s how we can show how sourcing can deliver; ethical sourcing can deliver long-term financial resilience. For me, the question should not be, how much does it cost? But the question is, what is the cost of inaction? If you don’t act, what is it going to impact? So to me, that’s the first point. The second element of the challenge is the blind spot of our complexity. We all struggle, or most of us struggle, to get visibility or complete visibility and transparency in our supply chain. And when I say transparency, I know. To tier one suppliers, most of us have a good visibility. But when you talk about tier two, tier three, that’s where you start losing those transparencies. And to me, those are the areas where you have human rights violations, environmental damages, unethical practices, and that’s what needs to be brought to the fore. And again, for this, Excel sheets cannot work. Technology is what is the saviour here. There are a lot of tools available in terms of AI, blockchain. You can have real-time analytics that can provide you visibility. There are supplier ESG dashboards and predictive risk mapping that are there to help track the compliance. So, I guess we need to start using some of these technologies. Not all the technologies are mature enough, but I know there are technologies available. And that’s the only way to be able to bring that visibility and transparency so that we can take action. And the third element, which to me is probably an easy fix, is the misalignment of goals and procurement KPIs, right? More often than not, I’ve seen organisations committing to CO₂ reductions or carbon emission reductions. But if the procurement team is still getting measured on cost savings, then it doesn’t drive the right behaviour, right? So, the procurement KPI also has to evolve accordingly. You need to measure KPI up to measure procurement on sustainable sourcing, carbon reduction, and supplier diversity if you really want to make an impact. Otherwise, procurement has a target to reduce cost, and the company wants to reduce carbon emission. Both are very difficult to manage. You know, unless you have the right matrix, it will not work. So to me, sustainable procurement is not a cost. I say sustainability is an insurance policy, an insurance policy against becoming obsolete in a purpose-driven economy, against becoming the weakest link in the fragile supply chain, and again, becoming irrelevant in a world where more and more people are demanding ethics and impact, becoming irrelevant in the world where people are asking for more ethical practices. So it’s an insurance policy which we need to take. It’s not a cost. So that’s how I would say I would look at the Planet element from a procurement perspective.

Sian Lloyd – 00:31:09:

Well, that takes us on to performance, Milind, and you were talking about metrics. What performance metrics now are required because this final pillar of performance in procurement, you know, how can they demonstrate the value of this and what should the team be focusing on?

Milind Tailor – 00:31:28:

So one, if you want to grab the C-suite’s attention, we need to present the impact that we make in a way that excites, engages, and convinces the C-suite, right? And that’s where we need to first is stop using the savings language. We need to start telling a compelling business story. We need to make our goal or make our impact so clear, so strategic, and essential that it cannot be overloaded. And that’s why I call it the Total Business Value that procurement has delivered, not just the cost. So the elements of this could vary by organisation. But to me, three or four most important elements would be one is resilience. Right. In today’s world. Risk mitigated is… Equal to cost saved, absolutely no two thoughts on that one. And CSU hates risk, right? They all want to understand how well we have… Manage the risk. So showing them the disasters that procurement has dodged will help grab their attention. So that’s one, the resilience ROI. Second, sustainability impact, which means how has procurement helped to reduce the carbon footprint and the ESG risk for the organisation? As we said, sustainability is not… A nice-to-have but a strong business differentiator as we move along. The third element which we do is supplier-led innovation, meaning how many new ideas have we received from the suppliers that has converted into revenue that has helped us to drive more, introduce new products or services in the market, right? And that transforms procurement into a growth enabler. Creating real business value, driving revenue. So these are the three, four things that I would say we need to look at and try to put it in terms of a value creation, you know, heat map that shows the multidimensional impact of procurement beyond cost saving.

Sian Lloyd – 00:33:32:

Milind, thank you for taking us through the four Ps of procurement. You’ve certainly explained it to me very, very well, and really interesting thoughts there, very impactful as well. You were talking about some of the skills earlier, and, of course, AI is something that we hear about and talk about a lot on this particular podcast series as well. How do you see AI shifting procurement then from this transactional reactive function that you were talking about in the past to being now a strategic data-driven powerhouse going forward?

Milind Tailor – 00:34:08:

So, first and foremost… We need to accept that we are in an era of… Human-machine collaboration. It is human creativity amplified by machine precision. Things that AI can do, the data crunching that AI can do, the data analysis that data can do is just humanly not possible. So we are in that era of human-machine collaboration, and it’s not the question about human or machine, but it’s human and machine. So AI can handle… A lot of data analytics, and then we as procurement professionals need to upgrade our skills and focus more on strategic oversight, in managing stakeholder relationships, in managing supplier relationships, making those decisions that cannot be done by AI. And specifically in the areas of ethical considerations, long-term strategic planning, these are the things which AI cannot decide for. And that’s where our opportunity lies to rise above and start taking, getting involved into more strategic decisions. I’ll give you a very simple example. Today, if you look at procurement from a category management perspective, and if we are preparing a category plan at a global level, 60% of the time will be spent in collecting the data, gathering the insights from the market, and understanding what’s going on in each category. With AI, that job should be done with probably only 20% of the time or less than that, actually. You need to feed the AI with the right content context. But once you do that, the data will come out from the system. Now, if you’re talking about three people here or four people on this call and all four are four different organisations, the facts or the numbers are not going to change. But then the way Travis will use that data versus the way Milind will use that data versus how Sian will lose that data is different. And that’s where the role of procurement and human intelligence comes into picture. And to me, that’s the value add that we can do. Not spend time preparing presentations and crunching data in the Excel sheet, but let AI do that. And use that data to make strategic decisions. Use that data to drive action. Because data drives action. And that’s what AI can do. And to me, that’s the future. We will be freed up. The procurement team will be freed up from a lot of daily transactional operational stuff. And we focus more on the strategic stuff, the real value-creating stuff. And again, that would vary by the company. So it is not that you can pick the data from AI and say, Okay, let’s do this. AI can give only some recommendations. And the recommendation probably will be the same for all four of us because we all operate in the same market. The supply base is the same. The market conditions are the same. So all of that is the same. So by and large, the data or the information that you will get out of it from AI will be probably the same. It’s just about how you interpret the data and what kind of actions you take out of that data is where the role of the procurement team will be in the future.

Travis Crouch – 00:37:12:

Milind, I… I can see the revolution, the AI revolution, right? That’s kind of happening. And no doubt this is going to keep getting… Better and better, the scale is just going crazy, and I think the whole world is moving that way, and actually, it’s going to enhance and keep enhancing the way we do things, so I think one thing I kind of really would like to know, and if that is something you hear your views on, is the risks of using tools like generative AI, and you know, maybe if you’ve got some kind of examples or something where you’ve seen, you know, you’re a good storyteller around people using AI to kind of maybe cut corners a little bit, you know, I think so. What have you got for us on that?

Milind Tailor – 00:37:52:

Again, we haven’t started using AI as much at DeepL. We are in the exploratory phase. But I’m using AI on my personal front for a lot of, you know, from an idea generation perspective. And what I see is… It gives you a lot of stuff, right? And it all depends on how well you ask the question and how well you provide the context to AI. And that’s what is important, right? We all can be asking the same question to AI, but all four of us might end up concluding something completely different because the information that you will get depends on how you are asking, what you are asking, what context you are providing. So to me, I would say… It’s too early to kind of say that… AI is going to do a lot of stuff. Yes, it will do a lot of stuff. But then the risks associated with, as I said, in terms of long-term strategic planning, risks associated in terms of what are the ethical considerations. I think to me, those are the things where it comes about emotional intelligence. AI will never have that emotional intelligence. And that’s the risk that I see in terms of getting that right balance between using agentic AI or GenAI. And at what point do you need to have human intervention in the process, right? But some of the tasks for sure, which are absolutely operational in nature, will disappear. I think people need to understand that some roles within supply chain and procurement will surely be made redundant. You know, someone raising a purchase order, someone receiving an invoice, someone processing an invoice, someone booking those invoices, you know, into SAP or any of the ERP. All those things will get replaced, right? Because AI can do that, I would, with 99% confidence level, within the Grievance framework. Certain things, as I said, the category plan. It can give you an outcome, but how to interpret and customise it or not customise it but to refine it to suit your own business requirement, your own business condition—that’s the work. That work still has to be done. AI cannot do that. I will never be able to do that. Irrespective of whatever level of development that happens, I don’t think AI will be able to do that part.

Sian Lloyd – 00:40:11:

And Milind, I don’t think AI could answer our final question, which is the question we ask all our guests because it’s very personal to them. The podcast series was set up, of course, to shine a light on the procurement sector, recognising there are challenges, like for many others, in terms of recruiting into it, getting people to stay in the profession. So with that in mind, can you share with us why you’re so pleased that you did go into procurement?

Milind Tailor – 00:40:37:

Okay, so. I would say, one, of course, I’m very, very pleased that I selected this field. And I’m not here by accident but by design. So absolutely no regrets. And no regrets for three reasons. One, procurement is one profession where you can truly make an impact. Impact on businesses, impact on industries, and even on economies, right? Because as we spoke, procurement sits at the heart of everything that we do in terms of strategy, cost, risk, innovation, sustainability. Revenue. That’s the impact that we can have. And more importantly, this is one profession where I can see the results of my decision with my eyes, be it in terms of cost reduction, be it in terms of sustainability, be it in terms of building resilience. You can see the results of your decisions directly. Second. It offers endless opportunities for growth. And over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to interact with so many people and meet up with so many suppliers, travel so many places, learn so many different things, do so many different projects. We are right from post-merger integration to financial restructuring to procurement transformation, digitisation, and so many different varied projects. And for me, what excites me is that no two days are the same. Every challenge, every day brings in a new opportunity to create value. And lastly, and the most important to me, is career with a purpose. Procurement is something where you can have a true purpose, a purpose in which you will make your business stronger, supply chains more sustainable and more resilient. Somebody who wants to make an impact, somebody who wants to grow and learn, somebody who wants to have a career with a purpose, I would say procurement is the place. Procurement and supply chain to be a place.

Sian Lloyd – 00:42:31:

I’m sure that you’ve inspired younger people who are watching the podcast to join you. Thank you so much, Milind, for being our guest this time.

Milind Tailor – 00:42:41:

Thank you so much.

Travis Crouch – 00:42:43:

Thanks, Milind.

Outro – 00:42:47:

That wraps up this episode of Powering Procurement. We hope you enjoyed that as much as we did. Visit our website at atamis.co.uk or follow us on LinkedIn to continue the conversation. Remember to subscribe on YouTube and follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you choose to listen.

Outro Ad – 00:43:06:

Thanks for joining us, and see you next time on Powering Procurement. Powering Procurement Podcast is brought to you by Atamis, sourced to contract software designed to save you time and money. Choose the apps you need from pipeline and tender management to supplier and contract management. Get the tools to power up your procurement. Visit atamis.co.uk to learn more.