Episode 5: Using Data to Revolutionise Procurement with Filip Leonard

Intro – 00:00:02:

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 leading experts. I’m your host, Sian Lloyd, and this is the Atamis resident expert, Gareth Burch. With nearly 20 years of experience in procurement, I may be billed as the expert, but believe me, I’m here to learn too. Each episode with our expert guests will see us diving into the world of procurement, understanding the opportunities and challenges facing the sector. And we’ll explore easy wins and longer term strategies to help you rise to the challenge of driving value through your work while showing the power of procurement. So let’s get started.

Sian Lloyd – 00:00:45:

Welcome to Powering Procurement. Today, we are thrilled to be joined by Filip Leonard, the Group Head of Supply Chain, Procurement and Social Value at Maximus UK. With experience in both the public and private sectors, Filip has led transformative procurement initiatives, playing a key role in revolutionising how procurement is approached at Maximus. Under his leadership, Maximus has implemented cutting-edge procurement technology, driving greater efficiency, risk management and social value within the supply chain.

Gareth Burch – 00:01:23:

Filip’s experience extends to not only the operational challenges of large-scale procurement, but also the ethical side. He’s been instrumental in embedding policies, such as the real living wage, across Maximus’ supply chain. His focus on sustainability, innovation, and social responsibility has made him a leading voice in procurement transformation. Today, we’ll be diving into the exciting challenges and changes he’s spearheading at Maximus and what he envisages the future of procurement. Welcome, Filip.

Sian Lloyd – 00:01:55:

It’s great to talk to you and meet you, Filip. Such a lot I know that you’ve achieved already in your career. But at the start of the podcast, we like to take a step back, really, and just to understand a little bit more about our guests and where their journey began. So it’d be great if you could start at the beginning and just tell us really where your interest in procurement began.

Filip Leonard – 00:02:16:

Probably going to give you a really underwhelming answer because I never had any career aspirations to be in procurement. I wasn’t great at school. I wasn’t successful at school. And I ran away to America to be a musician, which you may be able to see some of the instruments behind me. And I probably still do want to be a musician, to be fair. I ended up working in a sales team and I solved a few problems on customer outs of stocks and problems with inventory just through some kind of rudimentary maths and just passion to solve the problem more than anything else. I think that kind of skill was recognized because I was soon asked to be part of the inventory team. And the inventory team, as the business was transitioning from really catalog-based supply chain to a retail-based customer base, the pace of the business was changing. We’re having a number of issues with our stocks and inventory, etc. So I worked quite closely with that team. And what I really enjoyed about what they were doing every day was just solving lots of problems, working with lots of people across the business, developing relationships, and just figuring out how we could do things, differently, more efficiently, and more effectively. So I think my interest in procurement, once I was supported by a fantastic MD at Fellows who kind of offered me a role in demand management eventually, is part of that passion for being creative and building things and building relationships and solving problems. That’s probably my purpose in life that’s ended up aligning quite well with procurement. So yeah, I didn’t kind of go to uni and think, I’m going to smash it in procurement. I kind of fell into a role that just really worked for me, I guess. And I was really passionate.

Sian Lloyd – 00:03:49:

And having heard where you started, let’s find out a little bit more about the journey then, because you’ve had the experience of working in both the public and private sectors. So at this stage, before we delve that little bit deeper and into some of the main body of the podcast, it would be great just to get your ideas about how they differ. You know, is there a big difference that you’ve seen between these sectors, particularly in how they approach transformation? And I guess if you had to sort of then adapt your strategies to meet any differences.

Filip Leonard – 00:04:25:

Yes. I mean, that’s a really good question. Putting my MBA head on, I’d say I’ve not done a survey of a thousand organizations to understand the differences, but I think all organizations differ in their culture. And I think the public sector has probably some dimensions that you wouldn’t find in the private sector. And that’s particularly around larger stakeholder groups, the political aspect. And that requires, I think, kind of greater consultation with those organizations, the labor organizations that you’re required to consult with as part of that kind of planning process. But I don’t think that necessarily changes the strategy, a seven-step approach to transformation, let’s say, because the very beginning of a transformation, the most important thing you can do is speak to your stakeholders, find out what their issues are, their challenges are, and how you’re going to support them with that. So let me give you a specific example of an organization, a public sector organization I worked for. There were public demonstrations by the Stop G4S group. They lobbied local politicians, put pressure on the institution. The principle of public sector procurement is it’s open, fair, and transparent, unlike the private sector where you could just exclude people from participating in competitions or from your supply chain. So consulting with stakeholders around how I could help solve their problems using some of the legislation, using things like disrepute to develop some really high ethical standards within that public sector organizations that meant, as an organization, suppliers recognize what was important to us. And naturally, you attract the suppliers that have the same or similar standards, as you do. So I think what that does in terms of a transformation point of view, it sets the culture of transformation. It sets the tone you embrace and take the stakeholders on the journey with you. And in that way, you’re able to adapt, I think, to the different cultures and structures and even size of an organization through following that kind of basic seven-step transformation process, really. So stakeholder consultation is absolutely the key.

Gareth Burch – 00:06:19:

Moving on into the journey you’re on today within Maximus, one of the challenges of managing procurement is the multiple data sources coming at you in multiple directions. Now with technology in place, how is having one single source of the truth change your way and the way your team makes decisions?

Filip Leonard – 00:06:38:

Our ambition really, as we built a technology roadmap for the procurement team, was to absolutely emancipate ourselves from spreadsheets. The amount of time that the team spent diving into data to find out that you either didn’t have it or it was corrupt or it was missing, to try and bring that to a decision-making piece of data intelligence was really, really difficult. So what I wanted to do was always put my team in the value space so something, a system or whatever, was delivering that decision for them. So a very probably simple example is the renewals. I had four companies when I joined, and they all have their own spreadsheets. Each of the admin people have their own spreadsheets. Technology teams have their own spreadsheets with renewals in. And just a very simple process of bringing all that data into one place and the system in advance, communicating with me and the team through a dashboard report or otherwise that, hey, in three months, six months, nine months, you need to be doing something here, it enables a more mature conversation for myself and the client, the technology partner. To look at whether we transition out, what’s the strategy for that vendor or that contract, and we can have that conversation. And we’ve gone away from this space of thinking that it’s midnight on the 31st of December, we’ve got five renewals that are expiring, all the systems have been turned off. So that’s a big journey that we’ve gone on as a team. And I think that’s a relatively simple example, but that’s something that’s put us in a very different position to have a value conversation rather than an admin one.

Gareth Burch – 00:08:10:

It’s that proactive switch, isn’t it? From multiple data sources trying to understand what isn’t going on through to actually that proactive single view. And I think it supports that transformation journey as well. For me, in my experience, very similar to you, Filip, where multiple sources of information, it’s difficult to get that consolidated view. And then how do you reconcile and continue to monitor that consolidated view? But from a practical level, the benefits are amazing from a procurement perspective. It creates more efficiencies and more effectiveness. But how have you started to realize some of those efficiencies within the team through technology? Are you redeploying staff to look at problems in a different way? And how is it really helping you to enable this sort of what your team can do?

Filip Leonard – 00:09:01:

Yeah, that’s a good question. I mean, I can let one of the team answer it because one of the team made a comment only a couple of weeks ago when we talked about the due diligence process. The amount of time that that individual spent sending forms out to suppliers, tracking where they’d all gone. And then, you know, an idiot like me asking a question. Yeah, who’s got our data and where is it? And then having to go through all those documents, those pieces of documents. Now that’s all been digitized. We just say to our vendors, hey, go register here, complete a basic due diligence form. And I can press my head of procurement dashboard and I can see where everybody is in the stage of that due diligence process. What questions they have or haven’t answered. And then where is the risk? You know, who has our data? Where are we in terms of information security requirements? And you start to develop hotspots and paths. Now that individual’s role is now transition from someone sending bits of paper out and chasing up suppliers to actually be a process and business analyst. So the ability for us now to look at that data and deliver it to the category managers rather than have, you know, a few people mining the data, mining the data. It’s been a big transition. And as I said, you know, in my earlier response around getting us up the value chain in terms of being a more strategic department, it’s just having more informed conversations. So that due diligence has enabled us to have an intervention, which is, we know we’ve got a financial issue here with a supplier. Let’s go and talk to them because we’re seeing that a decreasing trend in their financial performance, or they’re not responding to these inquiries, these inquiries, or they’re an outlier in terms of their particular markets with some of the risks that they have versus some of the other suppliers in a similar market supplying similar products and services. So all that makes you proactive and you can engage with the supplier, engage with the business and maybe start to put contingency plans or business continuity in place based on the data you’re seeing, even simply around due diligence. So it’s quite powerful. It’s quite powerful.

Sian Lloyd – 00:11:00:

It’s great to hear what you’re talking about there in terms of data and innovation, Filip. And Gareth, I thought that you would have a comment and want to come in on there, because it’s certainly something that we’ve been developing throughout the Powering Procurement podcast series. So great to get your thoughts from Maximus there. And perhaps at this stage to focus on something else, really, that Maximus is leading the charge on, and that’s the real living wage, which I know is a priority for you in procurement, Filip. And great to get your thoughts on perhaps how you manage to keep that ethical focus front and centre, when also presumably you’re balancing against the need for cost and efficiencies too.

Filip Leonard – 00:11:46:

Yeah, absolutely, Sian. There’s probably a couple of parts to that question. I think what’s helped is social value procurement are in my job title. So I’ve sort of got to do both of them. I’ve got to do the projectives on both of them. So it helps me be creative on how I create a balance. I think one of the things that’s really helped in terms of further the agenda within Maximus is what we do anyway as a business. So we deliver employment outcomes, health outcomes, support outcomes for citizens in the UK. So it’s the ability to align our social value agenda with what we do as a business so that we can increase our social impact without being a burden to the organization. But the social value or social impact or responsible business, whatever you call it, can help solve some of the challenges that we have today. So very simply, everybody knows the benefits of volunteering, what that can do for teams and team morale. So that’s great. Team managers like that kind of thing. They want to be able to do that. So implementing a simple volunteering program has improved morale and engagement with teams and people learn new skills. But also from a point of recruit and retention, we have a challenge like everybody has to recruit and attract, retain new colleagues to the businesses. And society’s attitudes are changing as well. I get asked during interview about the culture and values of an organization more and more and more when I’m recruiting. We need to answer that. So I think, you know, having an organization that has a social conscience is more attractive than one that doesn’t. And that is helping align us as we roll those standards out to our supply chain. To align with vendors that think and look and act like us. And that creates, I think, that synergy with those organizations that we can have a real impact on social value. And just the final point on cost pressure, I’ve always viewed it the same way. So even back when I was moving boxes around from China, reducing the packaging and reducing waste was actually a cost saving. Changing the packaging style and the clamshells to be, to sort of stack more in a container was a cost saving, but it also reduced plastics. So I think there is a sweet spot there between finding things that are of value and also help manage costs within the organization. So, you know, I think that, you know, that’s absolutely achievable.

Gareth Burch – 00:14:02:

It’s quite interesting picking up on the real living wage bit, and it kind of links to scope three and what you were just talking about, Filip, in regards to cost reduction. I remember earlier in my career, it was, we want to be more green focused. And as the business started to adopt the more green, green products, costs suddenly increased. And do you see firsthand any potential cost increases from your supply chain? Through alignment to your culture and values, because I completely agree. It is something which everyone is asking these days within a recruitment process, even to the point when advertising for a role, these are our values. Everyone’s promoting it. But then when you push it back to the supply chain, is there an adverse impact you’re seeing? Because suppliers ultimately have to do something. And it’s happened in the past with recycling and more green products, due diligence, another example, which you touched on. So it’d be interesting to hear your thoughts on that.

Filip Leonard – 00:15:03:

I think, Gareth, it’s an interesting point because it’s a bit like our own internal approach to social value. If we make an add-on, it’s going to cost. So if we go to a supplier and say, we want you to do things and it becomes a cost. So we want you to do extra things. Then I think, yeah, you create that cost pressure. So therefore, I think what is really important is a supplier selection stage. And throughout the contract management, life cycle, if this is a growing thing that’s important to you as a business, it is working with suppliers and groups of suppliers about finding the way that works for both of you, that kind of sweet spot where it helps them manage and reduce costs. Or ultimately, through that process, do you subset vendors where that is not their interest? If they’re not playing in that market and they don’t meet your ethical standards and from a SRM point of view, relationship management point of view, you see that your journeys are, they’re in a different direction. Is that ultimately the right vendor? So I think there’s a number of tools in the toolbox, really. That you can deploy there. That might be exit, that might be sunsetting. But I think to me, the key part of it is the engagement and finding out what works with the supplier, sharing what your ambitions are and your challenges are and figuring out how you’re jointly going to get there. Because no organization wants to, you know, increase cost at all. I mean, there’s going to be some challenges around energy consumption and generative AI and the amount of energy that’s going to use and cost. You know, one of the things we started doing is working with some of our suppliers to start to understand how they’re going to deal with some of those challenges as we try to reduce our scope three emissions. Early engagement, have those discussions and conversations with suppliers, share what your plans and ambitions are. And, you know, I’ll say through your supplier selection process, maybe development programs, understand where the hotspots and challenges are and really try and engage with them. And if that ultimately means working with different partners that look and feel like you would have your ethical standards, maybe that’s the route. Because ultimately, legislation is going to get the better of us. And in the long term, if you don’t make those decisions now, you probably won’t be a business in the next 10 years.

Sian Lloyd – 00:17:10:

That’s really, really great advice and obviously something that you’re already very much down that road on. But perhaps for any procurement leaders who may be listening, who really want to put social value at the heart of their procurement strategy, but really don’t know where to start, what would just a basic tip be for them?

Filip Leonard – 00:17:31:

Probably three things then I would say is understand what social value means. Social value is like, it’s parlance really for measuring social impact. But I think that if you don’t trade with the public sector, social value as a word probably doesn’t mean a lot to you. So understand what social value means and what it means to your organization. I would align it with your organizational objectives. So it’s been really important for us to, you know, to enable, you know, my team to engage with the business, to utilize social value and social impact to help resolve some of the challenges that the recruitment team have, the technology team have. You know, how do we use social value to try and address some of those challenges and make it part of what we do? So we’re part of our delivery solution when we’re delivering solutions for customers that it’s woven through everything that we do. And probably the third thing is work with stakeholders, work with your peers, understand what you can do. It’s not an area where I feel we should be competing. There are some great seminars, forums out there, and a number of social value organizations are more than happy to share good practice and what’s good out there in the market. So we can all very quickly get to a standard. So yeah, understand what it means, align it to your organizational objectives, and then work with stakeholders, peers, suppliers to see what you can do as a collective group because that’s going to be much more impactful.

Gareth Burch – 00:18:49:

Following nicely on from social, one of the questions is very much around carbon emissions and scope three. And I think it might be a bit of a similar answer to what you gave. How are you integrating sustainability into procurement at Maximus and specifically on the scope three?

Filip Leonard – 00:19:05:

Well, we’ve started really simply. So we didn’t really know what our scope three missions were. So we’ve used the Atamis platform to just ask the supply chain some pretty simple questions about where they are, what they do, what that looks like for them to understand the maturity of our supply chain. We’ve also got a fantastic team at Maximus who’ve done quite a lot of analysis of our purchased supplies and goods to identify the latent carbon in laptops right through to where we think our hotspots are. And then we put together a plan. And we’ve not finished this by any sense. We had a meeting about this just yesterday with the team about how now our category plans have taken this data that we’ve recovered from suppliers around where they are in their carbon journey. Where we think our hotspots are in terms of carbon. And we built that into our procurement pathways and procurement category plans to identify, okay, when are we going to re-procure this item? Because it’s a huge scope three impact. So how are we going to address that? Are we going to do it through re-procurement, engagement? What does that look like? More market analysis. So all of our category plans now have a roadmap for dealing with scope three based on the hotspots, based on the information. That we’ve received from our suppliers. And we’re setting up, and we’ve not done this yet, but we are going to set up a forum with this data to identify those, let’s say, big polluters. Don’t want to sound a bit negative, but those that have the biggest impact probably can create the biggest benefit. We will get together as a group and sort of say, okay, how do we address this problem going forward? How can we share learnings together as a group of suppliers and customers to manage some of these scope three emissions? So, yeah, decision has been very much around. You know, using the tools to gather the data and then working with the team to have a bit of a roadmap or, you know, how we reduce. I mean, I’ve seen, you know, on a really detailed level, I’ve seen some of European organizations, particularly public sector organizations and manufacturing and certain industries. Look at adding carbon scoring into their tender evaluations as a way of driving it out slowly throughout the supply chain. So adding it as a weighting as of cost of carbon disposal for a ton of carbon. So I think there are, those are the things that we’re starting to think about, you know, in the longer term, how do we actually evaluate it? So we go to market, you know, are we going to evaluate the actual impact of individuals? One final thing on that, Gareth, is around the education. We deal with a lot of voluntary faith organizations, social, small social organizations. And we’re going to have to do a lot of work to help them to understand what their impact is and help them reduce it. So there’s a mixed in all of that. There’s a little bit around how do we develop and support and help educate some of the smaller organizations where we can. That also ticks the box of social value and impact because, you know, we’re demonstrating we’re increasing capability of some of the smaller organizations and helping them to grow and be sustainable. So that’s where we are going.

Gareth Burch – 00:22:02:

No, and it sounds like a really exciting journey. It’s one which is on the top of the agenda for most companies. It’s only, it’s not going to go down, is it? Let’s be honest. And it’s trying to make sure we put the right steps in place to support. I’ve got to be fair. I love the idea and the concept of the group of the forum. Bringing suppliers in with yourselves, discussing. Sharing. And SIP’s event I spoke at earlier this year. People on the panel with me were saying very similar things. How we can pass information across. I’ve always had a bit of a challenge with sometimes passing the information across personally. And it’d be good to get your view on me being probably a cynic right now. But where we potentially pass information on. Does that create a risk to our business? With if we miscommunicate or mis-educate people. And one with scope three. I think the biggest risk there is the greenwashing aspect.

Filip Leonard – 00:22:58:

One of the things procurement teams are often asked to be is experts in every area. Be it health and safety, data protection, information security, environment, social value. And I think the most honest thing we can do is admit when we’re not. So we have the luxury of having an expert in the business around the environmental piece. That we leverage their intelligence. But we also do that. When we talk to other organizations. So one of our largest tech partners. They have experts in their business. Emanently qualified and doctorates in some of these fields. Because it’s so important to them as well. So for me there’s a balance of we share our stories. And what’s working well for us. And what we’re doing. And then as you said. Using the experts and the individuals to bring that level of credibility to what we’re doing. And having in some of those forums that kind of healthy challenge. With suppliers. That, you know may be suggesting they’re doing some of the offsetting etc. Let’s be honest and open about that. And share the good and success stories. But approach it with that healthy cynicism I think. So we’ve got that good challenge culture. Because ultimately that gets called out. Doesn’t it Gareth? You get found out in the end.

Sian Lloyd – 00:24:07:

Some really great thoughts there from both of you. I’m just going to take the conversation in a slightly different direction now. To talk about risk management. Which again is a topic we have touched on Filip. In some of our other podcasts. But it’d be really interesting to hear from you on this one. Because of course supply chains really have never been more complex. And this really is a very fast moving ever changing area as well. So how really has procurement transformation at Maximus helped you stay ahead of that?

Filip Leonard – 00:24:42:

Probably touched on this earlier in the feedback, but I think the biggest single thing was having the data at the fingertips in regards to vendor due diligence and vendor performance. Being able to create a dashboard that identifies trends rather than historic data probably be the single biggest thing that has enabled us to be proactive and stay ahead of the risk. So what we used to do, for example, is less routinely maybe check some of the financial positions of our organizations and you’d look at it on very much face value, but the ability now to bring all that data into a platform to spot the trends and to spot the trends in comparison to similar size organizations, et cetera, really gives you a picture for, okay, there’s something happening here. This is an outlier. What is the issue? What is the situation? And that enables you to have an informed discussion with suppliers might be able to tell you that we now have conversations with our suppliers that are much more about risk management, intelligence-led conversations that we used to have. And we are getting better responses from suppliers about what’s happening in their organizations. So it really does enable you to have structured conversations around what is happening. Why is this the way it is in terms of a maybe financial position? And it may be that there’s been an acquisition or there’s been a change in ownership or something simply like, you know, the accounts have been filed late, but at least you are able to identify that early. And then if what you’re getting is not credible, you can start to think about business continuity. We’ve had more business continuity questions. We’ve spoken to more people about contingencies around SaaS platforms and what we do about escrow type arrangements now that we’ve got a better picture of risk. And it’s… Not broad, it’s very targeted. So we can identify any particular strategic vendor that we may feel has an emerging risk and we can engage and we can start to implement business continuity plans for a worst case scenario. So yeah, I think that’s going to grow even more. I think the ability to utilize data to analyze and measure more risks is going to be great. I think we’ll probably at some point be looking to work with more third party organizations who are able to analyze risk that perhaps we can’t see at the moment or we don’t have access to, but then being able to bring those into a platform where it’s recorded back to us and played back to us in one place, that’s going to be hugely powerful. As you say, the world’s a dangerous place at the moment, all sorts of things going on. So being able to have that data front and center is just so important for us.

Sian Lloyd – 00:27:24:

And I was just wondering whether there is a specific example whereby your processes have managed to avert any potential crisis?

Filip Leonard – 00:27:33:

That’s a really good question. I don’t think, and I think this is fingers crossed, we’ve actually had a crisis, as I would describe a crisis. But to reiterate, what I have said is we have seen supplier performance deteriorate and we have seen financial risk deteriorate. We have seen being made aware of challenges around information security through failing to obtain C plus or minus certification, et cetera, et cetera. So whilst we’ve not had a crisis, we have been able to intervene and we have been able to make some decisions about whether this is the right vendor and partner for us in the future. So thankfully, maybe we have avoided a crisis because I wasn’t aware that it was a crisis happened. It’s like driving down the road and seeing an accident in the rear view mirror, but we’re still going. Maybe that’s happened, but yeah, thankfully, thankfully not. But we’re in a much better position to do that now than we were previously.

Gareth Burch – 00:28:25:

On the topic of risk, a friend of mine in the profession, working in a different sector to yourself, recently said he feels more… That his day-to-day world is risk management and that procurement is evolving into a risk function away from where it has been in the past. Would you agree with that from a Maximus perspective or would you have a different view on that?

Filip Leonard – 00:28:52:

I think it’s certainly growing, Gareth. I think the traditional view of procurement departments was, well, you’re here to get some contracts over the line, negotiate with suppliers and deal with matters such as savings, and that’s kind of your key KPI. I think we’ve given the challenges that we have as business around data and information security, around the environment, around geopolitical instability. We are really the only ones that can add value in that space. So it’s absolutely become an emerging role. What I’m seeing, our public sector customers being more risk-averse because of the global position and their ask of us is getting challenging. Lots more transparency required around what are you doing and how are you managing risk in your supply chain. So not only are we trying to protect our own business more so from these risks, but actually our customers are now increasingly concerned and they’re increasing their standards, as I said, the transparency. So having a tool that is able to satisfy all of those things is a challenge, but they get some confidence from the fact that, I mean, we’ve demoed the systems that we use and they have confidence in the fact that we’re taking it seriously. And we can report on the things that they want to see us reporting on. So where there are material things, let’s say we talk about modern slavery as an element that I’ve picked up in the procurement area. That’s something that our commissioners are increasingly concerned about. We need to report on more and more. But rather than that be an exhausted task, I can open up the supply chain and share the data and share the information and just give our customers some real confidence. So I’d agree, absolutely. Absolutely. You know, a growing part of the role. And we’re not just that one hit savings KPI. It’s much more about the value, how we protect an organization’s reputation. Delivery through risk management is becoming increasingly important for us. Yeah, absolutely.

Sian Lloyd – 00:30:49:

And let’s talk about people now, shall we, and particularly teams and teams at Maximus. We know that there’s new legislation very much on the horizon, on the threshold, shall we say, and AI capabilities, of course, continuing to evolve. So, Filip, it’d be really interesting to hear your thoughts on how do teams need to be prepared? How do they need to keep evolving to remain resilient in these particular times?

Filip Leonard – 00:31:16:

Great question, because I think there is an expectation that procurement teams need to know a lot about very many, many subject areas. I mean, whilst we don’t have to follow the public contracts regulations, actually, it has an impact on my team. We have obligations from customers now to advertise £25,000 opportunities on Contracts Finder, for example. So the public contracts regulations are having an absolute effect on my team. And AI as an emerging area and an opportunity, really, I think, for procurement teams and understanding what that looks like is really important. So how do we stay resilient when there’s all these things going on and all this change happening? I think the most important thing for me is the team finds time for itself. So we meet as a team regularly. We have team meetings every week, but the cadence subject matter varies. So we have like learning lunches where we tend to have sometimes formal and informal discussions around things that are going well, things we’ve learned, things that have gone wrong. And creating that space, that psychologically kind of safe space where people can ask questions, we can learn about new things. Because we’re all at different levels, particularly around areas like AI and even public contracts regulations. So being able to have that discussion, conversation and meeting where we’re able to identify the things that we want to learn about more and be honest about what we don’t know. And some of the mistakes that we’ve made throughout the previous weeks is a really good opportunity. So finding time for the team, I think helps with the resilience. But that as a leader, how you create resilience, I think it’s really important. I’ve heard about performance cultures and people talk to me about high performance in all this stuff. I think creating commitment culture is really important. The research suggests that organizations that get commitment from their teams are the ones that over the longer term are the most successful. And part of that is. Creating that learning space, that psychological space, and that level of equality across the team. So no one is more important than anybody else. That anybody in my team, I should be able to, and should be able to call me out if I’m doing something that’s wrong. They don’t think it’s right, or maybe it could be done differently or better. So having that real equity and democracy across the team is really important as well. I mean, work should be somewhere where you can come to for, to enjoy rather than to be a challenge. And I certainly don’t want it to be the team to have the Sunday night fright. So where we are on our team is very much that we have that democracy and equity in the team. And hopefully we’ve created a really good space where we can create that resilience through learning from each other and relying on each other and getting the support from each other in the team. Because of all these things that we need to know, and we certainly know that I’m not an expert on this stuff, so don’t expect my team to be.

Gareth Burch – 00:34:04:

So Filip, we’re at the final stages of the podcast. And as we look to wrap up, one last question for me before I pass you to Sian. And when reflecting on your career in procurement, what experiences or milestones make you the proudest?

Filip Leonard – 00:34:20:

I’m terrible for celebrating the opening of an envelope, to be fair. But I think that’s important. What we’re trying to do with the team is everything that we do well, we celebrate because again, that’s just really good around culture reinforcement. What surprised me the most though, to be fair, if I was asked and called out and you held me to account on it, winning. Winnerships award was fantastic because the confidence that it gave the team, just visibly, you know, everybody sat up straighter in the desks. So getting that kind of external validation from peers to say, guys, you’re actually doing quite a good job. And everybody thinks so. And not only a good job, today you’re the best. So that was really, really good to build the confidence in the team. But what I go back to celebrating the opening of an envelope is that celebrate the little wins because you’re only really as good as the best, you know, the last piece of work that you do. So celebrating those wins is important. And if you win an award the next day, you were the yesterday’s award winner. So, you know, reflecting on your success, reflecting on your failure is really important. And yeah, I can’t say enough with the team, you know, celebrating those successes, awarding project points to the teams and procurement points. And we have a little gold cup that we hand out for best saving of the week. Just really reinforcing that, you know, doing well isn’t just, it’s a great thing. So yeah, that, I think for me. I celebrate all the small achievements.

Sian Lloyd – 00:35:40:

I love that, celebrating the opening of an envelope as having a background in media. That’s certainly something that resonates with me. But the final question is one that we do ask all the guests, and that’s obviously recognising that there are recruitment and retention issues across the sector. Why are you so happy that you are in procurement? Because it’s obvious that you are.

Filip Leonard – 00:36:03:

Yeah, I mean, I think every day is different. So every day is a different opportunity. We get to infect the whole organization and get involved in so many different areas. So that real, you know, every day is fresh. It’s not a hamster wheel. I think the ability to interact with people, not only in your organization, but outside of your organization, speaking to suppliers, stakeholders, vendors, you know, whatever. So we get to talk to a lot more people and you can bring in all those great ideas. I always said to people that I’m actually quite lazy because all I do is find great suppliers and they do all the work and I just get all the credit. So I think, you know, that is, you know, that is something that is a real great opportunity for people into procurement. It’s kind of bringing parties together to do great things. And you’re a real catalyst and part of that. And probably the, you know, the final thing for me is I kind of like to do the big deals. You know, it’s exciting. I like to do the deals, you know, and when you see something that’s worked really well and, you know, it’s a good deal, both parties are happy and something’s created and something’s delivered or a problem is fixed. Yeah, it’s exciting. It gives you a thrill. So yeah, that’s certainly a joy.

Sian Lloyd – 00:37:15:

That’s absolutely fantastic. And thank you so much for sharing all that with us today. We’ve been delighted to chat with you.

Filip Leonard – 00:37:22:

Hey, welcome.

Gareth Burch – 00:37:22:

It’s been great having you on, Filip.

Filip Leonard – 00:37:25:

You’re welcome.

Outro – 00:37:27:

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. Thanks for joining us and see you next time on Powering Procurement.