The Supply Chain Dialogues started in early 2023 with a simple idea: turn four decades of executive experience into structured conversations about what actually goes wrong in operations, supply chains, procurement, and corporate design — and what to do about it.
Season 1 laid the groundwork. Working with AI co-host Amy, the episodes walked through the core questions that reveal blind spots in any organisation: where value leaks, where processes break down, and where leadership gaps hide in plain sight.
Season 2 opened the door to guests. Practitioners and academics joined the conversation — on sustainability, GHG emissions, digital transformation, leadership, and the harder questions that rarely make it into management meetings.
Season 3 went deeper into sustainability and the path to Net Zero, exploring the human, organisational, and market forces that determine whether companies actually change — or just report change.
Season 4 drew directly on doctoral research into GHG emission reduction in discrete manufacturing. The findings challenged much of the conventional wisdom around regulation, measurement, and organisational size — and pointed toward what actually works.
All episodes are available on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, with full transcripts available here.
Ep. 05: Procurement - on ‘steroids’ or: improving margins - for real
The times when strategic sourcing was solely a procurement function topic, with the main focus on cost and supply base management, are long gone.
Today, epidemics, natural and man-made disasters or disruptions are happening far too often for a cost-based, multi-layered value chain.
While the issues getting more and more complex, and the speed of change is dizzying, our internal corporate coping mechanisms often stay as simple and inadequate as 20-30 years before.
So, what needs to change?