- [Music] [Applause] welcome to the art of procurement podcast with your host

Philip Pike's it here at four feet we share the trends strategies and tactics that
you can use to elevate the wall of hurt your name and your career hi there
everybody and welcome to this week's art of procurement podcast which is powered by
sig I hope that you're having a great week so far and the voice is starting to come
back so hopefully it's not gonna fail me as I kind of go through today's pod and is
that you're going to be two parts to today's podcast first of all I want to talk a
little bit about the idea of stepping back and challenging things that we do every
day are the things that have become what I thought of terming generally accepted
back Yurman thinking I won't be seeking to suggest we're doing things wrong that's
for sure other things need to be fixed but what my intent is is really to help us
all collectively can I get the creative juices flowing and then second I want to
share details of a new procurement podcast that we are publishing here at latter
procurements and that one is hosted by SiC CEO Don Terra I'm going to go into all
the details at the end of the show and then I'll play our most recently published
episode in its entirety and it features the vice president of procure-to-pay at FIS
which is fidelity information services Wayne easel so as I've shared on the pod and
you'll have read about on our weekly newsletter I've been thinking a lot about a
role in challenging the status quo or of making an impact you know by catalyzing
change by being a catalyst and I've had a number of conversations over the past
couple of weeks really since I started focusing more on this topic and as I
mentioned a couple of moments ago at the top of the show about other things that we
kind of accept as being either the way of doing things are the go-to strategies
that we accept as being the right way to solve a problem without sometimes
reflecting on if there's different paths to reach similar or maybe even more
impactful outcomes and so as I started to question this there is a number of
activities or beliefs that you know I've always kind of held as a truth that come
to mind as I thought about those again he wasn't really in the context of all we've
got to change this or isn't it stupid did we do this but more I wonder if there's a
different approach and I don't necessarily have the answers for what an alternative
approach could be at least right now and this isn't the show where I wanted to give
a number of steps just to to solve a particular challenge but what I did want to
try and do is really spur some thinking so collectively you know are the facts that
we hold dear are they actually fit for purpose when we consider our desires to be
Casa lists for our organization you know our desires for the future impact the
procurement function and you know do we need to kind of lead by example by taking a
step back and reflecting on the things that we do you know in our day-to-day work
and one of the things as I think about that what's really important to me is having
the mindset to kind of challenge what we do in search of other approaches again
rather than saying here's 10 things we should fix taking that step back kind of
reflecting and thinking is there a different way or should I be approaching a
particular challenge in a different way that's maybe a little bit different than my
my go to strategy and my go-to response to a particular issue so this is really
some food for thought as I put my head together I came up with some practices our
facts that I just thought a worthy of being challenged it's quite possible because
I know that listeners the show you're all very progressive in your thinking and
maybe that you've already initiated new ways of being and of thinking into your
teams and the way that you operate but with that all being said I'd love to kind of
hear what you think and I came up with well I actually had a long list of different
areas that I could have talked about but I really wanted to focus on three and
again it's it's not necessarily because these are three that I think things that we
really need to think about differently but just to give them as examples of perhaps
how we could think differently and approach issues with a different mindset and
these are just three that came to mind and the first one and this is in no
particular order is the value of supplier consolidation and as a benefit you know
the powers of economies of scale I've long had a love-hate relationship with
supplier consolidation you know I've come across more than a quarter of CFOs and
consultants who really believe that supplier consolidation is the cure of all ills
that they may be seeing that you know by cutting the number of suppliers that a
company works with big numbers you know 50% 75% that by doing that will
significantly reduce to spend or significant or reduce a company's risk profile and
I don't disagree that there are often good savings to be had through supplier
consolidation you know it's been a go-to strategy for me for sure at various times
in my career as a category manager but in doing so you know I didn't usually take a
knife to the supply base you know it was more about strategically consolidating as
a pie here as a pie there because that was just the right thing to do what I would
challenge is to consider is the question what is too many suppliers it's a question
that we often seek to answer through benchmarking as an example you know company X
in my industry has three thousands of hires and I have 25,000 suppliers whatever
that number may be and therefore I must do everything I can and whatever cost to
target having three thousand suppliers but for what reason you know why is that
something that we do to reduce transaction costs for sure although I sometimes
wonder if that's overstated but there is obviously some kind of transaction cost
reduction in having fewer suppliers to reduce risk maybe although I would argue
that that's not always a given and then to reduce spend again sometimes it does
reduce spend but the reality is that the methods that we often use to reduce the
number of suppliers and reduce the tale actually comes with an increased cost that
actually offsets any cost savings and so that's where I think about economies of
scale you know I've experienced a lot of success in reducing costs through supply
consolidation but again as I mentioned before it's kinda when I think of
consolidating five medium spends one or two large suppliers are three large
suppliers into one or maybe two but with bigger spends you know because at that
level volume really matters fixed costs cost to serve investments they can all be
amortized by supplier over much larger volumes when you're talking about you know
big numbers and they may be willing to effectively buy business in service of
building a stronger position in a market you know they want to buy business
essentially from their suppliers sorry essentially from their competitors because
it just positions them in the market in a way that helps them in future pursuits so
there's a value of them from doing it but when it comes to I think what we look at
more traditional supplier consolidation where the tale comes in its consolidating
ten very small suppliers maybe they $100 spend to ten thousand dollars spend
whatever it may be we consolidate those ten really small suppliers into one
slightly less smaller supplier when we do that to me the benefits are fewer at
least they're less obvious and the cost of implementing it from our people but also
change management and a political capital perspective it can be significant as can
any compliance efforts that we need actually to put in place after the fact to make
sure that that tail spend and those number of suppliers don't start to grow again
as soon as you're not working what I think sometimes gets asked is what's the
negative impact of supplier consolidation you know how we then becoming an
innovation roadblock we're impeding perhaps stakeholders ability to experiment with
suppliers or to iterate on different ideas are we eroding trust by forcing as a
player consolidation you know once an experiment for example with the small
suppliers from proven so we've worked with a small supplier we've got something to
market and then we decide you know what we need to consolidate suppliers and no
surprise that the smaller ones that we worked with actually then get swept up in a
consolidation effort what does that do to our position in the market when we want
to try and encourage small innovative suppliers to work with us on the flip side
you know are we creating monopolies that by consolidating suppliers were actually
introducing more risk as we now have a single point of failure an additional
consideration I think of all the larger suppliers I know it was something that I
would have to think about in the automotive business is by consolidating suppliers
you know in an industry where there are very few buyers I'm actually taking a
supplier out of the market completely because you know maybe they only have three
or four that buyers left to sell to if I'm kind of consolidating I'm taking about
my supply base so again creating monopolies but of it being of our own doing so
instead of the beginning you know it's not to suggest that supplier consolidation
is something that we should not have in our toolkits but it's just one example of
something that I think we hold dear in terms of strategies and approaches we pursue
that perhaps we need to challenge you know challenge the assumptions we find it do
the assumptions we make actually hold up you know do the benefits hold up are the
more effective ways to manage tailspin for as an example of what what a supplier
consolidation does in a way that is different from what we've done before the
second example to
challenge and I'm actually pretty sure this is something that we all know is a
fact you know it's just that we sometimes struggle to operationalize the concept is
that the cost of a deal or the spend with the supplier or the spend within a
category itself is equal to the importance of that deal the importance of that
supplier the importance of that category even though I think that we all kind of
appreciate this concept can be a little bit of a fallacy most of what we do and you
know when we think about supplier segmentation for example project wave planning
resource allocation which suppliers to target as part of supplier relationship
management which stakeholders to focus you know a lot of what we do the primary
factor of segmentation you know thereby the importance that we are kate is actually
associated with spend and of course we also mostly use spend as a proxy for
importance due to our metric being savings the need to demonstrate that hard
savings based ROI that is really easier to get by doing a smaller number of large
projects and I don't really intend here to solve that challenge of our performance
metrics but the fact is you know for at least for mature procurement organization
the big spend items that are needed every single year we've long optimized dollars
for cost you know sure there may be other ways of looking at the spend you may be
opportunities to take a percent or two out but I really just want to encourage us
to consider challenging that bias towards going after exclusively big spend items
only allocating a strategic resource to a lower dollar project when it's really in
an attempt to win over a new stakeholder to build a new advocate what I want to
suggest is that you know most of the development work going on with suppliers to
form what will be future revenue sources for your company or sources of competitive
advantage you know they'll start as smaller lower dollar projects but the impact
that we have on those projects it could be many times you know what a a 1% our 2%
saving on a larger spend item oh I just spend supplier could be so if we challenge
that bias you know how can that inform how we think about which initiatives to
engage upon rather than just seeing them as oh that's a nuisance it's a lower
dollar spend project now the fact that we're always resource constrained you know
might mean that we require some pretty creative thinking or that we carve out
resources and allocate them to kind of Platinum stakeholders that's a phrase that
Google uses but stakeholders or initiatives or areas of the business that are
actually involved in future growth initiatives to me actually we've quite small
right now it could even be some of those moonshots but it's areas that the money
necessarily doesn't reflect the strategic importance of those areas the business
and so we're specifically focusing on those as opposed to again seeing them as just
an opportunity to build a stakeholder relationship and much like supply
consolidation I use this just to demonstrate the opportunity to challenge our
biases you know as we look for areas to be a catalyst of change and the last
assumption I want to challenge or question that I wanted to explore today is that
we often tend to assume that stakeholders have an inherent desire not to work with
us not to work with procurements it's certainly a position they found myself in you
know for whatever reason we come to a spend category where we have not historically
been engaged then maybe a that a stakeholder started a project on their own they
brought it to us just at the end to finalize the contract I think that's something
we're all pretty familiar with or it may be that you know we're having some
discussions with a prospective stakeholder to engage and to help them engage with
us that maybe those discussions just don't seem to be going too well and I don't
want to suggest that it's easy to get stakeholder engagement because we all know
that it's not but what I wanted to put forward again to challenge those assumptions
is that what if we approach those conversations from the perspective that
stakeholders want to work with us but they're just looking for a compelling enough
signal or a reason to do so so with that perspective change our approach as I think
about what that could mean from an actions perspective you know would that mean
that we invest more time in preparation rather than showing up to a meeting and
trying to use kind of what we typically do to sell a stakeholder on the procurement
value proposition you know what if we invested a lot of time upfront to understand
exactly what was important to them you know they cost constrained or perhaps
they're just not sure how to get what they want for the budget that they have you
know to achieve the results they need to achieve or the outcomes they're trying to
drive with a budget they have maybe the time constraints you know from a personal
time management perspective they're just running around they need some help they
need some help to take things off their plates but they're not really that
concerned about cost savings or in terms of a speed to outcome from a business
perspective you know they have something they want to drive quickly do they have
challenges that they're not sure how to solve in the supply market so they could be
looking for us to bring market insights and bring the emerging solutions are on the
flip side they may know the market inside-out but they just want somebody to act as
kind of the foil the bad cop during negotiations so that in their mind and their
perceptions they're not damaging the relationship and the working relationship that
they need once an agreement once a contract is signed so I found that just that
changing mindset you know how can I seek to understand reasons that would compel
somebody to work with me as I procurement professional focusing on that rather than
selling them more generally on the procurement value proposition because we're
going from a point where we think we're taking the mindset they want to work with
us but we've got to understand what it is that we can bring to them as opposed to
here's all the wonderful reasons why you should work with procurements and
hopefully one of those sticks and resonates enough that they see that as a reason
to okay let's work with you I've just found that to be so much more effective now
again I wanted to pose these questions today really as food for thoughts of course
you know I recognize that every day it can be a scrap we spend so much of our time
firefighting even despite you know our best intentions I don't want to suggest that
these are things that we do wrong but just use them as examples to think of you
know if we take a step back would that change how we react to an issue how we plan
our time how we say no to things you know which strategy we pull out of our
toolkits which area of focus we dedicate the majority of our time to those are
really some of the things that I want to address in the coming months on the show
both through the podcast but also through our this week in procurement newsletter
which we've really taken a complete look at kind of how we're communicating and
what the newsletters are about so just a plug if you haven't already checked that
out I'd love for you to go and check out a newsletter and that's just that at a
procurement DICOM slash subscribe and so it's in there reflecting the exploring the
learning the sharing and not being afraid to challenge those things which we I
think instinctively pursue that we instinctively the way we react the way we behave
that that really offers us an opportunity to change the game [Music] okay welcome
to part two of this week's out of procurement podcast and so with that in mind I'm
delighted to share with you the launch of a new podcast so the sourcing industry of
landscape it's hosted by Don Terra the president and CEO of cig it's gonna be
focused more on disruption so it'll feature conversations on the sourcing industry
landscape with innovators who embrace technology to improved influence and to
inspire procurement professionals Don's interviews the typically going to run about
20 minutes with a new episode published every other Wednesday and so as I mentioned
at the top of the show today I thought I would actually share with you the entirety
of an episode at the end of today's podcast and so the guest on the show that
you're going to hear is Wayne easel Wayne is the vice president of procure-to-pay
and procure-to-pay at F is fidelity information services actually encompasses
sourcing contracting accounts payable expense management and travel services and so
in his conversation with Don Wayne offers some actionable advice to anyone who
really aspires to succeed in procurement through you know tactics like learning to
listen to your clients to understand their needs and being curious and being
inquisitive so you're actually able to provide some unique solutions actually goes
back to some of the things we were just talking about before and to really immerse
yourself in specialized courses and training to learn what best practices are and
really to become a subject matter expert and so if you're interested in subscribing
to the sourcing industry landscape it's actually be within its own feed on iTunes
or whatever your favorite smartphone podcast app is so you can go there search for
the show which is the sourcing industry landscape and hit the subscribe button
alternatively you'll be able to find the shows on the art of procurement website so
each show will have its own show notes similar to what we do without a procurement
in the after procurement website on our feed you can also go and subscribe to the a
to procurement newsletter and that is at art of procurement comm slash subscribe
and then in our this week in procurement that we send out every week I'll just
include a link whenever a new episode is published so with that being said I'll
hand it over to Don and to Wayne hello everybody welcome back this is dawn Terra
with art of procurement and I'm so excited to welcome Wayne Iselle Wayne Iselle is
a vice-president procure-to-pay at fidelity Information Systems and when I actually
go back a number of years I've known him and for the last five to eight years of
his journey but Wayne has a great story to tell so Wayne thank you for joining me
for our topic here my podcast yeah it's great Don thanks for inviting me so Wayne
you my understanding and correct me if I'm wrong but you went to Arizona State
University so of course you'd be in sourcing but you didn't start off in sourcing
my understanding is you were going to be a physicist yes yeah so exactly you know
and I I can recall back in high school and that's where my passion for physics
really started you know I had one of those kind of crazy physics teachers that
everything he did is kind of rubbed off you know very positively you know the
students and so that's really where I got my passion you know starting off and so
when I went to Arizona State University it only made sense for me to actually have
you know my career or my trajectory go into physics but unfortunately after a
couple years and then just completing quantum mechanics and just saying that still
gives me kind of a cold sweat by the way I didn't do so well and in that course and
I realized then I just lost the fire really quite frankly for physics and and I
start questioning myself whether that was the major that really was going to be for
me but what I can do is I can vividly remember walking the halls in the business
school there was on a state university and I noticed this very small sign and it
said purchasing and logistics and you know we've all walked down business schools
before we see accounting and marketing and finance right all the traditional ones
and I saw this little tiny one and I thought well I'll duck in there and Sue and he
and what life-changer really turned out to be and that's really wearing that a
mentor of mine has been my mentor for the last 28 years his name is name is art
Jacobs he was a professor there she's mad Arizona State and he really single-
handedly put the the fire of the passion back into my heart for all things
procurement and purchasing and supply chain management as it was starting to become
and so really what he described to me was that you know supply chain really is a
function that needed thought leaders and and really it's from all disciplines and
all majors but but really specifically what he focused on were people that could
see this big picture and and really this guidance still holds true today and you
know I can still recall a lot of the sessions I've been at with you and any other
leaders that are at cig that you know really they talked about that they talked
about the big picture and that's really what we get in in the procurement world is
we get to understand that big picture and so anyway so you know two years later I
finished my degree and I had a purchasing logistics major and it's a it's been
great that's fantastic and you know there's nothing wrong with having that hard
science background that physicists background and physics background because it's
so good to be able to apply the analytics but somehow through your journey you
picked up the people side as well so from being you know in physics and wanting to
be a physicist to being a such an amazing sourcing leader where'd you pick up your
people skills well you know I think you'd probably I probably should give credit to
my mom and dad they probably put a lot of seed you know into my history for that
happening but really you know we all have an a slant to what our behaviors are and
and what I found is is that really we become some of the byproduct of our work
environment or school environment but I can still recall mm-hmm you know the
different jobs I've had where I've had to play different roles you know and so
sometimes it really puts us in maybe uncomfortable positions at times you know
where sometimes you're asked to be called an analyst and guess what you're like
well I'm not really an analyst and I don't really know Excel that well and and we
put ourselves in these kind of uncomfortable situations and so you know what I've
done over my career for the most part is I I thought about the areas where my blind
spots are maybe where I'm not so strong and this might be a little tangent on your
question here but for example I also master's degree in finance I never would have
done that had I not seen the link between analytics finance budgeting international
in procurement right and we get all those things into kurma and I said well that's
a blind spot for me I really should I really should address that blind spot and
that's really what I did by getting that master's degree in finance it wasn't
something that I said you know that's that's that was my desire but but it fits so
nicely into all the things I even do today and as you know so well procurement
organizations a lot of times do fall under finance so it helps that I can kind of
talk to talk as well it sure does but when you started off in semiconductors is
that correct I did I started off in semiconductors and I evolved to through
healthcare through insurance and through finance wow those are very dramatic
different industries but when you were at one of your early semiconductor companies
you said that you had to spend a little bit of time on the road of the sales folks
as well can you tell me how that experience has parlayed into understanding the
sublime ace a little bit better these days yeah absolutely I do know that he went
on my very first job like a lot of us in our first job and we're focused on the
task right we're focused on just kind of what's in front of us but I had an
opportunity that I got to meet a number of suppliers you know with the very first
company I was with and one of those suppliers actually hired me to be their
purchasing manager Wow and and in that role it was a small company about a hundred
million dollars and very you know 40 40 people or so but it gave me a good
appreciation yeah a real good look at the whole supply chain and so we asked a
smaller supply chain but it gave me a good understanding of not only just
performing what an internal salesperson was asking there you know a lot we had we
had seven or eight different salespeople and they would come to me and say Wayne I
need this for this client can you can we source it and then we're going to put it
in our solution and they were going to sell it to them and a lot of times I would
defy the first year I would do that I would just kind of take their word for it but
then what I learned was going out to the customer site and actually hearing
firsthand from them what they wanted what they needed was very beneficial for me
and so yeah it was great for me to now see all the things that I was doing from a
procurement a function for the internal sales group what they were trying to do for
the end-user right ultimately for our clients and our customers and the consumer
and really gave me an appreciation quite frankly of the value that we bring in
procurement to an organization in this case it was small but I can extrapolate it
now into you know being in a ten billion dollar organization like we are here at
FIS we are very very important to the supply chain for an organization and that's
really where I saw a firsthand that look I'm making an impact on the customer I'm
making an impact on the client and I got an understanding then of profitability
margins time making sure that we got things that the to them at the right time as
well so it gave me that good appreciation and really solidified that look I'm in
the right this is the right field for me you know Moody we call it supply chain or
procurement or transportation logistics and direct or indirect you know there's
that value that we bring to the organization and as I mentioned to others in the
past there's really a couple of different ways we manage money in an organization
either manage it by earning it or you manage it by spending it and so you know us
procurement folks me included we just happen to be those reverse salespeople we
just happen to do it on the on the buy side and that's great so but you also when
you describe you know the skill set that a modern procurement person needs today we
often say they need sales skills so do you think that you've learned a lot of that
and you brought it to to your teams in the years since you did support the sales
effort I would say yes there there was a tipping point there where I could have
easily won in the sells at you know and and when you're when you're younger I was
in my early 20s at the time there's more money in sales done there is no operations
right yeah and and that's okay and that's that's great but I would say that I
learned to become a very good listener during that period of time because I had to
you know and I think that's one of the skills I've learned the most was being able
to learn but listen to what the clients were saying and then be able to repeat it
at the same time that that really was a valuable lesson I learned that's great so
what made an impact on you to say I'm gonna stay in sourcing all these years and
through all the evolutions and such a dramatic change that you've seen in our
industry why have you stayed well you know really I guess it's more you know the
value that again that we're bringing to an organization you know really there's a
it said to me I get a chance to inspire you know at the level down that today and
just tell the progressions I've been through I get a chance to inspire others and I
get a chance to set direction and I get to do that every day and so I get a chance
to either
you know help people in their careers and help inspire them where we're going as
an organization where we're going in for a procurement organization or I can have a
chance to you know not do that not earn that trust for them and that's really what
really drives me today is that you know we we have mission we have values we have
culture and I get to make a very large impact on that and that's what really
continues to drive me that's great so where you are today is this a global team
that you manage it is we at FIS yeah I probably should take it just a moment here
to describe FIS we're Fidelity National information services and we are a finance
and technology services company we support banking institutional and brokerage and
we have hundreds of products and services and we support 20,000 customers one of
the one of the examples I like to give is that we we produce a lot of credit cards
and credit card statements and so there's a fair chance that you know credit cards
that people use listening to this today who are any of the credit card statements
you get you're probably getting them from FIS so don't hate us for that we are
we're doing that on behalf of a bank in heart respects but we're and we're number
one in our industry as well and and we're represented in 130 different countries
and from a from an international perspective and global perspective we do we have
any in all categories whether it's a mia a packer we support all those regions and
and we have about roughly 500 million or so spend in spend outside the United
States so it's rather sizable and specifically for my team what I found is very
valuable is that we have embedded procurement individuals and professionals in each
one of those locations as well because they're close to the customers are close to
the client and they're able to want to understand their needs but also coach them
on what we're doing from a procurement perspective so before you before you're near
latest transformation you were at USAA out of San Antonio and I know Kevin Nash had
brought you from American Express to USAA and you'd love San Antonio to move to
Jacksonville Florida tell me what inspired that move was it to get your own global
team what really was your inspiration to move a large part of it was I think a
change in responsibilities and so American Express is a great company I was with
American Express at the time that's where I had a chance to meet Nash and he was
able to he was my leader at American Express he hired me there and then he went on
to be the CP Oh at USAA and then Kevin Nash hired me there as well but but really
what it turned out to be was yeah it was a change in scope it was a change in
responsibilities the team maybe was a little bit smaller so it wasn't from that
perspective but what it was is it I was able to take a lot of the the skills and
knowledge that I had with other organizations and I was able to use that at USAA
and what was what was interesting was is that USAA was a private company and that
was attractive to me and who so didn't have to think quarter-to-quarter they could
go year-to-year and then go over the multiple years on a project or a program or
initiative and so there was and on top of that the mission statement at USAA could
be recited by 98% of the 25,000 employees oh my gosh okay and so and I'm sure Kevin
has probably mentioned something that's you'd before but that was very very unique
and I'm not saying that American Express we couldn't do that we couldn't do that
anywhere else but there was just a unique culture you know to USA that just really
just was a pool you know to me and sometimes you just feel it in your heart and you
just know it's the right thing to do and then you get recruited and then you end up
in Jacksonville so tell me so now you've got your an incredible global team so tell
me what do you think makes a perfect a successful procurement sourcing supply chain
person well I think first but one of the most important is we just can't stop
learning right we have to make sure that we're continuing involved and I know
you've you've preached this many times and and we're listening to you Don we really
you know we hear you on it but you know I'll kind of give you my experience you
know with this as well is that what's really important is that we you know in any
job around whether it's procurement or anything else but we have to show an
interest outside of our own it you know and so I can recall when I was with the
semiconductor organizations early in my career I took specialized courses in
learning what a semiconductor was you know how to speak the lingo how to understand
the terms how to understand trends and those types of things and and that was
important and it went a long way in giving me gravitas with with others I spoke to
but then also with our customers and then when I moved into financial services it
was different I mean all the things technically who really cares about a
microprocessor and how its built and what that really means but in financial
services I started working with mutual fund experts and investment bankers and so I
thought well look I need to like change it up here a little bit so I took a
certification on mutual funds and became a certified mutual fund specialist oh my
goodness oh did that didn't mean I was going to go out and sell mutual funds or any
org or bene a for anybody to take advice from me on mutual funds but what it did is
it helped me understand how that part of the company actually made money it was one
thing to hear it but it was actually better to see it you know from a mutual fund
perspective and then you just a couple other examples we did a lot of outsourcing
and some other organizations I've been with and at the time it's OK to learn on the
job it's ok to learn as you go but what I found was I became certified outsourcing
professional to bring rigor and best practice to the outsourcing events that I was
working on so but now you have an insatiable curiosity that you have continued to
learn how do you get your team you know is that what you search for in people
people that love to learn love to stay up to speed because I mean that's what we
need to do but how do you impart that on your team and inspire them yeah each
person on my team has an individual performance plan just for themselves for a
professional and so for example if someone is working in the space of market data
we do it we buy a lot of market data we'll look for yes we buy a lot of market data
and so what for example if someone's working as a category manager on market data
they will put they will look for courses or seminars or trade magazines to learn
more about market data and so it's part of their review and and we make it a
percentage of their review so they're incentivized and they take time to spend on
looking for that specialized training to help support them in their categories
that's great because so many times we meet sourcing people that don't know what
they're sourcing they don't know how to talk to the business units and what you've
demonstrated through what you have done with your own career is that you've been
able to relate to the people you're working with and you're not doing sourcing to
them you're doing it with them by having a common language with your own internal
business units so kudos to you because you don't see that very often so if we were
to talk about a single strength for a person going into sourcing today that you
would say would be absolutely critical don't go into sourcing unless you have this
strength what would you say it would be so it's very easy to say six again because
you know quite frankly you know there's whenever you you know and we're a supplier
you know we're all you know it's like a food chain we're all a supplier to somebody
you know and and so you know you eat there's a lot of suppliers that just aren't
going to see it your way a lot of clients internally that are gonna take your way
as well but you know I think really it and I mentioned you know listening you know
earlier and and that's really very important it's really you know listening I think
is a core skill for us but but really you know another part our aspect to this is
is providing something unique to our internal clients that that maybe they haven't
gotten before and that can be in the form of category plans you know we talked
about category Fant plans to wear blue in the face okay for 20 years I've talked
about category plans but do you know they're not the same in every organization
they don't they're not cookie cutter mm-hmm and and and a lot of times what what
internal client wants is they just want someone to understand them and so I think
really it's it's the ability to want to learn the build you want to listen and
understand and really understand someone's business it's someone that's inquisitive
as well so I know you're asking for one and I'm not going to give you one but it's
really listening being inquisitive and having the want to to learn I love that and
I've been really neat watching you and your career and you've become such a
respected leader and within sourcing and people are looking up to you so I'm glad
that you're giving them that kind of advice so we if we were to leave it with one
personal thing about you that maybe we don't know about you can you give me some
little nugget yeah yeah I used to be kind of embarrassed to talk about this but but
I'm not because I'm really proud of it quite frankly but I had an opportunity to
early in my life my mom and dad supported me in a lot of sports and one of the
sports that really stuck with me and earned me a scholarship to college was was
bowling and so actually I got a skull I have a scholarship to Arizona State for
bowling and so maybe you know the physics or the supply chain management the first
thing when it happened at all all right if it
wasn't for bowling but for a number of years after leading college as well I was a
regional touring Pro on the west coast and it's good thing I didn't try to make my
living at that because I was I would have been dead broke you know quite frankly
but it was but one month experience I had and and and really if it wasn't for that
I don't know where my career might have ended up you know quite frankly and just
just just an amazing experience but it you know it's been wonderful to be part of
the bowling community and everybody every organization I go to they love to have me
on their bowling team I bet they do so hey when we're in DC our Thursday night
event is going to a fun bowling alley slash bocce ball Bar Music Center so you're
gonna be the ringer alright I can I can do all three of those things so you're
gonna be the man that night so Wayne I want to thank you so much for joining me for
the podcast and I hope that we can meet again for 2.0 and check in on what you're
doing and maybe a year from now and I just really have enjoyed watching your career
take off and seeing the leader you've turned into so this is Wayne ezel and he's
vice president procure-to-pay at fidelity information system so Wayne thank you for
joining me today absolutely thank you for the opportunity thank you but with that
I'm gonna wrap this up this is dawn Terra from sourcing industry group or cig and I
look forward to hearing you and seeing you added upcoming event take care bye bye
thank you for listening to another episode of the art of procurement to find an
archive of our past episodes you can go to art of procurement comm slash episodes
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