On The Spot! 60 Seconds With Basware…

Are you a progressive thinker? Do you possess humility and a thick skin? Find out why this is important as we put Basware’s Eric Wilson on the spot with a round of quick-fire questions.

Register now  as a digital delegate for The Big Ideas Summit Chicago!

With less than a week to go until we launch The Big Ideas Summit in Chicago, we thought we’d have a quick catch up with some of our keynote speakers to discover what makes them tick, where they see the procurement function heading in the near future and how they would reflect on their successful careers.

Today we catch up with Eric Wilson, Vice President Purchase-to-Pay, Basware. At the Summit he’ll be asserting the criticality of tech systems being able to capture data.

But today, we want to know what he believes are the key issues facing the procurement industry and the biggest mistakes procurement pros make.

What do you think is the biggest mistake procurement pros make?

A mistake procurement professionals often make is that, while they have a strong desire and ability to become strategic in the organisation, they trap themselves in the world of the tactical.

This manifests itself in various ways, including in the approach to technology.  If procurement pros don’t take the time to understand overall technology trends, they may make technology decisions that are focused too much on meeting tactical functional requirements of today while missing the big picture of getting to true strategic value for the organisation tomorrow.

What skills and talents contribute to an all-round, great team?

Great teams in work, like teams in sports, must be comprised of complimentary actors with a unified goal.  That sounds obvious, but many organisations seem to fail to remember these basic tenants of great teams:

1. Complimentary

2. Unified goal

When organisations truly align goals across sales, field ops, back office functions, etc, and then rally the entire company around those big picture goals, they can accomplish amazing things.

When instead, goals are not quite aligned, or, even worse actually, contradictory, we see things like empire-building, in-fighting and politics. In the end, both the company and their customers suffer as a result.

What 3 attributes make a great leader?

• • Humility
  • Understanding that the leader serves the team, not the other way around.
  • Transparency

What are the three biggest issues facing the procurement industry?

• • Attracting and retaining high quality talent to the procurement profession
  • Breaking the perception of procurement as tactical “savings-getters”
  • Bridging the traditional silos existing in the full financial supply chain – getting out of the procurement box

What should procurement pros be looking for in high potential recruits?

• • Tech-savvy, not just with procurement technologies, but across the spectrum of technology trends in both the business and consumer worlds.
  • Progressive thinker
  • Relationship orientation, but with very thick skin

Want to hear more from Eric Wilson? On 28th September, Procurious is bringing The Big Ideas Summit to Chicago.  Register now  (It’s FREE!) as a digital delegate to gain access to all of the day’s action and LIVE video from our speakers and attendees.