Recently, StarCite, in partnership with the Aberdeen Group, sponsored a series of Regional Chief Procurement Officer Leadership Summits, in Chicago on May 6th and in San Francisco on May 20th.
For me, it was like a homecoming! I thoroughly enjoyed 'talking shop' and socializing with procurement executives and professionals. (As many of you may know, I've spent many years working in procurement organizations.) The front-burner issues for procurement executives in attendance were topics such as achieving cost savings, mitigating risk and accepting and acknowledging the value that procurement brings to each company.
As you can imagine, there were plenty of networking opportunities, and the most valuable experiences at the rather intimate events came from comparing notes, experiences and best-practices. It was cathartic, too, for attendees to share stories about their collective “pain” in helping their companies cut costs and validating their contributions.
From feedback collected at the events, it was obvious that attendees most enjoyed listening to a panel of their peers and subject matter experts. And there were some excellent questions, too.
I want to extend special thanks to our two keynote speakers for the CPO Summits: In Chicago, we had Greg Brandyberry, who is CEO of Wildfire Commerce and former CPO of Glaxo Smith Kline. In San Francisco, Ron Carcamo, CPO of Yahoo!, spoke. Both were excellent and offered great insights. In particular, Ron's presentation gave me a major case of déjà vu, especially when he spoke about something I've been evangelizing about for years (to both customers and internal teams). And that is: When you're deploying program initiatives, for example, company-wide strategic meetings management, pay attention to and craft a comprehensive change management plan!
I’m proud that StarCite was able to facilitate both events, and I believe that they've helped boost respect for and acknowledgment of procurement organizations worldwide.
For me, it was like a homecoming! I thoroughly enjoyed 'talking shop' and socializing with procurement executives and professionals. (As many of you may know, I've spent many years working in procurement organizations.) The front-burner issues for procurement executives in attendance were topics such as achieving cost savings, mitigating risk and accepting and acknowledging the value that procurement brings to each company.
As you can imagine, there were plenty of networking opportunities, and the most valuable experiences at the rather intimate events came from comparing notes, experiences and best-practices. It was cathartic, too, for attendees to share stories about their collective “pain” in helping their companies cut costs and validating their contributions.
From feedback collected at the events, it was obvious that attendees most enjoyed listening to a panel of their peers and subject matter experts. And there were some excellent questions, too.
I want to extend special thanks to our two keynote speakers for the CPO Summits: In Chicago, we had Greg Brandyberry, who is CEO of Wildfire Commerce and former CPO of Glaxo Smith Kline. In San Francisco, Ron Carcamo, CPO of Yahoo!, spoke. Both were excellent and offered great insights. In particular, Ron's presentation gave me a major case of déjà vu, especially when he spoke about something I've been evangelizing about for years (to both customers and internal teams). And that is: When you're deploying program initiatives, for example, company-wide strategic meetings management, pay attention to and craft a comprehensive change management plan!
I’m proud that StarCite was able to facilitate both events, and I believe that they've helped boost respect for and acknowledgment of procurement organizations worldwide.
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