Disruptors & Cul-de-Sacs: Recapping Big Ideas 2016

Did you fall asleep or oversleep? Get caught in a meeting? Or did you just forget it was on (we hope not!)? To help you catch up, we’re recapping Big Ideas 2016 – and what a day it was!

The team at Procurious HQ would just like to say a quick thanks to everyone who took part in the Big Ideas Summit 2016, both in London, and around the world. We were blown away by the conversation, discussion and interaction last week’s Summit, and are looking forward to sharing even more with you in the coming weeks.

Where were you last Thursday? Did you join in with the discussions and conversation online? While we prepare all our influencers’ videos and content to share soon, we’ve pulled out some of the key moments and are recapping Big Ideas 2016 just for you.

We got started early, setting the scene and introducing our early arrivals to our digital delegates and social media audience.

To provide the context for all our conversations over the course of the day, Barry Ward, Senior Procurement Brand Manager at IBM, spoke about external change, market disruptions and the three key calls to action that CPOs must take notice of.

Barry W - BIS Keynote

Nik Gowing then scared the life out of us talking about the cataclysmic potential of Unthinkable Events.

Having talked about the findings of his excellent ‘Thinking the Unthinkable‘ study, our delegates were invited to think about their unthinkables, and share them with the rest of the room.

Nik G - BIS Keynote

As everyone settled back down again after our morning interlude, Paul Markillie opened our eyes to the potential of the disruptive mega-trends that will change the way supply chains are designed and operated.

Paul talked about new materials being used in the manufacturing process, how BMW are leading the way in this field with their manufacturing process for the i3 model, and how 3D Printing is finally coming of age.

The audience were then treated to an insight of a revolution currently taking social media by storm. Elizabeth Linder used her wealth of experience to build on the concept of the Conversational Century.

Needless to say, it got people thinking, and more than a couple of senior procurement leaders in the room considering how their teams could be leveraging social media more effectively.

Elizabeth L - BIS Keynote

Probably the keynote with the most profound human and empathetic impact of the day came from Lucy Siegle. Lucy pricked our social consciences while discussing the impact that supply chains, particularly those in the fashion industry, were having on a global population.

From consumer behaviour, to the forgotten people in supply chains, Lucy got us all considering what we individually and collectively could do to make a real difference in the world.

Sustainability Panel

Lucy was joined on stage by Peter Holbrook, CEO at Social Enterprise UK, and Timo Worrall, of J&J, to discuss social and sustainable procurement.

It was a fascinating discussion and generated some great takeaways for our procurement leaders. Take a look here at some of the topics our experts discussed.

Gabe P - BIS Keynote

Fancy yourself as a Chief Spend Officer? If Gabe Perez and Coupa have their way, then procurement’s remit could expand to include all organisational spend. Here are a few top insights from his session.

Online collaboration is something all the members of our next panel know about in great detail. Martin Chilcott, founder of 2degrees, Chris Hancock, founder of Source2Fund, and our very own Procurious GM, Lisa Malone, discussed the power of online collaboration in procurement.

Read our thoughts on it here.

Next up, procurement heavyweight and ISM CEO, Tom Derry. Tom talked about how ISM are helping procurement professionals equip themselves for the future by ensuring that they have the right skills. The ISM Mastery Model has already helped train over 60,000 procurement professionals, and it certainly felt like there were a few more converts in the audience!

Tom Derry - BIS Keynote

Tom was then joined by two heavy hitters in the UK CPO recruitment space in Lucy Harding and Lee Gudgeon to discuss what skills procurement leaders need to succeed in the future.

Lucy urged the delegates to help “challenge the notion that procurement is a career cul-de-sac“, and showcasing all the best aspects of working in procurement.

Big Data, predictive analytics and forecasting will enable procurement to be more agile in a volatile environment. This was the view of Chris Sawchuk, the Hackett Group, during the final keynote of the day.

Finally, we asked some senior procurement leaders to tell us what they thought procurement’s blind spots were, and how they should be dealing with them.

There were some great, tough questions from the audience, and from our social media audience, producing some great insights for our delegates to take away.

Continuing Online

The day itself may now be over, but the debate and discussions are still being amplified online. You can see all our content from the day on the Big Ideas Summit website, plus check out all the conversation from the day on Twitter too.

You can find all our Periscope recordings of the keynotes and panels in the Big Ideas 2016 Group, as well as accessing our Digital Goodie Bag, which all our sponsors have contributed to.

Plus we’ve just started to release our first few videos from the event, in which our thought leaders shared their own Big Ideas. You can find them in the Learning hub on Procurious.

And if that’s not enough reading material for you, here’s a handy list of related stories you might have missed on Big Ideas 2016: