Why Your SRM Program is Useless Theater?

Why has Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) progressed so little in the last 20 years? And what can procurement leaders learn from the messy "divorce" between Amazon and UPS?

In this episode of Proc & Roll, hosts Conrad Smith, Natasha Gurevich, and Zachary Bachir tackle the stagnation of supplier management. They debate why most QBRs are just "useless theater," why indirect procurement struggles to build real partnerships compared to direct procurement, and how to stop trying to manage 20,000 suppliers and start focusing on the few that matter.

Plus, we break down the strategic shift in the Amazon vs. UPS partnership, and why knowing when to end a relationship is just as important as starting one.

In this episode, we cover:

• Amazon & UPS Split: Why Amazon is UPS’s largest customer but least profitable, and what it teaches us about ending partnerships.

• The "Useless Theater" of SRM: Why running QBRs without business buy-in is a waste of time.

• Direct vs. Indirect: Why manufacturing teams are often decades ahead of indirect procurement in managing relationships.

• The "Data God" Strategy: Natasha reveals why you don't need to be a data expert to lead SRM; you just need a "Data God" on your team.

• Practical Advice: Stop overcomplicating segmentation. Start with one supplier, one stakeholder, and one spreadsheet.

Why do most layoffs fail? Why is the obsession with "world-class" talent actually hurting your team? And is the advice to "learn to code" already obsolete?In this Jam Session, hosts Natasha Gurevich and Zachary Bachir sit down with Lucien Alziari, former CHRO of Prudential, Maersk, and Avon.Lucien drops masterclass insights on leadership discipline, the "He-Man" toxicity in tech management, and why he believes layoffs are like open-heart surgery: a life-saving measure that fails if you go right back to your bad habits.In this episode, we cover:Stop Chasing "World-Class" Talent: Why you only need elite talent in the specific roles that make you win—and why "good" is enough everywhere else.Lessons from PepsiCo: What a truly strategic procurement team looks like (hint: they understood the value of a can from the mine to the shelf).The Layoff "Lifestyle": Why restructuring fails when companies "take the people out but don't take the work out".The Skills Trap: Why Lucien believes human skills like curiosity and reliability will outlast technical skills like coding in the AI era.The Fear Factor: Why stakeholders "live in fear" of procurement and how to fix your reputation.

Everyone wants to talk about AI, but no one wants to talk about the mess in their data lake. In this episode of Proc & Roll, hosts Conrad Smith, Zachary Bachir, and Natasha Gurevich debate the unsexy reality of data readiness.

Is your organization actually ready for predictive analytics, or are you just "tidying up your bedroom" before it gets messy again?

The team dives deep into why one-off data cleanup projects are a waste of budget, why hiring a PhD Data Scientist might be a massive mistake for your current maturity level, and why the most successful leaders "stay in love with the data" even as they rise through the ranks.

In this episode, we cover:

• The "Bedroom Tidying" Trap: Why cleaning up data without fixing the operating model is a futile exercise.
• Single Version of Truth: How to stop the "I disagree with your numbers" argument that kills every procurement strategy.
• The Talent Debate: Do you need a Data Scientist or a Process Analyst? (The answer might surprise you) .
• "No New Data": A radical strategy to stop data sludge before it enters your system.
• Leadership Advice: Conrad’s plea for leaders to remain connected to the raw information that runs the business.

About Proc & Roll

Proc & Roll is your guide to practical procurement, hosted by industry heavyweights Zachary Bachir, Conrad Smith (CEO, Graphite), and Natasha Gurevich (CEO, Candor Procurement). From fighting inflation to navigating AI, we deliver actionable insights and "Jam Sessions" with world-class leaders to help you turn procurement into a strategic powerhouse.