25. High Performance Intelligence w/ Omer Abdullah, co-founder of The Smart Cube

We’re thrilled to be joined by a household name in the Procurement space, Omer Abdullah - former Principal at A.T. Kearney, co-founder of The Smart Cube, and author of “Risk and Your Supply Chain: Preparing for the Next Global Crisis.” Sam talks to Omer about the changes he’s seen in Procurement in his 30-year career, the adoption of ProcureTech solutions and how it will transform teams in the future, whether the hype around GenAI is justified, and more! 

Timestamps:

(00:40) - Introducing Omer

(01:25) - What does Sourcing & Procurement mean to Omer?

(02:50) - What made Omer decide to work in Procurement?

(04:16) - What is “high performance intelligence” for Procurement in 2023?

(06:50) - Where does Omer think that Procurement teams are lacking intelligence? 

(09:20) - What does Omer think about the hype around GenAI in Procurement?

(12:31) - What Procurement roles will be most affected by GenAI?

(16:11) - What does the effects of technology on Procurement teams mean for ProcureTech vendors? 

(19:17) - Is the future of ProcureTech adoption bottom-up? 

(23:00) - Is the average Procurement team ready for the adoption of cutting-edge ProcureTech or is it still only for the digital natives?

(24:00) - Why is Procurement talking about GenAI so much if most teams aren’t ready to adopt it? 

(25:55) - How do we avoid leaving people behind with the adoption of ProcureTech? 

(27:55) - What’s one think Omer knows now that he wishes he knew at the beginning of his career?

(30:53) - Omer answers our quick-fire round of questions