Rich Sains

Acada

Working with a number of FTSE100 and large enterprises such as M&S, Canon, Boots, Diageo, Costa Coffee, Premier Inn, ASOS, Janus Henderson, Dentsu and Value Retail to transform their IT and procurement functions.

Managing Consultant

The Procurement Conversation

Host of The Procurement Conversation Podcast - speaking to Procurement leaders and industry experts about the biggest topics facing the profession. 

Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube

Podcast Host

Marks and Spencer

Head of IT procurement

IT and Ecommerce Procurement Manager

buyingTeam

Working with O2, Reuters, Man Group, Countryside, Universal Music and others to optimise their procurement of IT.

Solutions Developer - IT and Telecoms

Touchbase

Head of Procurement and Logistics

The Procurement Conversation Podcast Host | Elevating Procurement | Procurement Leader | 10x Procurement |

My mission is to increase the love for Procurement. I want our people to love the job and stakeholders and suppliers to love working with us.

I do this through:

1) Acada: Software that prioritises strategic activity, measures the impact we have on our businesses, and facilitates self service for low value, low risk buying.

2) Elevate: An online learning experience to develop our peoples 'Procurement EQ' and the Procurement Lounge community to support this learning.

3) Advisory: Strategy development, transformation, benchmarking and process re-engineering.

I also host the Procurement Conversation podcast and write the Procurement Weekly Newsletter where we share insights and best practices on procurement topics and trends. 

If you are interested in working with us or learning more about our products and services, please feel free to contact me at rich@acadatech.com.

Founder

We help procurement leaders to solve many of the challenges they face in today's complex environment and manage their teams more effectively and objectively.

I simplify Procurement | 5900+ newsletter subscribers get insights making them 1% smarter at Procurement each week | Link below 👇

There are plenty of expensive ways to get better at Procurement.
Expensive courses and Qualifications. 

But after 25+ years in both direct and indirect procurement roles, I figured out the real differentiator for procurement success - and it doesn’t cost the earth.

It’s how you interact with others.
Your ability to influence, communicate, and collaborate.
In short, your soft skills.

I’m Tom Mills, Procurement Protagonist®, and through years of hard-won experience (and a few battle scars), I built the frameworks that helped me and my teams thrive. 

Those frameworks became my flagship course, Procurement Soft Skills Mastery, now helping procurement professionals elevate their careers around the world.

I also simplify procurement through cheat sheets, frameworks, and my weekly newsletter, Procure Bites -- - read by over 20,000 procurement pros who want real, relatable insights (not jargon).

Here’s how I can help you:

1. Subscribe to Procure Bites - the number one independent procurement newsletter.

2. Join the waitlist for Procurement Soft Skills Mastery (limited enrolment windows).

3. Partner with me through the Quarterly Growth Package if you’re a business looking to reach 115,000+ LinkedIn followers and 20,000+ newsletter subscribers.

All links are in my bio and featured section.

📧 Sponsorship enquiries: tommills@procurebites.com

(no sales emails, please)

Tom Mills

Procurement is the ultimate hub of complexity.

This infographic shows the subway map of building effective procurement.

Main Lines

↳ Sourcing Line (Blue) → Market Research → RFI/RFP → Supplier Selection
↳ Contract Line (Red) → Drafting → Negotiation → Execution → Renewal
↳ Supplier Line (Green) → Onboarding → Performance Management → SRM → Offboarding
↳ Risk Line (Orange) → Due Diligence → Risk Assessment → Mitigation Plan → Monitoring
↳ Finance Line (Purple) → Budget Alignment → PO → Invoice → Payment → Savings Validation

Key Stations (Milestones / Decision Points)

↳ Category Strategy Station → business needs and market analysis intersect
↳ Sourcing Event Station → supplier bids and stakeholder priorities collide
↳ Award Decision Hub → best value, not just best price
↳ Contract Junction → legal, commercial, and operational terms finalised
↳ Supplier Performance Station → metrics, SLAs, and continuous improvement
↳ Risk Control Centre → compliance, ESG, cyber, financial stability checks
↳ Procurement Value Terminal (Grand Central!) → all lines converge here — cost, risk, innovation, sustainability
↳ CFO HQ Terminal → procurement’s output flows into P&L, cashflow, and ESG reporting

Transfers (Cross-Functional Intersections)

↳ Sourcing ↔ Finance at Budget Station → aligning spend strategy and working capital
↳ Contract ↔ Risk at Contract Junction → clauses meet compliance requirements
↳ Supplier ↔ ESG at Performance Station → supplier impact meets sustainability goals
↳ Risk ↔ Legal at Risk Control Centre → governance, audit, and due diligence
↳ Procurement ↔ CFO at Value Terminal → savings, cost avoidance, and strategic enablement all connect here

Any others to add?

P.s. get all my cheat sheets incuding fun ones like this by signing up here free: https://procurebites.com/

Get 1% smarter at Procurement every week | Join 22,000+ newsletter subscribers | Link in featured section (it’s free)👇

Bad calculations = Broken procurement 

This infographic shows 7 simple calculations for measuring procurement effectiveness:

1️⃣ TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) 
↳ TCO = Purchase price + operating costs + maintenance costs + disposal costs

2️⃣ Purchase price variance
↳ Purchase price variance = (standard price - actual price) x quantity purchased

3️⃣ Cost savings % 
↳ Cost savings percentage = (old price - new price)/ old price x 100 

4️⃣ Lead time
↳ Lead time = order received date - order placed date
 
5️⃣ Inventory turnover ratio
↳ Inventory turnover ratio = cost of goods sold/ average inventory

6️⃣ Supplier on-time delivery rate
↳ Supplier on-time delivery rate = number of on-time deliveries/ total deliveries x 100

7️⃣ Economic order quantity
↳ Economic order quantity = Square route of (2 x demand x ordering cost)/ holding cost.

Any others to add?

Repost ♻️ if this was helpful


~~~

I’m Tom Mills Procurement Protagonist®️

I simplify procurement.

Sign up to my newsletter here: https://procurebites.com/ for FREE weekly insights.

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Tom Mills

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The Battle

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Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Tom Mills's LinkedIn Performance

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