Everwise with JJ Baker

Everwise
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The Everwise Podcast is a series of conversations with procurement leaders about the work, the pressures and the direction of the profession.

Episodes

  1. Sep 2

    Ep 4 | Bola Soko

    Bola Soko is a procurement contractor who has spent most of her career in the UK public sector, across the NHS, local and central government, London 2012 (buying for the construction of the Olympic Stadium) and now the Bank of England, where she has moved from procurement delivery into AI governance and AI adoption. She builds her own agents to take on administrative work such as file creation and project planning, and describes what she offers as getting beyond the hype to help procurement teams understand AI and actually use it day to day. We discussed why procurement is missing from most organisations' AI committees despite being the gateway through which AI enters the business, why clean data and a clear view of where AI belongs matter more than the tools themselves, and how the Procurement Act 2023, particularly the competitive flexible procedure and the new transparency notices, creates both more admin and a real opening for automation. Bola also shared how she extends the risk register to capture opportunity as well as mitigation, why she expects category specialists to give way to effective generalists over the next five years, the danger of a human in the loop who lacks the hands-on experience to catch AI mistakes, and the two places AI has helped her most: building procurement timelines and checking evaluators for consistency during moderation.

    Ep 4 | Bola Soko

  2. Jul 22

    Ep 3 | Grace Morgan

    Grace Morgan leads strategic procurement at AREA (Alternative Real Estate Advisors), where she specialises in the often-overlooked operational side of procurement: everything that happens once a building is built and full of residents. Having fallen into the field almost by accident, hired for her Spanish before she knew what procurement meant, she learned the discipline from scratch across consultancy, client-side secondments and an in-house director of operations role, and has spent her career focused on institutionally owned rental real estate: build to rent, co-living and purpose-built student accommodation. We discussed why the operational, post-construction side of procurement is so neglected yet so valuable, how centralising procurement across large live portfolios consistently unlocks 15–25% opex savings and drives net operating income (and with it, asset value), and the forensic analysis, both qualitative and quantitative, she uses to surface untapped opportunities hiding in fragmented, over-scoped contracts. Grace also shared how a rich asset register and the "golden thread" of the Building Safety Act underpin good sourcing, why build to rent, co-living and student accommodation share far more supply-chain commonality than people assume, and where she believes AI can make procurement more efficient without depersonalising the negotiation and relationships that create real value. Timestamps (00:00) Intro (00:12) From Spanish-speaking graduate to operational procurement (02:07) Why she stayed operational rather than moving to construction (05:32) Explaining strategic procurement in a niche sector (08:26) Lessons carried from consulting to the client side (11:05) Understanding and communicating client pain points (15:33) Forensic analysis: qualitative and quantitative (21:43) Uncovering untapped value and contract over-scoping (27:01) Commonality across build to rent, co-living and student accommodation (29:08) Why operational procurement drives 15–25% opex savings (31:00) Risk, compliance and the asset register (31:27) Asset registers, the Building Safety Act and the golden thread (34:55) What investors misunderstand about strategic procurement (37:16) AI and the future of operational procurement (42:00) Closing thoughts Follow and subscribe to the Everwise Podcast now and never miss an episode, new conversations dropping regularly with the people shaping the future of procurement. Links Website ⁠https://everwise.co.uk⁠ Instagram ⁠https://instagram.com/everwiseteam⁠ X ⁠https://x.com/everwiseteam⁠ Facebook ⁠https://facebook.com/everwiseteam⁠ TikTok ⁠https://tiktok.com/@everwisepod⁠ LinkedIn ⁠https://linkedin.com/company/everwiseteam⁠

    Ep 3 | Grace Morgan

  3. Jun 30

    Ep 2 | Tim Jenkins

    Tim Jenkins has spent 22 years in sales leadership, including time at the Guardian, before moving into the unusual position of advising procurement teams on how they are sold to. As Commercial Head of Strategy at Everwise and a global sales leader, he has spent years lifting the lid on the tactics suppliers use long before a tender ever exists, and teaching procurement professionals how to recognise and respond to them. We discussed why the sales playing field is structurally unequal, with sales organisations investing ten times more in training than their procurement counterparts, how suppliers build relationships with stakeholders months before a tender is even scoped, and why procurement teams who rely solely on a locked-down process are leaving themselves exposed. Tim also shared his thinking on the SPIN questioning technique, why trust exists between individuals rather than organisations, and why he believes the only way procurement teams and suppliers will differentiate themselves in an AI-driven future is through the strength of their human relationships. Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (00:36) From sales leadership to advising procurement teams (02:12) Why the sales and procurement playing field isn't equal (02:46) How suppliers build relationships before the tender exists (04:02) Selling with each other, not to each other (05:30) The SPIN questioning technique explained (08:28) Tactics procurement teams can use in negotiation (11:00) What separates a good procurement leader from an influential one (13:49) Reconciling authenticity with commercial outcomes (15:48) Why trust exists between people, not organisations (18:38) Why AI can free up time but can't build relationships (20:45) Preparing for high-stakes stakeholder negotiations (23:32) The skills procurement professionals need going forward (35:53) Handling hostile or stalled negotiations (41:24) Why procurement teams should shadow their sales departments (45:49) How procurement will evolve in the next few years (48:59) Closing thoughts Follow and subscribe to the Everwise Podcast now and never miss an episode, new conversations dropping regularly with the people shaping the future of procurement. Links: Website ⁠https://everwise.co.uk⁠ Instagram ⁠https://instagram.com/everwiseteam⁠ X ⁠https://x.com/everwiseteam⁠ Facebook ⁠https://facebook.com/everwiseteam⁠ TikTok ⁠https://tiktok.com/@everwisepod⁠ LinkedIn ⁠https://linkedin.com/company/everwiseteam⁠

    Ep 2 | Tim Jenkins

  4. Jun 9

    Ep 1 | John Skivington

    John Skivington spent 17 years as Group Director at LHC, the London Housing Consortium, a leading provider of public sector procurement frameworks for construction and social housing. He led the organisation through two decades of regulatory change, from the arrival of European procurement rules in 2004 to the post-Brexit UK regime that replaced them. He now serves as head of the Board at Everwise and as an Executive Procurement Advisor, sitting across several boards where he makes the case for procurement as a strategic enabler and a genuine driver of social value. We discussed why procurement should be treated as a strategic enabler rather than a way to cut costs, how twenty years of regulatory change reshaped the profession, and what it takes to move social value from a reporting line to real outcomes for families and communities. John also shared his thinking on the golden thread that runs from the boardroom to the supply chain, the mistakes procurement leaders most often make, and why he believes technology can free professionals to rebuild the supplier relationships the function has lost. Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (00:42) 17 years at LHC (02:32) From Europe to post-Brexit regulation (03:18) Procurement as a strategic enabler (04:45) Making procurement outcomes-based (06:45) Beyond lowest price (08:30) How social value has changed (11:56) Measuring outcomes (14:32) Managing risk at board level (16:44) Technology and risk (19:20) Shaping supply chain culture (21:04) Advice for new procurement leaders (23:16) The golden thread (26:37) Rebuilding supplier relationships (29:45) The most common mistakes (32:53) Getting the board to value procurement (36:38) Social value done well (40:15) Closing thoughts Follow and subscribe to the Everwise Podcast now and never miss an episode, new conversations dropping regularly with the people shaping the future of procurement. Links: https://everwise.co.uk https://instagram.com/everwiseteam https://x.com/everwiseteam https://facebook.com/everwiseteam https://tiktok.com/@everwisepod https://linkedin.com/company/everwiseteam

    Ep 1 | John Skivington

  5. Trailer

    Ep 1 Trailer | John Skivington

    A new podcast for procurement professionals across social housing, construction and the wider public sector. In Episode 1, John Skivington, former Group Director at LHC and now head of the Board at Everwise, makes the case for procurement as a strategic enabler rather than a cost-cutting exercise, and explains why technology can free professionals to rebuild the supplier relationships the function has lost. Subscribe now. Links:https://everwise.co.ukhttps://instagram.com/everwiseteamhttps://x.com/everwiseteam

  • 1 Trailer
    4 Episodes

Trailer

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The Everwise Podcast is a series of conversations with procurement leaders about the work, the pressures and the direction of the profession.

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