Siddharth Ramesh's guest appearances

Siddharth Ramesh

Art of Procurement

The Sourcing Industry Landscape

Joe Postiglione

Rob Bernshteyn

Lawrence Kane

Kate Vitasek

Greg Tennyson

Marcell Vollmer

Antonio Humphreys

Randy Roth

Eric Martin

Steve Wozniak

Alex Brown

Christian Lanng

Sean DeLaney

Chris Browne

Jonathan Grant

OwlTail

Sid comes from KPMG, where he managed a diverse portfolio that shaped his techniques for sourcing strategies that he uses today. Sid now works at VSP Global, under the leadership of their CPO Greg Tennyson, primarily in the vision insurance space and providing affordable eyecare globally. Sid encourages his staff to focus on continuing education by obtaining certifications in different sourcing concepts, such as third-party risk management. These certifications provided an opportunity for the entire team of 20+ employees to become CFE certified, which gave his team with a common consensus of procedures and vocabulary moving forward. Technology is also impacting their sourcing strategies by meeting the needs of their suppliers through reduction of mundane, transactional processes with automation bots. Thus, allowing employees to use their time to focus on strategic activities such as working more with internal business partners and building supplier relationships.   Key Takeaways:  Siddharth’s advice is to encourage teams to continue their education through certification training to achieve organizational growth. Sid embraces the ambiguity of projects from a procurement standpoint, by seeing them as opportunities to learn how new technologies can assist. By figuring out the unique challenges and embedding them into the company, his team continues to move the needle on their procurement journey. A well-rounded, sourcing professional knows the importance of analyzing, problem-solving, listening to stakeholders and suppliers, as well as being good at negotiations, collaboration, and the ability to be persuasive. His advice for young professionals is to take more risks and learn from your mistakes earlier in your career to expand your horizons sooner rather than later. 

Sid comes from KPMG, where he managed a diverse portfolio that shaped his techniques for sourcing strategies that he uses today. Sid now works at VSP Global, under the leadership of their CPO Greg Tennyson, primarily in the vision insurance space and providing affordable eyecare globally. Sid encourages his staff to focus on continuing education by obtaining certifications in different sourcing concepts, such as third-party risk management. These certifications provided an opportunity for the entire team of 20+ employees to become CFE certified, which gave his team with a common consensus of procedures and vocabulary moving forward. Technology is also impacting their sourcing strategies by meeting the needs of their suppliers through reduction of mundane, transactional processes with automation bots. Thus, allowing employees to use their time to focus on strategic activities such as working more with internal business partners and building supplier relationships. Key Takeaways: <ul> <li>Siddharth’s advice is to encourage teams to continue their education through certification training to achieve organizational growth.</li> <li>Sid embraces the ambiguity of projects from a procurement standpoint, by seeing them as opportunities to learn how new technologies can assist. By figuring out the unique challenges and embedding them into the company, his team continues to move the needle on their procurement journey.</li> <li>A well-rounded, sourcing professional knows the importance of analyzing, problem-solving, listening to stakeholders and suppliers, as well as being good at negotiations, collaboration, and the ability to be persuasive.</li> <li>His advice for young professionals is to take more risks and learn from your mistakes earlier in your career to expand your horizons sooner rather than later.</li> </ul>

The Journey of an Up and Coming Leader with Siddharth Ramesh

When procurement talks about transformation, we are usually referring to the critical changes we need to make to our own talent, processes and technology. But does the opportunity exist for procurement to transform the business as a whole? Evidence from the team at VSP Global suggests that it does. I interviewed two members of the VSP Global team, Nathan Haydn-Myer, Manager of Procurement Operations and Insights, and Siddharth Ramesh, Manager of Corporate Procurement about their dynamic program to centralize procurement and maximize savings, Spend it Like it’s Yours (SILIY) with the help of “Moolah” the home-grown procurement mascot. As they were quick to admit, procurement can’t promise to be everything to everyone, but that isn’t a reason not to have broad, open-ended conversations with internal stakeholders. In fact, the same collaborative approach that led to the creation of Moolah (a silly - or siliy – character with a serious message) also made it possible for procurement to help the VSP sales team respond to RFPs. While VSP has received industry-wide attention and acclaim for their approach to centralizing procurement, it wasn’t an easy journey. They were tasked with centralizing procurement and driving savings WITHOUT a mandate. The journey also took longer than outsiders might expect, requiring several years to execute and leading to some amount of natural but healthy turnover.

When procurement talks about transformation, we are usually referring to the critical changes we need to make to our own talent, processes and technology. But does the opportunity exist for procurement to transform the business as a whole? Evidence from the team at VSP Global suggests that it does. I interviewed two members of the VSP Global team, Nathan Haydn-Myer, Manager of Procurement Operations and Insights, and Siddharth Ramesh, Manager of Corporate Procurement about their dynamic program to centralize procurement and maximize savings, Spend it Like it’s Yours (SILIY) with the help of “Moolah” the home-grown procurement mascot. As they were quick to admit, procurement can’t promise to be everything to everyone, but that isn’t a reason not to have broad, open-ended conversations with internal stakeholders. In fact, the same collaborative approach that led to the creation of Moolah (a silly - or siliy – character with a serious message) also made it possible for procurement to help the VSP sales team respond to RFPs. While VSP has received industry-wide attention and acclaim for their approach to centralizing procurement, it wasn’t an easy journey. They were tasked with centralizing procurement and driving savings WITHOUT a mandate. The journey also took longer than outsiders might expect, requiring several years to execute and leading to some amount of natural but healthy turnover.

251: How a Purple Hairy Monster Helped Transform Procurement at VSP Global w/ Nathan Haydn-Myer and Siddharth Ramesh