865: Confidence, Cost, and Compliance: Insights from the Economist Impact Report W/ Gordon Donovan

"Right now, procurement needs to define their future role in the business. Procurement needs to drive that for themselves, because if we don't, then someone is going to drive it for us, and that could drive us out." - Gordon Donovan, Vice President Research - Procurement & External Workforce, SAP Business models are being disrupted, and so is procurement. This year's Economist Impact report reveals a sharp drop in C-suite confidence, a dramatic return to basics on cost and compliance, and AI taking center stage as both opportunity and challenge. Amid these changes, how can CPOs set a strategy that's fit for tomorrow, not just today? Gordon Donovan, VP of Research for Procurement and External Workforce at SAP, returns to the show with exclusive data and a candid view on industry shifts. Gordon breaks down what really matters in this year's survey: the operational realities behind AI, the new direction for category management, and why rethinking old processes is the only way forward. In this episode, Gordon discusses: Why procurement confidence shrank up to 18% globally The importance of zeroing in on cost and compliance as resurgent priorities Rethinking category management for a complex new landscape How to pinpoint where AI delivers and the barriers still holding teams back Why now is the time to reinvent, not just digitize Links: Gordon Donovan on LinkedIn

You can listen to 865: Confidence, Cost, and Compliance: Insights from the Economist Impact Report W/ Gordon Donovan online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

865: Confidence, Cost, and Compliance: Insights from the Economist Impact Report W/ Gordon Donovan is an episode from The Art of Procurement by Philip Ideson.

This episode is 49:03 long.

This episode was published on May 11, 2026.

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