As CEO of JAGGAER, Jim Bureau is responsible for the company’s overall vision to transcend customer experience by providing intuitive and intelligent spend management solutions that allow JAGGAER clients to transform their supply chain. Jim brings over 25 years of leadership experience, with his most recent role as Executive Vice President, leading JAGGAER’s Global Sales & Marketing initiatives. He came to JAGGAER from Verint Systems/ KANA Software where he was Senior Vice President and played a key role in successfully growing the company as it was acquired by Verint Systems for $514 million.
JAGGAER is the world’s largest independent spend management company. Founded in 1995 by Scott Andrews in his basement, the Morrisville-based company has pioneered spend solutions for over two decades and holds 37 patents to date – more than any other company in its space. Today, over 2,000 customers and 4 million suppliers across 70 countries put their trust in JAGGAER to transform procurement, financial, and supply chain operations. JAGGAER celebrates 25 years of business this year, making it the longest-standing independent procurement technology provider. Built on core values such as passion, integrity, and accountability, JAGGAER continues to lead the innovation curve by actively listening to the needs of stakeholders across all industry sectors, public services, and academia and delivering intuitive and intelligent spend management solutions that add bottom-line value. JAGGAER has over 1,000 employees in offices across the Americas, APAC, Asia, and EMEA.
Listen to the full discussion here:
- Listen on Stitcher
Connect with the Guest:
Jim Bureau: LinkedIn
Some of the highlights from the podcast:
- [09:35] Why not just drag and drop the event in outlook and have that ripple through your procurement system? – Making the UI as simple as possible.
- [12:46] How much cash do you have on hand as an organization? The first question for the Board of Directors when in crisis.
- [19:41] Agile Procurement – Focus on strategic initiatives as opposed to managing the mundane operations
- [20:27] Working with Hitachi – offering a global platform to harmonize their processes across all business units
- [27:45] Hiring 160 people since January – why business is expanding for JAGGAER.
- [30:37] The role of the CEO – get his 1200 people to embrace passion, humility, empathy, accountability, and transparency
Show notes:
- [01:57] Maybe we can with a few milestones of your career and how you ended up in your current position as CEO of JAGGAER.
- [04:43] How do you define JAGGAER’s mission and the challenges that the company wants to solve?
- [07:09] People want to come to work and interact with their systems the same way they interact with Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn.
- [08:03] You did mention in an interview somewhere, “the best user interface is not UI or being able to interact with your system in a meaningful way so that you’re not hunting and packing”, I think this part of not hunting and packing is a good metaphor and I wanted to hear more about it and how you see it.
- [10:22] I have elder parents and it’s very difficult for them to navigate a computer. But, whether it’s Alexa or Google Assistant, it works quite well and they can navigate their lifestyle. And that’s the experience people are looking for in their work life.
- [11:43] The current pandemic crisis and its impact on procurement and spending trends. I’m sure you had discussions with a lot of clients globally and you have a lot of data points on that. What can you tell us about these trends? What do you see in the short term and long term?
- [13:50] People can’t control the revenue that’s coming in the door, but what they can control is how they spend and that’s where organizations like us can really come into play.
- [16:54] What is your definition of an agile procurement process?
- [17:05] At its most basic level, an agile procurement process involves being able to monitor and measure my suppliers and allowing my community of users to adjust quickly.
- [20:16] Maybe we can give an example from the clients that you work with; from somebody who saw a significant increase in their results or performance by implementing your solution.
- [20:43] Hitachi had procurement systems in place but they didn’t have standardization and consistency across that. What JAGGAER offered up is a global platform that would allow them to harmonize their processes and procedures across all business units.
- [23:59] How do you manage your client’s demand and expectations?
- [24:49] For Jagger, customer success and customer experience is everything. I mean, we don’t exist unless our customers are thrilled with the capability that we offer them.
- [27:16] If you were to look ahead for what’s to come for JAGGAER and for the organization, what are some of the more exciting milestones? Are there any expansion plans or development plans?
- [29:52] How do you know you’re successful? And what are some of the KPIs that you look at for your success as a CEO?
- [30:55] We got 1200 people in our organization and if I can get the 1200 people to fully embrace passion, humility, empathy, accountability, and transparency, the actual numbers of customer satisfaction, revenue, and profitability will actually take care of themselves.
- [31:46] What are you looking at when interviewing? Are there specific questions or situations that you ask from the interviewee to find more about them? What do you test for so to speak?
- [33:56] I really think that there are opportunities when we look at how people do their jobs and how they do to change management inside their organizations, are they looking outside the box and looking at new and creative ways to be able to solve problems.
- [36:05] Career-wise is there a piece of advice that you have received or you have lived in that you would like to share for a successful career?
- [37:46] Being bold and passionate about what it is that you believe in, it goes a long way for any organization, and getting people to understand and can embrace change and manage change is a huge asset.
Quote from the Episode:
About the Host:
The host, Andrei Palamariu is the founder of Supplify where he and his team works on building a platform to connect the supply chain tech ecosystem. His most interesting discussions with the clients are focused on implementing the best technology, digital transformation, company growth and expansion, turnarounds, and product and business development.
Alcott Global connects and upgrades the supply chain ecosystem by finding the right talent through executive search, developing talent through learning solutions, and meeting supply chain technology needs through a comprehensive crunch base marketplace.
The supply chain executive search has been our focus since the very beginning, offering recruitment services for top-tier supply chain roles at every level of the end-to-end supply chain: plan, source / procure, make, and deliver. Our consultants have years of experience in placing top talent, in North America, LATAM, Europe, the Middle East & Africa, and APAC, and besides speed, one of our biggest strengths is our network within the supply chain industry, and we capitalize on it to find the best solutions.
Through the years, we have grown as an organization and our offerings with it. One of our initiatives, the learning solutions- training and supply chain academy, is focused on transforming leadership- self-leadership, executive presence, influence capital, and business acumen. Through Supplify, we aim to match corporations with the top technology companies to solve their supply chain and logistics challenges with a focus on innovation and digital transformation.
We are in constant touch with the leaders in supply chain, inviting them to inspire the supply chain professionals in thought-provoking podcast episodes and events, and showcasing what is possible at the yearly Leaders in Supply Chain Awards.
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