Joanna Martinez has been featured in an interview with ProcureSpective. Question: What inspired you to write A Guide To Positive Disruption? Answer: Most of my career involved fixing problems within a company. Because the firms that hired me tended to be encountering difficulties, I also lived through a number of reorganizations- 18 to be exact. Somewhere along the line, I figured out that, instead of fearing change, I should be creating it – that becoming a positive disruptor was the right thing to do. Because I do a lot of public speaking, people often reach out looking for help. I thought that I could giveRead More →

Today is probably the first day of 2019 that your entire team is back at work. As you start to think about the year ahead, resolve to become a positive disruptor – someone who brings positive changes to your workplace. Why? First of all, your employer needs you to be making positive changes. To the extent that better internal processes get put in place, more resources can be devoted toward things that really matter like growing the firm or getting ahead of the competition. There’s a personal reason as well. Who knows what changes 2019 will bring? Perhaps your company will be acquired, perhaps aRead More →

A corpse flower is huge, beautiful, smelly, and blooms for 36 hours. The New York Botanical Garden recently had a bloom, for only the fourth time since 1932. And I almost missed it. Because I had a big meeting. And was 90 minutes away. There was a lot of work to do. There would be traffic. Etc, etc. Lots of obstacles. What was I thinking? We are empty nesters, no one to pick up from soccer practice. There was no email that couldn’t be sent later that night or early the next morning. And my big presentation was being conducted via WebEx. What was keepingRead More →

See The Big Picture

How a Contract Management System Creates Value Procurement organizations commonly deploy eProcurement tools for the RFx functionality. They’re often thinking about streamlining their sourcing process or standardizing response formats to facilitate rapid analysis and improve record keeping. A surprising number of companies overlook Contract Management, which on the surface lacks the tangible benefit that eProcurement tools enjoy. Yet Contract Management – often offered as part of the package when eSourcing tools are purchased – provides the kinds of value that CFOs and internal audit groups appreciate. Some examples: Automated alerts and reports on contract and supplier certification expiration.Setting triggers that give an alert before contractsRead More →