Michael van Keulen (MVK) was born and raised in Amsterdam. He was at Foot Locker 15 years ago when they embraced e-sourcing with Iasta. He started in financing but fell in love with procurement. He set up the procurement function in Europe at VF Corp which caught the eye of corporate. So they asked him to lead their global transformation. He then joined Lululemon five years ago and built their procurement infrastructure from the ground up. He brought them into the modern era.

Now, MVK is the Chief Procurement Officer at Coupa Software. With over 20 years in procurement and finance—on both sides of the table—he knows the industry inside and out. In this episode of Negotiations Ninja, we take a deep dive into digital implementation, getting stakeholders on board, and the best practices to follow.

Outline of This Episode

[2:15] MVK’s background in procurement
[4:44] Similarities from the inside and outside
[6:45] The resistance to digitally transform
[9:22] The right stakeholders to get on board
[14:33] The questions to ask technology partners
[18:32] Where procurement tech is going
[21:30] Benchmarking data at scale
[28:06] Stakeholder engagement is the key to success
[29:19] How to connect with MVK

Resources & People Mentioned

VF Corporation

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Coupa

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Digitization and Transformation in Procurement