Episode 5: Building stronger university supplier partnerships

Host:

[00:00:00] Hi there. Welcome to the Amazon Business Podcast, the podcast that helps you stay up to date with the latest trends, tools, and stories in smart business buying. I'm your host Brit Moorer. And today I'm joined by Greg Muller, Director of Strategic Sourcing at University of California, San Diego.

[00:00:19] In today's episode, we'll dive into the innovative changes UC San Diego is making to simplify their purchasing process and elevate their strategic approach. Greg, it's great to have you here.

Greg:

[00:00:31] Thank you Brit. Nice to be here.

Host:

[00:00:32] Before we jump in, could you share just a little bit more about yourself, UCSD's mission, and what innovation means to you and your institution?

Greg:

[00:00:41] Love to. As the Director of Strategic Sourcing, my team is charged with soliciting, contracting, and managing most of the high value or high-risk purchases, suppliers, and contracts for UC San Diego outside of construction. We also run a self-sustaining resale operation in the life science space, and a component of my role is also dedicated to developing campus partnerships, which overlaps considerably, but we see a different level of engagement an organization that we can then add value to our community. A lot of the typical procurement and sourcing roles in government or higher ed are designed around or based around compliance. Public agencies are tasked with stewarding public funds in a financially responsible manner. We're bound by legislation in many cases that requires process and transparency. Those best practices are really fundamental to what we do every day. We pride ourselves on developing talent that is well versed and capable to run a bulletproof project. But we also have this incredible opportunity and culture of learning that is ingrained in everything we do.

[00:01:42] Being on campus and working with some of the smartest people in the world who are solving incredible problems and willing to test and study. Everything is really just an ethos that gets absorbed. I don't think most people outside of our industry of higher ed really realize it, and that comes from a combination of openness and willing to take chances. Most of the people that I get to work with every day got into higher education because they have a genuine desire to contribute to others.

[00:02:07] They want to see everyone to succeed, and so they're willing to share so openly that I think it would shock most people in other industries. The lack of boundaries means that we can learn from others, spark new ideas, and collaborate without hesitation. You can combine those traits, with the appetite for a willingness to take risks that exists in a culture that literally runs experiments every single day for a living. And you get new strategies, new ideas, new tactics. It can be implemented on top of an incredible foundation of fundamentals. And it's pretty exciting to watch.

Host:

[00:02:37] Wow, quite an intro. That's amazing. You brought up this note about innovating and having this ethos of an environment that sparks new ideas and having that inspiration just thriving on campus. I'm curious to know what's one big innovative change or improvement you've made to UCSD's purchasing landscape?

Greg:

[00:02:59] Yeah, UC San Diego and in the UC as a whole, really, we've started moving away from evaluating suppliers just on what we call a typical market basket comparison that's limited to just a snapshot in time. What we buy is changing so often that outside of a short list of industry standard items in any given category, the price comparison at one point in time is not necessarily the best or the most accurate evaluation of purchases, what we call a total cost of ownership.

[00:03:27] It's still a component of our evaluation. We haven't necessarily abandoned the fundamentals that I mentioned, but we're focused on a broader perspective. We're selecting a small portfolio of the best partners who are competitive on price, but also on service, and also who come to us with the ideas, and suggestions first because they know that we have the flexibility and willingness to engage.

[00:03:47] We identify the best players in each category. And that includes small up and coming businesses, because those businesses have the motivation to earn that little bit of business, with us, and then they know, and they have seen that we can scale them.

[00:04:00] So we take this portfolio of suppliers, a major market player, a few supplemental, suppliers for breadth, and maybe the future major players in the category, and then we align them within a system that makes it easy to purchase from, and it allows us to keep some competitive pricing pressure in a systemic way, so we can focus instead on bringing the other, more complicated value proposition to fruition. This gives us more bandwidth, for example, to connect researchers to R& D people instead of to sales people.

[00:04:30] Apologies to all the sales people, I'm a recovering sales person myself, so I get it. But we want to do things like connect students to recruitment pipelines that otherwise wouldn't have an opportunity to, outside of a career fair and make sure that we connect the marketing teams to people who are really the graduating and the next best and brightest in their industries.

Host:

[00:04:50] Wow, I mean that sounds like quite a remarkable initiative and feat, a lot of progress being made there. It's really impressive to see how you're transforming the purchasing landscape as a whole at UCSD. I'm curious about the role technology specifically has played in these innovations. How exactly has technology really supported your initiatives and really made this process more efficient?

Greg:

[00:05:14] Yeah. We have to be able to rely on our automated processes to be programmed to support just the basic procurement functions and principles. Like I mentioned, the basics really need to be easy. They need to be automated for our users. We don't want anybody who happens to be a Nobel Laureate wasting time looking for a good pair of gloves when they could be curing cancer.

[00:05:35] We're leveraging the tools that we have to make the process really simple, seamless, and ideally build a workflow that only requires manual interaction or human review when there's an elevated risk or, perhaps a new opportunity. We're not there yet. Each platform is getting better. The data is fairly clean, but nobody likes to run into a dead end because they're trying to buy a clock, but it happens to be classified as jewelry.

[00:06:01] We’ll keep getting better, but we're working on it.

Host:

[00:06:02] Right, it sounds also too, thinking big picture, this sounds like a bit of a moment, a huge opportunity in terms of how institutions like yours are operating on the purchasing level. Have you seen anything like this before? I know you have been a part of the Amazon Business journey for a while. In terms of where we are now and where we were, can you kind of take us through your initial reaction of what that's been like, you know, to see this evolution?

Greg:

[00:06:30] It's continued to change and it will continue to change, right? As the technology gets better, as the AI capabilities get better, we'll be able to clean up data, increase the efficiencies of those workflows, and really that gives time back to the end user and time back to the commodity manager or the buyer.

[00:06:50] So they're not reading through individual quotes or manually reviewing things. They're actually working on bringing the value from that supplier or other new, innovative suppliers straight to campus.

Host:

[00:07:02] Mentioning suppliers, how has your relationships with suppliers evolve to meet your institution’s changing needs?

Greg:

[00:07:09] So, we're looking at our major suppliers now much, much more like partners all the time. And I don’t say partners in the cliché most valuable partner sense that we hear a lot of. I mentioned that I'm on a team that we call the Campus Partnership Program, and that team is charged with changing the way that our suppliers see us as more than just a customer.

So, one by one we're engaging these suppliers, or by categories and we're showing them the rest of campus. And what I mean by showing them the rest of campus is, we're highlighting the opportunities, for them to engage, in other areas. That means more exposure to the cutting-edge research that we're doing, more opportunities to develop a pipeline of talent. More connectivity to an environment where we're actually changing policies that will impact the entire globe and impact them through all of the rest of their customers. In return, we're looking for their support for our community. We want employee resource groups who would probably spend a day volunteering at a local grade school to be running demonstrations, on our campus at the grade school that we have.

[00:08:10] We want them to be the title sponsor of scholarships awarded to the best and the brightest students for the sake of the student, for the sake of the supplier and their recognition and for the sake of supporting UC San Diego to continue to be really the destination for the top minds in any given area.

[00:08:30] We want them to grant the next research fund that helps us eliminate plastic pollution in the ocean. So, our belief is that selling us a good or a service is just a single touch point. And engaging with us as a partner is about becoming part of our community.

Host:

[00:08:44] Wow, you shared such a strong vision of the future, in regards to just what the institution is involved in, and, and how, you have more impact in the lives of your students. This isn't just about purchasing items. It's so much more than that. So I think that was hugely powerful, even looking ahead even more, what upcoming trends in higher education do you think will drive further innovation at UCSD?

Greg:

[00:09:12] Yeah, I think all of us, it's certainly true for UC San Diego. We have to get better at systems integration. Like any large organization, we've got an application for almost everything. It's even more unruly within higher ed. So, because of the entrepreneurial, innovative spirit, we're so open and highly encouraging of new ideas that we've got multiple solutions to any given problem.

[00:09:33] And that's really good when you're trying to find a best-in-class solution or develop different processes or new scientific discoveries, but it wreaks havoc on having a fluid workflow. So, I think we'll actually see more standard protocols in the future that will lead to better solutions and a better way of managing data and overall just ease of use.

And then, like I mentioned, I expect AI to play a significant role in the more time intensive areas of what we do every day. So, the reviewing of manual quotes or services is really a big one. We obviously have a lot of tail spend, within our work and probably about half of what we procure is actually services.

So those involve, going through and reviewing. What we would say is a narrative quote with quite a bit of descriptive scope of work, and I think AI will really be critical to help us process those more efficiently, more accurately, and I think it will reduce the overall time it takes to get that through.

Host:

[00:10:33] Happy you brought up AI, I know that's a huge conversation, especially today, so this is great to see just how you have a vision for it in terms of integrating AI into purchasing as you go forward and within the institution. So, as we wrap up here, do you have any final thoughts or advice you'd like to share with other institutions and organizations looking to innovate?

Greg:

[00:10:56] I would say take more calculated risks, engage your stakeholders more about everything they do, not just the transaction that they need your help with at the very moment. And that'll let you consider how your suppliers might become your partners rather than just the people selling you products. And consider how, because we have so many opportunities and so much innovation within higher ed, maybe that's your next opportunity to innovate, either as a supplier or as your next career opportunity.

Host:

[00:11:20] I have one more question. It’s not on the list, but buckle up.

Greg:

You can you see the sweat rolling down my forehead?

Host:

[00:11:29]  

I'm just curious. You seem, you have to have a love for education to be in this. Right? So, what inspires you, what really keeps you going day-to-day, within your work?

Greg:

[00:11:42] Meeting some of the most intelligent people I’ve ever met is just fascinating on just a day-to-day basis. Being on campus with the students, walking around, figuring out their lives is energizing. The first day I ever interviewed for UC San Diego, I could feel that energy on campus. And then going through the process of higher education changes people's lives even if I wasn't directly involved, it's an amazing story. It makes you feel good.

Host:

[00:12:09]

You have to feel good when you hear that. Thank you for that. Thank you so much, Greg. Thanks for being here.

Greg:

[00:12:13]

Welcome. Thank you.

Host:

[00:12:14]

We know the higher education industry truly holds a lot of potential for innovation, and it is inspiring to see how UCSD continues to shape its environment around new strategic approaches. Thank you, Greg for joining me and for sharing your insights and thank you all for tuning in to the Amazon Business Podcast.