In the autumn of 2019 I chaired a customer conference in Hamburg for riskmethods, the supply chain risk tech firm. I’d worked with the firm for a few years and written several white papers and similar for them on risk-related issues. They were a good bunch to work with, and the event was an enjoyable two days – but I had no idea that it would prove to be the last live procurement event I’d be part of for several years, as Covid was just around the corner.
As well as chairing, I delivered a keynote, and my topic was the link between sustainable procurement and supply chain risk management (riskmethods’ core business). At the time, making that link seemed quite novel, and I was happy that I’d come up with a somewhat original topic to discuss with the audience. Not too many people were talking about ESG or sustainable procurement in the same breath as wider supply chain risk. My penultimate slide said this:
“But to do this, we need to understand our suppliers, the markets they are part of, and the environments they operate in … Those are exactly the same drivers as we see in supply chain risk management! That is why I see a coming together, and alignment, between risk management and “sustainable procurement” or “procurement with purpose”. We need to consider what exactly that means – but I suspect it will be a significant development for us in procurement in coming years.
Now of course that link is firmly established and it all seems rather obvious. Of course managing ESG and sustainability requires robust information about suppliers, updates on real-time events and the ability to flex supply chains quickly. And all those factors absolutely apply to effective supplier and supply chain risk management too.
In September 2022, this announcement hit the press. “Sphera, a leading global provider of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) performance and risk management software, data and consulting services, announces it has entered into an agreement to acquire riskmethods, a Munich, Germany-based, award-winning software company specializing in supply chain risk management (SCRM)”. Good news for Heiko and Rolf, the founders of riskmethods!
So riskmethods is now Sphera, and on April 25th-27th, the firm is holding a three-day virtual ESG Summit. I’m not chairing, but it sounds good anyway ... The first day will cover improving ESG through decarbonization, the second lifecycle assessments for ESG and the third ways to address supply chain ESG challenges and understanding their importance. Speakers include Bertrand Maltaverne of Spend Matters, one of the smartest procurement “analysts” I’ve met. His presentation, ‘ESG, CSR and SCRM: The New Source of Competitive Advantage,’ opens the third day.
Other speakers are high-level practitioners, such as Scott Robinson, the Director of Global Supply Management at Corning; Tina Armstrong, Global Sustainability Director, Impact and Systems, Arcadis and Ann Tracy, Chief Sustainability Officer, Colgate-Palmolive. There are also deep subject matters experts from within Schema and elsewhere on the list. The agenda suggests there will be a good balance between discussions around the regulatory issues (carbon reporting, modern slavery regulations etc) and more operational procurement and risk management topics across environmental, social and economic “purpose”.
Registration for the event appears to be free for practitioners, and you can register for just one day or more. You can find further details and free registration information by visiting the summit’s page on Sphera’s website here. There is also more detail on the event and the key issues in this article on the Spend Matters website.