Steven Wales

Recent Posts

Decideware Continues Long Relationship with ProcureCon Marketing

Posted by Steven Wales on Sep 27, 2021 12:48:49 AM

I am pleased to announce that Decideware is once again proud to sponsor ProcureCon Marketing, to be held in La Jolla, CA. 5-8 December 2021.

ProcureCon Marketing Webinar Series: Bayer's Procurement Automation Journey

Posted by Steven Wales on Oct 27, 2020 2:23:22 AM

 

In this ProcureCon Marketing EU Webinar, Wednesday 28 October, 2020 - 

 

Decideware's Steven Wales will present sessions with Malik Akhtar, VP Marketing Procurement at Bayer to understand Bayer's journey to automate their scope of work program to drive efficiencies and savings.

 

Malik will discuss Bayer's processes to secure gains, and address questions, including;

  •  His role and responsibilities at Bayer, as well as his experience before Bayer
  • What was the state of Marketing Procurement, specifically scope management, when he arrived at Bayer?
  • What was the catalyst for change, that senior leadership identified, as reasons to automate the scope process?
  • How did Bayer gain buy-in from marketing, agencies and leadership alike?
  • How did he communicate change? 
  • What have the benefits been?
  • Are we there yet and if not, what’s next?
  • What are the 3 main tips for advertisers looking to automate their scope process?

The conference link is available, here;

https://www.wbresearch.com/events-procurecon-episode-2-eu-october-2020

 

ProcureCon Marketing Virtual Event

Episode 2: 28th October, 2020   
12:00 - 16:00 London | 13:00 - 17:00 Berlin

 

 

Driving Change at IHG

Posted by Steven Wales on Mar 1, 2020 8:58:10 PM

Coleman Raymond discusses her role in transforming IHG's Agency Strategy and Operations Practices

 

Partner Contribution: Coleman Raymond. Courtesy of InterContinental Hotels Group

Changing the future course of something can be a daunting task under the best of circumstances. Attempting to alter a corporate process or way of working that affects hundreds of people, both inside a global organization and externally with strategic partners, can be virtually impossible. But that's the exact task InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) set when founding its Agency Strategy and Operations team in its Atlanta office in 2018.

Sourcing to Resourcing: re-labeling Marketing Procurement

Posted by Steven Wales on Jun 23, 2019 10:37:11 PM

This past week I had the privilege of attending the ProcureCon for Digital and Marketing services conference in London.  About 200 marketing procurement professionals from companies like Bayer, Adidas, Kellogg, L’Oreal, Mars, Duracell, Mondelez and more came together to share best practice, learn from peers & industry leaders and network with colleagues.  Having attended dozens of marketing and procurement conferences over the past decade, I was really looking forward to hearing what the latest trends are from around the world.  However, there seemed to be an old theme popping up . . . again. That is,

5 Tips to Improve your Agency Evaluations

Posted by Steven Wales on Feb 18, 2016 11:30:00 AM

I’m often asked what lessons Decideware has learned about the agency evaluation process. While each client has their own unique methodology and approach to agency relationship reviews, we see a lot of common issues, and have developed a series of credos that serve well as best practices. Though, I’m unable to share all of those with you in this space (I’ll review all of them during my upcoming workshop), these five tips provide a starting point for revamping your agency evaluation processes: