Spend Friends: How to Manage Commodity Spend in High Cost Markets

When it comes to commodity prices and supply chains, this year can certainly be described as tumultuous. Many may be wondering how to set buying strategies for 2022 with so many variables in the air. The old saying goes, “Nothing kills high prices like high prices,” but does that still hold true?

In the September episode of ‘Spend Friends,’ co-hosts Pierre and Bill welcome special guest Lisa Reisman, CEO of MetalMiner (a sister site of Spend Matters). Lisa is a foremost metals sourcing strategist with over 25 years of metals supply management experience. She began trading semi-finished aluminum metals in June of 1994 before joining the supply-chain management practices of Arthur Andersen Business Consulting followed by Deloitte Consulting.

Lisa will talk about what she sees as the difficult tradeoffs purchasing organizations grapple with between securing material and at the same time, meeting budgeting and cost targets. The price volatility of the last year and a half has created a myriad of challenges including: making it difficult to challenge supplier price increases, making a wrong buying decision and holding high price inventory and setting customer prices at the right levels so as to avoid margin erosion.

Attendees will walk away with:
– Several strategies to deploy in the upcoming market
– The warnings signs and indicators that would signal a shift in strategy
– Knowledge on the role of AI in creating predictive modeling that leads to better buying decisions