Today’s guest on the Art of Procurement is Mark Trowbridge, the co-founder and Principal for Strategic Procurement Solutions, and the former Director of Sourcing and Contracts at Bank of America. Mark is a published author, and a regular presenter at procurement and supply chain conferences. In fact, it was at the recent ISM Indirect conference in December that Mark and I met. As I got to know Mark I knew that I needed to invite him onto the show, and fortunately he accepted my invite without reservation. The main topic of today’s conversation is the notion of procurement superheroes – what are their characteristics, how can procurement leaders best deploy, and retain them.  However, as you will hear in the interview, we discuss much more than that! Areas we cover include: Why procurement is making a shift back to full value procurement Why CPO’s are being replaced by business leaders, and what procurement leaders can do to stop the trend. Why e-auctions and competitive bidding events do not always lead you to the lowest cost, and what you can do instead. The 6 key attributes of procurement superheroes, and how they are changing as the procurement value proposition evolves. How can a procurement leader build an environment to help all employees act at a superhero level. Mark explains the concept of taking intelligence risks that has had a big impact on his thinking. What are the right ways and wrong ways to position savings reporting? Mark’s two resolutions for procurement in 2017. For more information, visit: http://artofprocurement.com/sps