“If your business is getting bigger, then supplier management is going to be ever more important to you.”
– Jesse Lee, Co-founder & CEO, Brooklyn Solutions
Supplier management used to sit quietly in the background. This is no longer the case, it has become one of procurement’s broadest and most demanding responsibilities, touching onboarding, risk, compliance, performance, and governance all at once. The problem? That work is usually scattered across disconnected systems, teams, and functions. And as expectations climb, those fragmented processes are exactly what stand between procurement leaders and the visibility and consistency they need.
So how do teams keep pace without drowning in complexity? On a recent episode of the ProcureTech Insider podcast from Art of Procurement, Jesse Lee, Co-founder and CEO of Brooklyn Solutions, sat down with Jyothi Hartley to unpack why supplier management is fast becoming a connected discipline, and what it takes to respond with confidence. Here’s what stood out.
What Supplier Management Actually Covers Today
Jesse doesn’t overcomplicate procurement’s job: “At the highest level, procurement exists to accelerate the roadmap of your business. You buy the products and services that power the business so people can succeed, get a competitive advantage, and run lean and efficiently.”
But here’s the catch: the whole roadmap rests on the shoulders of your suppliers. “We have to make sure all of that works, keeps working, can handle wobbles, and stays resilient,” he says. The scope has expanded dramatically: supplier management now spans onboarding, identifying new suppliers, running assessment processes, understanding inherent and residual risk, and managing each relationship across its full lifecycle.
“The contract is really the birth certificate. After that, you’re in a relationship together.”
Why Supplier Management Strategy Matters More Than Ever
A strong Supplier Relationship Management Strategy isn’t optional anymore. It’s the difference between resilience and exposure.
“At the core of all of it is operational resilience. The business must persist,” Jesse explains. “Years ago, regulators said you could no longer outsource responsibility for data protection to your suppliers. You are responsible.”
Operational resilience means the service keeps running even when the underpinnings take hits. “If the boat gets stuck in the Suez Canal, our company still operates. Maybe we sourced from more than one place. Maybe we bought more than we need. We have practices built in and are ready for a rainy day.”
But survival is only half the story. The real prize is the bandwidth to keep innovating. “Ultimately, we have to protect the business and keep it operating. On top of that, there must be time to pursue innovation and handle change well, or you’re just not getting down that business roadmap fast enough.”
Brooklyn’s Approach: Strategic and Tactical
Jesse describes Brooklyn’s philosophy as working on two levels at once.
“Strategically, procurement is a consensus-building organisation. It often has to earn its seat at the decision-making table so it can truly fulfil its function of accelerating the business roadmap.”
“Tactically, we want to bring orchestration and digitisation so people can move beyond point solutions. We see risk management, contract management, supplier relationship management, and orchestration as parts of one connected challenge.”
The goal is to bring these functions forward as one packaged, well-orchestrated unit, not stitched together after the fact.
Connecting Supplier Data Across The Business
One of Jesse’s most compelling arguments is about data transparency. “Data available to multiple people pays dividends,” he says. “A contract expresses a value exchange, but it also expresses an allocation of risk. If that data is shared across contract management, supplier management, and risk management, people can work together much more effectively.”
The endgame is a fact-based picture of where you are today and where you’re going. “Those who embrace transparency get rewarded for it. We think the different functions should be well connected to each other, and it has to be easy. It can’t become more homework for anyone.”
ProcureTech Insider Podcast
What Good SRM Looks Like
Jesse is refreshingly blunt about the gap between good practice and common practice.
That’s the vision for a connected supplier management discipline: governance that’s live, not latent.
What Procurement Leaders Should Look For In A Solution
Before you evaluate any supplier management technology, Jesse offers two pieces of advice worth taking to heart:
- Have a roadmap. “If you don’t, close the door and make one. Connect what you’re doing to the business roadmap and think a few years ahead. Take a holistic, future-proof approach. If you’re only solving the challenge that’s ten feet in front of you, next year you may be complaining about living in another silo.”
- Tie technology decisions to business objectives. “People say they want AI. The real question is, ‘To do what?’ That’s the business objective you need to define first.”
This is only a slice of the conversation. Hear Jesse and Jyothi in full on the Art of Procurement ProcureTech Insider Podcast, the kind of discussion that reframes how you think about supplier management.
Want to see a connected discipline in action, discover how Brooklyn brings supplier management, risk, and contracts together in one platform