LIFETIME OF ACHIEVEMENT IN PROCUREMENT
Born and raised in Queens , New York , the thought of a career in procurement cannot have crossed Alex Saric ’ s mind when he joined the US Army Cavalry .
A long way from optimising supply chains , he was leading tank and scout platoons through combat and training deployments .
With a Bachelor ’ s in Economics from the US Military Academy at West Point and an international Master ’ s from INSEAD , his time in the Army , and the Cavalry in particular , was actually the start of his appreciation for procurement .
“ While the majority of the focus in military movies is on the front-line fighting , battles are typically won or lost before fighting begins ,” Alex says . “ Much of that success , and a key advantage of the US military , is the strength and flexibility of its supply chains .
“From food to bullets to replacement parts , supply is key to success ”
From food to bullets to replacement parts , supply is key to success .”
His time in the Cavalry helped pave the way for his success in building and running teams in global businesses . Alex described how the Cavalry units operated in a highly dispersed manner , and he learned to manage his unit through clear guidance , accurate reporting and soldiers and vehicles operating remotely .
“ The parallels to running a globally dispersed team are very clear ,” he adds .
Over his 25 years in spend management , Alex has helped shape its evolution and worked closely with hundreds of large organisations to support their digital transformation journeys .
His starting point in procurement originated from the development of vertical procurement applications as a founding member of Zeborg , a B2B e-commerce company ( now acquired by Emptoris ) that offered a suite of procurement applications for complex categories of spend .
During this time , Alex designed and marketed Zeborg ’ s first profitable software product for IT procurement .
After this , Alex spent almost 13 years at Ariba , first building and running the spend analytics business as General Manager until it became a global market leader . He then built and led Ariba ’ s international marketing team after relocating to Germany .
From here , Alex was a key driver of marketing strategy and managed
28 October 2024