Winners are an inspiration, discover what traits they all have in common.
Winners aren't winners by chance. They usually have some sort of healthy behavior that keeps them not only sane, but at the top of their game. We reached out to our Legal Procurement Awards winners to find out how they stay inspired and keep their lives in balance. We found three behavior traits that stood out.
Commitment to Relationships
Our winners are committed to strengthening relationships, both with suppliers and colleagues. Dilara Savas (Turkcell), runner up for the Legal Procurement Award for Collaboration, perhaps said it best when she said "...being a real person rather than a corporate face means so much." Jill Black (Onit) runner up for the Legal Procurement Award "Best Use of Technology" echoed her response, "I am inspired at Onit because I like to see our customers succeed. We are not just selling software, we are building relationships with our clients. I want our customers to be able to lean on us and trust us in all circumstances whether it be work-related or personal."
Many mentioned volunteering, an activity that has relationships with others at its core. Jon Lane (GSK) winner of the Legal Procurement Award for Innovation says, "I try to volunteer in coaching or tutoring, something completely unrelated to work when I can. I’ve found staying busy in activities outside of work which are time demanding is a healthy distraction." Likewise, Justin Hectus (KYL) winner of the Legal Procurement Award for Teamwork, says, "For me and many others in our firm, including and especially Skip, volunteer service on charitable boards and in the community helps to round out our lives and our skill set. Active volunteer board service in particular can be the equivalent of cross-training for our day jobs. It helps get us out of our comfort zone and it complements and enhances our performance and ability to effectively collaborate with others inside and outside our organization".
We intuitively know that good relationships leads to better business results and our 2018 Buying Legal Procurement Survey demonstrated that clearly. Procurement professionals describing the relationship with their colleagues in the law department as “partners” were able to achieve 21 percent in savings on average. We devoted our first issue of The Brief to this topic where we included tips on building relationships and a link to the Cheat Sheet on the BLC site in the Members Knowledge Bank.
Fueling the fire of Inspiration
Whether, like Ed Wilson (Elevate Services) runner up Legal Procurement Award for Innovation, it is an "insatiable curiosity for ideas and data/facts," that motivates and inspires -- or working with others, as Christ Fowler (BT) also runner up for the Legal Procurement Award for Innovation, says he "never stops trying to learn from
his peers and also never accepting that something can't be improved or made better."
It's an interesting time to be in Procurement and that alone can be inspiring, Bill Deckelman of DXC Technology, winner for Legal Procurement Award for "Best Use of Technology," expressed, "Our legal organization (including contracts and compliance) is in such a constant mode of change and transformation right now, on a global basis, that there is a constant flow of ideas and adrenaline keeping us all highly motivated and energized to continue this journey."
“I try to find inspiration and opportunity in everything I do and be open-minded as to how I can grow and serve others every day. ” - Jill Black (Onit)
If you ever need a little inspiration, head on over to the BLC site. We keep a running list of Legal Procurement articles, and for members, check out the next Webinar or our Members Knowledge Bank.
Work/Life Balance
Lastly, what do our winners do to keep their lives in balance? Having healthy distractions can fill us up in other ways, making us all the more present and ready for the day ahead.
"Having time away from work to detach is often when the creative ideas emerge." says Kathy Heafey (Banyan RFP), winner of the Legal Procurement Award for Collaboration. Kathy dedicates time to training for a marathon which she confirms "has been good for both my mind and body!" Her race is coming up Saturday, wish her luck!
Like Kathy, her co-winner of the Collaboration award, Ann Breitenfeldt (General Mills) also confirms that regular exercise, "keeps me sane." She says that "it clears my mind and opens me up to new ideas, as well as decreasing my stress." Osama Hamdy (GSK) winner of the Legal Procurement Award for Innovation, says "taking time to unwind is key to improving productivity. Increasingly, I have been trying to add find activities that get me moving, including taking more walks, going to the gym, or enjoying the outdoors."
Alan Bryan (Walmart) winner of the Legal Procurement Award for Process Improvement, finds it easy to slip back into work mode because he has an "insatiable desire to lead," but for one activity -- cooking. "My focus is on what I am creating," he says, " I love manipulating the ingredients from raw and separate components into a completed cohesive product. It is just me, the ingredients, the means (stove, oven, grill, etc.), and maybe some music. I can usually get away from it all during that process." And for Christine DiDomizio (Jaguar Land Rover North America), runner up for the Legal Procurement Award Best Use of Technology, says what keeps her in balance is a little variety, "For me, it is splitting my time between work, family, faith, friends, charity/service, tennis and the beach."
There is a fourth and obvious reason why these fine folks won, and that is because they applied. We will be holding the Legal Procurement Awards again next year, so keep it in mind and apply next spring!
Meet the winners:
Innovation: GSK
Award recipients: Osama Hamdy, Jonathan Lane and Marty Harlow
Why did GSK win? Already a winner of the 2017 Legal Procurement Innovation award, GSK continues to demonstrate its leadership role in changing how corporations engage and retain external legal services. This initiative brought should cost analysis to GSK’s employment litigation matters. The impact of the project was immediate and allowed GSK to innovate in this space. While this project in isolation is significant and pioneering, at the Buying Legal Council, we believe shouldcost analysis will be applicable to most legal subgroup and types of matters and as such shows all of us the way forward.
Runner up: BT & Elevate Services
Award recipients: Chris Fowler and Edward Wilson
Process Improvement: Alan Bryan (Walmart)
Why did Alan Bryan (Walmart) win? Alan created a uniform and centralized process for engaging law firms. After years of “siloed” engagements among practice areas, yielding incongruent terms on a multitude of agreements, he created an engagement letter governing all law firm assignments and developed a rate card protocol that every company timekeeper needed to complete. This process improvement added defined rate durations, created uniform agreements, standardized procurement practices, and is projected to save Walmart tens of millions of dollars over time.
Runner up: GSK
Award Recipients: same as above.
Collaboration: General Mills & BanyanRFP
Award recipients: Ann Breitenfeldt and Kathy Heafey
Why did General Mills & BanyanRFP win? General Mills’ panel review is an excellent example of collaboration: The initiative’s success was based on the legal and procurement departments agreeing to shared objectives and common goals and executing to them. Although the General Mills legal department understood the value a panel review could offer, on its own, it was not resourced to effectively execute one. With procurement’s process discipline and the expertise of BanyanRFP, a historically cumbersome, time-consuming and difficult process was executed in six months and netted General Mills better counsel selections, market pricing and millions of dollars of savings.
Runner up: Turkcell
Award recipient: Dilara Savas
Best Use of Technology: DXC Technology & UnitedLex
Award recipients: Elizabeth Lugones, Bill Deckelman, Cortney Nathanson
Why did DXC Technology & UnitedLex win? The partnership with enterprise legal services provider UnitedLex transformed DXC Technology’s law department, helped drive down cost by 30% and enhanced its operating performance. This industry-first initiative is a great example of a truly integrated approach of technology applications across a complex multi-national enterprise going through a merger. DXC’s goal was to provide seamless, end-to-end, technology-enabled legal support for transactions, contracts, legal operations, litigation, immigration, and other functions across 26 global jurisdictions.
Runner up: Jaguar Land Rover North America & Onit
Award recipients: Christine DiDomizio & Jill Black
Teamwork: NetApp, Mitratech & Keesal, Young & Logan (KYL)
Award recipients: Connie Brenton, Sue Huss, Justin Hectus, Skip Keesal
Why did NetApp, Mitratech & Keesal, Young & Logan (KYL) win? NetApp streamlined a disjointed, labor-intensive document collection process that was vulnerable to human error by partnering with KYL and leveraging Mitratech’s TAP Workflow Automation platform. As a result, NetApp implemented an automated workflow that evolved into a model for further joint approaches across the organization that tackled complex problems in the legal department and resulted in annual savings of $2M+ and 5.7x ROI.
Runner up: UK National Police & Proxima
Award recipients: Dino Tsagris, Daniel Collings