Ep 106: The Power of Procurement for Small Business feat. Chandhrika Venkataraman

Most procurement professionals work for organizations that predate their decision to join the company. Starting procurement from scratch in a small or mid-sized business is a unique journey, with many decisions that need to be made about when and how, and with many potential answers to the question, “Why?’

In this episode of The Sourcing Hero podcast, Host Kelly Barner welcomes Chandhrika Venkataraman. Chandhrika is the Founder of Source Refresh, LLC, a boutique consultancy that creates data-backed sourcing models for SMEs, startups, minority-owned businesses, and nonprofits. She is also the host of her own podcast, the Source Refresh podcast. 

In this interview, Chandhrika shares her honest - and in some cases controversial - thoughts based on her experience working with small business:

• When in a company’s growth journey they should consider putting formal procurement in place
• What part of the procurement process should they start with 
• How procurement organizations in small companies should decide who their strategic suppliers are