2025, ProcureCon MRO. Gen Z in Procurement: Bridging the Generational Gap

Audience: All right we are just about done, but we have saved a fun one for last. This is oh, excuse. That one was not fun for me. This is our last panel and it is on Gen Z, bridging the generational gap within MRO and procurement. And so we touched on this a little bit yesterday from Hugo who's joining us again to speak about it.

And we're also joined by Madeline Olivier and Hugo, or excuse me, hunter Kabe. And along with our moderator, Michael Boer Guard. So please give them a nice welcome to the stage.

Michael Beauregard, Principal Managing Partner - Veda FM Consulting (Moderator): I wonder if this is a test of fortitude or everyone just booked a flight later than they anticipated.

Hugo Sanchez, Sr. Procurement Manager – Cushman & Wakefield: They knew you were coming.

Michael Beauregard, Principal Managing Partner - Veda FM Consulting (Moderator): They knew we were coming. There we go. This is actually the best session of the day, you guys are lucky. Do so as we get going here there's a common understanding of what is a Gen Z, or you'll hear the term zoomer, right?

And that's the term I honestly did not know. And I've got two Gen Zs that oddly enough still live with me. They're both in their twenties. And I live this every day, so this is a little bit of a therapy session for me, reading about this and whatnot. But gen Z was born, what was it?

Hugo Sanchez, Sr. Procurement Manager – Cushman & Wakefield: 97, I believe, to two in the early two thousands.

Michael Beauregard, Principal Managing Partner - Veda FM Consulting (Moderator): Early two thousands,

Hugo Sanchez, Sr. Procurement Manager – Cushman & Wakefield: give or take, obviously.

Michael Beauregard, Principal Managing Partner - Veda FM Consulting (Moderator): Yes. And the oldest, they're gonna be bumping up against the 30 year age. And that is essentially what we're talking about, this demographic that's, it's actually hugely influential. And this is the first generation in terms of what we've experienced, where they've grown up knowing.

The internet, it's always been there, right? For the most part. There's always been a generation of an iPhone. For everyone who's has a memory back to using a cell phone. And so it's a culture or it's a generation that's been immersed in technology from the word go.

Madeline Oliviere, Category Buyer - R&D, MRO - DuPont Global Procurement: Yeah.

Michael Beauregard, Principal Managing Partner - Veda FM Consulting (Moderator): And I'm on the other end of that, right?

When I started off in architecture, we were still on vellum and razor blades, literally. So we had, I had super glue on my desk. To glue my razor cuts right as I was working. So it's changed, immensely, right? Immensely. So it should be an interesting discussion today. And what I'm wanting to kick it off talking about this, I, this the influence and, being submersed, if you will, in technology, but also there's more to it, right? Gen Zs tend to value relationships more so than, and this is, studies show this, right? They tend to look for transparency. They tend to lean in on their values, right? And I'm curious and we've got a resident genzer on the panel, which is fantastic.

How are growing up in this as following in that Gen Z kind of, and I have an astro age, I'm assuming, right? How has your values or the values of your peers how has that influenced going into the workforce and what you're seeing in the workforce and influenced or changed your approach to how you address procurement?

Madeline Oliviere, Category Buyer - R&D, MRO - DuPont Global Procurement: Yeah, so you already hit on it. Very high level already, but Gen Z as a whole, I feel is very values driven. We, there's such a focus in procurement as a whole on. Cost and quality, which is always very important. But at the same time, there's a focus on transparency. So instead of it being two pillars, I think it needs to be a, almost like a three pillar approach, cost, quality and transparency and collaboration with your suppliers.

So when you go in to view these relationships, it builds that trust. I think this can go a long way when you are running projects or implementations because it not only. Opens the conversation earlier, but it also, we like to collaborate. We're a highly collaborative generation. You hear the buzzwords all the time, cross-functional and collaborate. But I really think it's not just a buzzword, it's how we operate on a day-to-day basis. And you'll see it come to fruition a lot with projects because you'll often find that. We tend to engage with stakeholders earlier. I go to my stakeholders first as opposed to at the end and say, here are the results.

Okay, now implement. When you get pushback. That's often where the pushback is coming from is lack of engagement. So I think, the values being at the forefront of how we view every problem, it guides our approach to an open mindset instead of, this is my preconceived notion, I'm gonna do this and then roll it out.

Hugo Sanchez, Sr. Procurement Manager – Cushman & Wakefield: Yeah.

Michael Beauregard, Principal Managing Partner - Veda FM Consulting (Moderator): I'm gonna ask you one more question to that, and this is the idea of real time data.

The willingness or the patience, as I'm engaging, because I've had, teams that are, have a very wide span but the access to real time data, right? And or the lack thereof in procurement.

Is that something that you think has been an issue for, someone as yourself as you're getting into this field where you don't have that real time data? Or is it something that you know. You would learn to adapt?

Madeline Oliviere, Category Buyer - R&D, MRO - DuPont Global Procurement: Yeah, it's definitely challenging. For me personally, I'm looking at spend data that's three months behind.

So when you're asked to go in and look at things, and not only are you asked to dig into your spend and drive results, but you're also now working three months behind. So when you're trying to move quickly. It's like a counterbalance of expectations, right? You were asked to move quickly with your projects and implement, but at the same time your data is outdated.

We've heard a lot about ai, this these last few days, and how AI can help us, and I think it really is something that needs to be. Opened up in conversation with upper leadership at companies because this real time data is what we need to actually drive results and implement change. So you'll see that also too with the need of platforms and the platforms that we gravitate towards are the platforms that mimic the apps and the things that we're using in our daily life.

When we're asked to then revert back to these clunky manual processes it's a tug of war between, I go home, I go on Amazon, and I buy something in 30 seconds, but then I go to work and it takes me three days to order something. A good appeal. Yeah. So that's, the balance between reality and kind of the world that we're working in right now.

Michael Beauregard, Principal Managing Partner - Veda FM Consulting (Moderator): So on the flip side, we've got hunter and Hugo. Both of which are now in their careers, leading teams and organizing and managing. Hugo, in your experience, have you seen where, organizations, your organization or others have begun to change how they structure or change how they prioritize Yeah. To resonate more with people coming into the workforce.

Hugo Sanchez, Sr. Procurement Manager – Cushman & Wakefield: So I think Madeline had hit it on the head, right? We have to adapt because if we don't, then if you don't, if you don't adapt, you let you get left behind, right? Right now, the current population of Gen Z workers is about 18 to 20% in 2025. A lot of that is in the trades. A lot of that is in, in manual labor, blue collar labor that's projected to be about, 40% here within the next seven to, to 10 years.

So yes, if the companies don't adapt and that's what I was hinting at in my presentation yesterday, is that you can put out amazing tools for the people that have been there forever. But if you don't adapt that technology to the, the ease of use that the next generation expects they don't request it, but they expect it.

Then you're setting them up for failure because you're gonna ask them to do something that they're not used to. And it's gonna your learning curve is gonna be ex extremely steep with them, and the uptake and utilization by them is gonna be very low. So definitely adapt the technology early on because if you don't, playing catch up is gonna be very difficult.

Michael Beauregard, Principal Managing Partner - Veda FM Consulting (Moderator): I hear you. So I'm gonna piggyback on that, but I want to go to Hunter on this. So if you think about how MRO procurement has worked and it's worked really like this way. For well over a decade, if not longer. This idea of procurement comes at it as well, what's the last price paid?

And our value that we're looking at is we're, it's always a trade off value to cost. And so it's very transactional in that sense. And so if you think about how these neo values are shaping procurement, right? Have you seen where it's begun to influence at Walmart in terms of maybe how you score or how you influence or how you select a partner, from what you might've done five years ago or 10 years ago?

Hunter Cabe, Director, Global Procurement – MRO & Construction Materials – Walmart: Yeah, I think for a while now we've been saying that these things are KPIs and they're part of the TCO model. Maybe we haven't been the best at doing it. And I think it's actually just driving us closer to what we said we were going to do five, 10 years ago by bringing in the new talent that really focuses on those intangibles outside of just peace price.

Michael Beauregard, Principal Managing Partner - Veda FM Consulting (Moderator): And then I would pivot to you and ask, are we doing enough? Are you seeing enough change that resonates with your peers? Yeah. When after work, if you're having a beer with your colleagues and you're talking about it, you are, is, are these changes in org or how we're doing procurement resonating?

Madeline Oliviere, Category Buyer - R&D, MRO - DuPont Global Procurement: Yeah, I think it's slowly getting there. I know. One of the things that my company is doing, every company has their sustainability goals. By this point in time will be X, Y, and Z with whatever goal they have in mind. But something that we've been working on our side is implementing those expectations and KPIs into contract.

So not just a overarching statement, a hard KPI that we have to hit. So it's holding the suppliers accountable, but it's also holding us accountable. We're broadcasting these things that we're saying we're working towards, but we're not doing anything to follow up on it. So that's something that I've been seeing as a way that we've been slowly bringing about change.

But again, I still think it's a work in progress.

Hugo Sanchez, Sr. Procurement Manager – Cushman & Wakefield: And I think, just to add to what you're saying, I think when we look at the other side of the table, what I've experienced is my suppliers are actually craving for that, right? And they're bringing, 'cause they're more, engaged with the business than we are.

We interact with them one time, they're interacting with thousands of other clients, so they see what other people are asking and needing. So when I bring up a mobile solution, my, my suppliers are like, yes, we've been waiting for you to say it because. We see it being used with other types of clients, right?

Because they don't only deal with B2B, they also deal with consumer people as well and they have to adapt to the consumer base. And a lot of that, that buy population on the consumer side, I'm sure you see it in the Walmart side, is the younger generations that their transactions are small amount but quick pace, right?

And they get in and they get out. So your suppliers are always hungry for that. But they also have to play the dance of I don't want to be too forward thinking because I don't want you to think that I'm trying to push something on you too salesy. But the minute you bring it up, it's yes, we've been waiting for you to say it.

So the demand is there and I think us, in the procurement organization as leaders, we need to advocate for that Gen C. Because as a millennial, I was very thankful for Gen Xers. Making the way for us to have it, the way I have it now I think now they're passing on the torch to us in a way.

And it's, our responsibility to make sure that the good things that the Gen C brings with the values and the technology engagement and the ease of use mentality. How do we roll that out for everybody? Because it's, they're asking for it and they're demanding and I think us in the leadership positions should be advocating for that, to get them that as

Michael Beauregard, Principal Managing Partner - Veda FM Consulting (Moderator): well.

Yeah. Which is fair. I think I've heard that a lot here where MRO, the suppliers are saying. We want to create more of a relationship, which would then yes, echo to what we're hearing from the Gen Z population, that we don't want it to be as cold or as transactional. We want it to be more of a communi community, if you will.

Or the, so I'm gonna pivot a bit. So we had a session yesterday where we were talking about. Attrition in the workforce and the silver tsunami and how we're losing facility techs and MRO techs. And if you think about, and I'm not sure how many of you have walked to an MRO crib in the past or have that experience, but for the most part, and I know that I'm totally stereotyping here, but for the most part, when you walk into an MRO crib or you're engaging, you will find former FM technicians.

That pivoted over to a role in the crib or they pivoted over to a role as an MRO buyer. And so that has been a passing of the torch or the changing of the guards or, what have you. And that's changing right now. And so I'm curious from your perspective, hunter at Walmart, right?

How is Walmart. Adapting and let's say instituting either training or mentoring or similar initiatives that where you may not have the FM tech to pivot into MRO, but you need to get someone on the ground and their wheels running rather quick. What are you seeing in terms of changes that are being made to ramp up their experience or to get them motivated towards MRO or prepare them for a role as either a buyer or in the crib or in procurement supporting MRO?

Hunter Cabe, Director, Global Procurement – MRO & Construction Materials – Walmart: First off I think it's really a positive thing or it can be, there's no preconceived notions about, certain products or, Hey, I worked with this supplier 15 years ago when I was in the field, had a bad experience and never want to use them again. But as far as what we're doing to train and bring that next generation along, even though they haven't made that transition from technician to procurement operator, having them physically see the product go out, do your site visits, get to talk with those technicians is so valuable. I don't need a procurement person to know how to install the motor, but it is helpful if they know what it looks like. If they know all the different widgets that go in and can see a bigger picture.

But also say, getting them in front of all of those stakeholders whether it's somebody that they're going to deal with, on a regular basis or not having that full breadth of, facilities, conversations with all different groups within that facilities org is very helpful. Yeah. And definitely creates a mentorship opportunity as well.

Hugo Sanchez, Sr. Procurement Manager – Cushman & Wakefield: Yeah.

Michael Beauregard, Principal Managing Partner - Veda FM Consulting (Moderator): Are you seeing something similar, Hugo?

Hugo Sanchez, Sr. Procurement Manager – Cushman & Wakefield: Yeah, definitely. And I think, even if we ask the people here, which again, brave souls that stay later to the session, I appreciate you. But if we ask the people, I think everybody can see that change in workforce, as you mentioned the changing of the guard happening especially with the trades, right?

And we see people coming off, right out of school, do they do a two year degree, or they do go to a trade school and come into the more maintenance type roles or services type roles. And to his point, I think those are the people that are gonna be the siblings that are gonna sprout into leadership roles later on.

And by having them understand how things at an operational level work, eventually you build the career path for them to join into this, the managing roles and the and the implementation roles. I think that's where you really get that smooth transition of what people in the field that roll out their sleeves.

Find valuable and useful to then implement it at the category manager level.

Michael Beauregard, Principal Managing Partner - Veda FM Consulting (Moderator): Yeah. Yeah, I agree. It's interesting, I think three years ago we kicked off this conference with MRO 1 0 1 0 1.

Because very few people, and I could probably get a show of hands real quick, how many people like started their career saying, I want to be an MRO buyer.

Yeah. Be crickets in here. And so a lot of people come to this conference. And they're just getting their feet wet in MRO, they really do not know what MRO is about. And when you have the pipeline of text to pivot, then they brought in this experience and so they would know what a motor is, right?

And if you said balor, they'd be like, okay, that's a motor, right? And they just go. And now you may have people entering the workforce because we don't have the facility techs that. Don't have that experience, and so I'm curious, in your experience are you seeing where organizations and your organization specifically where you're at, but in general with your peers, are they doing enough to bring you into the fold of MRO procurement and get you familiarized with what's happening and,

Madeline Oliviere, Category Buyer - R&D, MRO - DuPont Global Procurement: yeah.

So speaking as someone who came into the MRO world with zero MRO experience I came from retail to this, so it was like. Didn't even know what a motor was when I first started. The more interactive experiences you can get, the better. And I think that's something that companies are embracing more.

Even this year, I was here last year, it was my first time attending. This conference and there weren't many people that were, around my age. And then coming back this year, it's refreshing. There was a lot of younger people here which was great to see because it's obvious that these companies are investing in their employees and sending them out into interactive experiences to keep learning.

On top of, getting to the sites and. Hunter had a good point. You don't need to know how to physically change something, but to understand when they call you and panic and they need something. Oh, okay. I get it. Why? Why they need it so badly. I think the more you can get out into the field and have the support from management to do that, the better.

And, the investing and the continuous learning because. Having no preconceived notions is great because you come in and you want to learn. I come in every day and I learn something new every single day. And it's been two years at my company now, and I, every day I am learning something new.

But I also, it's my, it's an accountability factor that I hold for myself too. 'cause I need to keep learning to be able to do your job. So it's definitely getting better.

Michael Beauregard, Principal Managing Partner - Veda FM Consulting (Moderator): So there, it's a compromise. Compromise meeting halfway. Yes. Yes. Or trying to meet halfway, right? And I think both parties.

Are doing their best to try to close that gap. I'm going to ask you though, Hugo, if you look at the changes you've made and if you look at procurement collectively are there changes that you see that would resonate more or in terms of negotiate how we negotiate, how we measure success, how do we manage relationships?

We were just talking in this last session about the RFX process. Yeah. Are there changes that you see that would. Do a better job of bringing, bringing gen Zs in the fold.

Hugo Sanchez, Sr. Procurement Manager – Cushman & Wakefield: Yeah. I'll again, still from you again, Madeline being the representative, I think she has the most direct from the source knowledge, but relationships.

I think Gen Z thrives. If millennials were very relationship driven, I think Gen Z takes, takes that to the next level. I think something that we have noticed at least in my experience over the last four years is that the more you treat a supplier as a partner, and we mentioned this throughout the conferences last two days, the more the relationship develops into a win-win.

And I think that myth phrase that there's no such a thing as a win-win is fading away because suppliers have realized, Hey, I'm. Gonna make way more spend with a client. If I give them the solutions if I treat them as someone that I wanna continue to do business with beyond the three year contract.

By changing that, I think that's helped me tremendously. And again, I'll use the people out on the field as an example, right? I can put together a PPE program and paper and roll it out at the top and hope that it takes off. But if I don't have my distributors, the reps out on the field, out of the sites, with the manufacturers showing the different drills, the different glasses, different gloves, having touch and field, events, the OpTic's not gonna be there, right?

And my suppliers doing that for me at no cost because they see the benefit of engaging the end user, right? Having them touch the product, having them play with it and understand how it works. Again, it builds that rapport down at the level field. That it, I promise you, it benefits you tremendously in the long term because the amount of fires that I get called for get reduced significantly because now there's a relationship at the ground level that they figure stuff out on their own.

And again, we empower them to do that, that they only escalate to me when it's truly needed. And, but by that point, it's rare on occasion. By embracing the relationship side of things. And again, I'm the soft skills guy. I think it pays dividends and it's gonna continue to pay even more dividends with gen Z, having that be a core tenant of their personalities.

Michael Beauregard, Principal Managing Partner - Veda FM Consulting (Moderator): Fair. So I'll, I'm gonna put you on the spot, hunter. You came here with, a contingent with your team, right? And I'm curious, as you've watched your team engage. Are you seeing them? Are you witnessing them engage suppliers differently than you might have done so when you were starting your career?

Hunter Cabe, Director, Global Procurement – MRO & Construction Materials – Walmart: Yeah. I think what we've seen is we've gone from that tactical to, Hey, this supplier is a partner, but I think we're actually starting to take it a step further and see the supplier as more of a collaborator. Yeah. A lot of us call ourselves buyers or people think procurement is purchasing and that's all they do.

It's, Hey, go sign this purchase order and make sure we have compliance. But really, when it comes down to it, when our stakeholder comes to us, they're coming to us with a problem. They're not really coming to us saying, Hey, go put this out to bid. They're coming to us saying, this is an issue.

We don't know how to solve it. Bring some suppliers in to try and figure out a better way. And I think that's what we're seeing with with younger people coming in. And I say younger people, I hate saying that I'm wearing the Mr. Rogers sweater here. I'm not that far from Gen Z, but but we are starting to see that collaboration start to happen to where, we're solving problems together with those suppliers as opposed to, Hey, I just wanna come buy something from you.

Michael Beauregard, Principal Managing Partner - Veda FM Consulting (Moderator): Got it. Got it. Fair. So we've had over the last two days, a number of talking points with regard to AI IOT. It's something that's. Transforming procurement, but not just procurement across the board.

It's trans, it's just transforming how we operate. And I'm curious from your perspective, Maddie you've grown up in that world. And what's interesting is I look back at myself, and again, when I was starting I was literally called my classmates and I, we were referred to as CAD monkeys.

Because the older generation wanted nothing to do with AutoCAD and they were bringing us in to fill that gap. And so now I look at it and I would ask, I'm curious from your perspective, Maddie, do you believe that your peers, your cohort, are they doing enough to drive or to influence change or to, let's say push.

Adoption and whatnot within procurement and within the profession.

Madeline Oliviere, Category Buyer - R&D, MRO - DuPont Global Procurement: Yeah, I definitely think there's a bit of a gap between, where the Gen Z group is at with adopting the change with ai. I think we're eager to implement it and explore it and actually use it to the capabilities that, we're being told that it's able to do.

But where we run into challenges is. When we're not able to do that. There's, I do think that there's still a bit of a stale mindset up with upper leadership, as I mentioned earlier where yeah, it's great. I have a real world experience of this. We had an intern this summer and he was, his task was to research AI and how AI can make our jobs better.

And he put together a paper and I'm, and presented it, and it was just like a, okay, great. And then it went nowhere. So I think that's where the challenge is. We are seeing how it can help us and that we need it, frankly. Headcount reduction's a real thing. We're given more role responsibilities every day and they're not doing anything to up the resources.

They, I'm not speaking for everyone, but I'm just saying high level. But I think there needs to be that gap that needs to close where, okay, fine, we take the leap of faith, we try it and see what happens.

Michael Beauregard, Principal Managing Partner - Veda FM Consulting (Moderator): So lemme go to the two of you. Is what you are seeing on the front line, managing teams and seeing this adoption of change and the expectations of, are we doing enough as leaders in your org, do you view that as a threat or as an opportunity?

Hugo Sanchez, Sr. Procurement Manager – Cushman & Wakefield: You wanna go first?

Hunter Cabe, Director, Global Procurement – MRO & Construction Materials – Walmart: Yeah. I will absolutely say it's an opportunity. Yeah. Something that was mentioned earlier was speed. And, gen Z's very they're used to having that speed and being able to get things quickly. What that's enabled us to do, especially when it comes to AI and things like that, is do more and do it better, right?

Yeah, we could go run a quick three bids and a buy on an old Excel spreadsheet via email, but now they're actually using. Better tools to be able to get robust RFPs and RFIs out in a much quicker timeframe, but be able to gather so much better information, use AI as a negotiating tool and wrap it up within a month as opposed to, something that may have taken three months ago or four months just a little bit ago.

So I, I think it's a big opportunity. And you mentioned, head count reduction, I think that's. I think it's a real thing, but also being able to show, look at how much faster I can go, how much more that I can achieve by adopting these things. I think that's very helpful in our space to be able to say, yeah, but I did so much more than what what one had, could have done 10 years ago.

Hugo Sanchez, Sr. Procurement Manager – Cushman & Wakefield: Yeah, and I echo the sentiment. I think it's definitely an opportunity because we. I had a mentor tell me when crazy times come crazy good people rise to the top right. And I feel like right now we're at that cause where AI is coming in and the next generation knows how to use it and we're expecting them to do more with less.

So that creative mindset, creative thinking that they bring, I think will give you a lot of good people that know how to do things with the new technology. And again, if you see it as a threat, then maybe that is an opportunity for you to say, okay, how do, how can I change my. Way of viewing the world by learning something new, a new technique, a new technology get acquainted with it so that you turn that into an opportunity, right?

Just like any interview we've all sat through, right? You find that value that you're not seeing it because you're your first gut reaction is to see it as something difficult. And you change that to an opportunity. And I think, again, reframing it and leveraging the crazy good thinkers that are gonna come out in this moment is what's gonna help.

Our, all organizations have those new things of doing things, those new ways of working, those more efficient ways of running meetings, of running RFPs. We, in the previous presentation was, talking about our effects. I'm sure there's a Gen Zero out there thinking about, oh man, there's 18 steps on that.

I bet you can get away with eight. So the opportunity is there and the technology is there. It's just who's gonna be the first one to really crack that that code and implement it in a successful way.

Michael Beauregard, Principal Managing Partner - Veda FM Consulting (Moderator): So who's gonna be the first to crack the code? So I think it's a very relevant or pertinent thing to say, and that if you follow certain trends of thought right now they're saying within 2027, early 2028, procurement as we know it will be AI driven, right?

Which, if that's the case you've got. Two years to crack the code. And I'm curious what changes between now and then? Do the three of you, and this is an open one, what changes do you think between now and then this cohort of Gen Z population will be successful in influencing how we operate or influencing how we work beyond just the adoption of the ai?

Because that is, we all know it. That's driven by that generation.

Hugo Sanchez, Sr. Procurement Manager – Cushman & Wakefield: For me, what jumps out right away is risk and security, right? We are asking this new generation to use a tool that even the experts are still trying to figure out and keep up with it, that if we don't train them properly on how to not just, upload your company code into chat GPT and then see that published next week.

If we don't, if we don't coach them right now, I think that could be something that. It, it then turns into a threat for any company, right? Jumping ahead of it and when I say cracking the code, educating your incoming population, the Gen Cs on the front lines, et cetera, on how to safely use those tools.

Because the last thing you wanna do is, have good intentions trying to publish some, a tool or an AI that has all your company code that is secret and shouldn't have been uploaded, to begin with. I think risk and security is gonna be a huge factor. Personally, my bias is that I don't think we're gonna be there by 2028.

I think we're still in the early stages. I'm sure there'll be some revolutionary new model, language model that comes out that integrates more stuff. But for the most part, I still think, I think someone else said it earlier, you still need the human element, right? You can have as much automation, as much technology into it, but if you don't have those two people from a supplier side, from a client side talking to each other, sorting out those issues it's, it's a Lamborghini with without wheels, right?

It's not gonna go anywhere.

Michael Beauregard, Principal Managing Partner - Veda FM Consulting (Moderator): Fair enough. So you touched on this idea of, risks, right? Or blind spots. If we pivot from how might Gen Z change procurement? If we pivot to ask what risks or blind spots are out based on the changes that we are seeing and how are we preparing, this generation, gen Z, who will be driving it?

What risks or blind spots beyond what Hugo has shared do the two of you see as things that we need to watch for right now?

Hunter Cabe, Director, Global Procurement – MRO & Construction Materials – Walmart: I'll say in my opinion the biggest risk that we have is something that we talked about earlier. Losing that collaboration and that collaborative environment with the supplier to where everything is automated and it's driven by technology, it's great that we're able to move so much faster, but at the same time, we still do have to have that pullback and that slow down.

There is. Still something to be said for face-to-face, and getting on site. And then after we take that time, we can move with speed and urgency through technology.

Michael Beauregard, Principal Managing Partner - Veda FM Consulting (Moderator): Yeah. It echoes that dichotomy where they say that generation is much more they don't have the face to face because everything is through the mobile app in terms of the engagements and the sharing of the life and what, so they're much more transparent.

But not necessarily as foundational in relationships. But then when you talk to Gen Zs, they value the relationship, they value that collaboration and whatnot. So you do see this dichotomy. It's interesting to see how the, which one of the two, will stand at the end of the day.

From your perspective, do you see risks out there in the next few years or opportunities out there that you think you could influence or change?

Madeline Oliviere, Category Buyer - R&D, MRO - DuPont Global Procurement: I view it more as an opportunity. I like to stay on the optimistic side. You both touched on it already. There's no way you're gonna be able to replace the human element of working with people, but I do think it'll shift the way you work with them.

The su supplier relationship aspect will become more strategic, I think but in a more productive way. But think about it, in your personal life, when you call a helpline and you get sent to a chat bot, how frustrated do you get? Imagine having to do that every day. I don't think that we're gonna get there necessarily.

I think it's just figuring out how to make us better at our jobs that we do today.

Hugo Sanchez, Sr. Procurement Manager – Cushman & Wakefield: I think if anything, sorry to add to that, I think you guys are gonna be the saving grace that brings the relationship back to it because as much as people complain about, oh, the next generation is always on their phone and they don't hold discussions.

I haven't really ever seen such a strong bond between two people as two gen, CERs, texting nonstop and sending memes to each other because they have that bond. And I think, we misclassify not seeing a verbal, oral discussion as assuming that there's not a rapport with them.

But Madeline, you tell me, I think most of your conversations happen through text. And it's, and they're solid. They're pretty strong relationships. So they'll save us. They'll keep the human ment there for sure.

Michael Beauregard, Principal Managing Partner - Veda FM Consulting (Moderator): Excellent. We'll open it up. We've got, what's the feedback from the crowd?

Are you seeing the impact or the influence of Gen Zers entering the workforce? And how are dealing with addressing mentoring, challenging? Any questions or feedback from the audience?

Hugo Sanchez, Sr. Procurement Manager – Cushman & Wakefield: Can I make a challenge then? Since people are probably thinking of their questions, I want to challenge everybody here to be an advocate, right? Because I was fortunate enough to have advocates in my career that, that were there for me as a millennial. And oh, he's just, he's so young to understand, be an advocate, be a change agent for the next generation, right?

They're gonna take your organizations far, but if you don't give them the voice, if you don't give them the space at the table. So no one's gonna speak up for them. So be an advocate. Even, if you feel like you don't have a voice, believe me, it will take, it will make a difference.

Well

Hunter Cabe, Director, Global Procurement – MRO & Construction Materials – Walmart: said. And remember that we're gonna have this same conversation in 15 years about the next generation that comes.

Hugo Sanchez, Sr. Procurement Manager – Cushman & Wakefield: Yeah.

Hunter Cabe, Director, Global Procurement – MRO & Construction Materials – Walmart: So it's gonna come full circle.

Hugo Sanchez, Sr. Procurement Manager – Cushman & Wakefield: We have a question?

6: Yeah. I have more so a comment. Yeah. So at Duke Energy, we have an associate's program, and it's a two year rotation where associates have.

6: I think it's three rot. It's a two year program with three rotations. And there was one rotation where after a few years, I don't think anyone was left in either supply chain or duke Energy. And so I've had con conversations with our leaders to say, you really need to get to the bottom of why you're doing all of this.

6: Recruiting from our campuses, bringing people in for two years. And then they're not staying. And so I think one of the issues that we are seeing is that things move slowly in our company because, we deal in in decades sometimes with building plants and things like that. And then the average years of service for 40% or more of our population, or our employee base is like 22 years.

6: And so they're. There's a lot of longevity and so sometimes it could take a long time to move and things like that. And so I think we have an opportunity to really look at what's happening culturally that's not retaining the younger employees that we're bringing in.

Yeah, brain drain is a big thing, right?

You spend all this time and resources. What is it? Six months, you said rotations and then they find another company leaving, offering something more interesting. Yeah. That retention engagement from leadership has to be there because you don't wanna, throw your money at all this potential college grads that are gonna be your next, leaders suddenly leaving because the program just died out because of always of working.

You have to have that constant feedback. And then how do you move your mom after that program,

Michael Beauregard, Principal Managing Partner - Veda FM Consulting (Moderator): that would be a megaphone. Yeah. Really because, so I do a lot of mentoring at a SU. I'm a huge proponent of education and companies that have that rotation. That is the best practice. And I'll say to students that are graduating, if you can find that, jump on it.

You'll learn a lot in the two years. Yeah. And if two years, if they are essentially rotating right out the door. That. Yeah, that would be really interesting to do some type of a case study to understand what's, what's driving that culturally, but probably also a huge challenge 'cause who really wants to confront that, right,

6: exactly. I think it's important though, for sure.

Oh yeah,

6: yeah. Because there are a lot of people within our organization who are retirement age, and there was one team that had six of 12 retire within a year timeframe. Michael Beauregard, Principal Managing Partner - Veda FM Consulting (Moderator): Wow.

Yeah. It, what's also interesting is this generation, they communicate wicked fast.

And so if someone doesn't like that experience, they're, they don't bottle that up. They're real time, communicating with others and because everyone's so used to that rating system or the ranking system or evaluation, there's really no time to recoup, I could see where that's, that would spread like wildfire.

It would, it could go in either direction though. If the experience was really positive, I would think that you're gonna get a lot of people then saying, I'm having a great experience learning it, and then you see more people wanting to come.

Hunter Cabe, Director, Global Procurement – MRO & Construction Materials – Walmart: Yeah.

7: Yeah.

Michael Beauregard, Principal Managing Partner - Veda FM Consulting (Moderator): So interesting.

8: Thank you. A couple of questions. One was on your comment, Madeline, in the start, that it's cost delivery sorry, cost quality. And you mentioned value. A question related to that, I'm very intrigued to understand how Gen Zs think about risk. D the, does this generation still value risk, and take time to, evaluate that.

8: Or they are more into taking decisions quicker and faster without looking at that. That's my first question. The second one is related to the discussion we just had on retention. I see that the big challenge, we see a lot of revolving doors when it comes to Gen Zs. So how do Gen Zs think, do they don't value the loyalty that was probably there before?

8: Or is something else that we are missing out, that we probably need to look into because we really want to change our, generation because there's a retirement that's happening. So you need new youngsters coming in the field, especially for procurement. We still want to make it attractive for the talent.

8: So what's that thinking? I just wanna understand a bit more about that.

Madeline Oliviere, Category Buyer - R&D, MRO - DuPont Global Procurement: Yeah. So to answer your first question about risk, I think you said earlier we. We move quick. Our we're, we communicate quickly. So I think the risk piece of it comes into play with the good mentor. Honestly, we don't have as much experience as other people in the field, so sometimes we need that mentorship and that guidance to really bring some of the risk factors to the forefront, and then we learn from it.

And then that way the next time we approach a problem that. Element of considering risk is something that we now also consider. So I think that's where that partnership comes into play internally, especially within companies. Yeah, building that line of mentorship so that there is someone guiding you through the process, especially if it's your first time going through something, whatever the situation may be.

That's my perspective. And then to go on to your question about retention, I think retention is. Difficult right now. I'm gonna be honest, because there's such a need for instant gratification, and I'm not saying that's a good thing. I just think that's something that might be fueling it.

But I do think there are ways to find a happy medium between that, small rewards or recognitions go far, even if it's not necessarily a monetary value. Of course money helps always, but. There are ways to encourage people to retain them longer than two years. 'cause you'll see it two years, oh, I didn't get a bump, or, I'm not moving along as fast as I want 'em out.

So there's ways to do it. It's just, taking six months to give feedback to someone is too long.

Hunter Cabe, Director, Global Procurement – MRO & Construction Materials – Walmart: Yeah. I'll just, one thing on the retention piece, and it's just from my experience, I, 15 years ago. Somebody was entry level just coming in their responsibility level was pretty low.

What I've seen especially from the Gen Z and interns that we've had, they want those stretch projects like right away. And not to say that they're going to be 100% successful every time, but I think being able to give them those. One, it achieves that sense of purpose that we've talked about.

And two I think it makes, it feels like the career is progressing quicker, even if it's not necessarily a promotion. But they're getting recognized for doing something that's bigger. They don't want to go get coffee, they want to be able to actually do real work that is impactful to the business.

Michael Beauregard, Principal Managing Partner - Veda FM Consulting (Moderator): Good point. Good point. I think we're at zero. Zero. Good discussion. And yeah, my flight leaves at about zero 30. So real quick, any other questions out there or, yay, nay, nay. I appreciate everyone's staying. Sincerely appreciate. We, one more. Go ahead.

7: So I was just wondering, because this generation is the first one where like supply chain degrees are a.

7: A real thing. That didn't, you really used to exist. And so with more people having that supply chain mindset and experience, and then also having more of a data forward approach, how do you guys see that in the advancements of the careers for the younger generation?

Hunter Cabe, Director, Global Procurement – MRO & Construction Materials – Walmart: It's awesome.

Hugo Sanchez, Sr. Procurement Manager – Cushman & Wakefield: Yeah. I agree.

I was jump into it. I was gonna jump into it, but yeah I agree. What took me five years to get acquainted with for my first, rotations in my career, people are coming out with it out of school. Heck, data analytic tools, mindsets already, skills that I, it took me five years to figure out that they're coming outta college with and using those instruments, it just makes the learning curve so much easier and so much faster.

And to add to what Hunter was saying about giving, you can give those people stretch projects that. They wouldn't have given me, three, five years into my career. You can now do that probably a year into their tenure, and they're not gonna fail. And you can coach them as Madeline was saying, mentor them through it so they understand the risk, what's important to the company, while also making it fun and entertaining.

Because it, it does give that individual gratification of, I'm part of something bigger.

Michael Beauregard, Principal Managing Partner - Veda FM Consulting (Moderator): I see this as a bit of a mix, like the coins flipped and that they're very well versed with supply chain theory. Procurement strategy, but this is an MRO conference. So MRO is akin to facilities, and facilities is unlike, purchasing, marketing, or IT, or corporate professional services.

Those are all governed centrally, right? But facil facility decisions oftentimes are made at the facility, and so there's. It's interesting now because we see people coming in that are very well versed in supply chain, but when we say, okay, now you're in facilities, right? They've got no idea what a hazardous waste stream is really.

And that's this, I'm saying that because this is the ecosystem that we are all a part of because we deal in facilities and MRO and so on one hand you have they, the ramp. The ramp time is I'm ready, let's do it. On the other hand, you've gotta say, slow the rule a little bit because there's language in the contract that you have that could be highly problematic for someone who's adopting this.

We've gotta indemnify all these things because of the scope. So in my experience, I'm seeing a bit of a flip, like the coins flipped, right? When I came into it. It was more the experience side on facilities and real estate and then you ramp up on supply chain and now I see it just the opposite.

Yeah.

Hugo Sanchez, Sr. Procurement Manager – Cushman & Wakefield: Thank you. Good questions?

Michael Beauregard, Principal Managing Partner - Veda FM Consulting (Moderator): Yeah, good question. I appreciate everyone's time and I appreciate everyone staying long. And thank you to Kelly and yes to Michael and the folks for producing.

Hugo Sanchez, Sr. Procurement Manager – Cushman & Wakefield: Thank you.

Audience: Thank you so much. Thank you. Final panel.