888: Remove Friction, Build Trust: Prioritizing the Partnerships Behind the Data

Procurement teams are under steady pressure to do more with less, and AI has made boards impatient for faster, smarter answers. Most teams can't build every capability they need in-house, so the CPOs pulling ahead are redesigning their operating models around the right external partners. Getting that right depends on removing friction from the process and building trust with stakeholders and suppliers alike.

In this episode, I'm joined by Hiten Parmar, Chief Procurement Officer at Beazley, and Prerna Dhawan, Chief Product Officer at Beroe, for a candid look at how their partnership actually works. Hiten explains how he decides what to build and what to bring in, and why he looks for partners who iterate and learn rather than chase perfection. Prerna shares the moment she chose not to charge a customer more, and why that decision protected a relationship that has since grown from market intelligence into risk.

We also talk about the shift from too little data to too much, why provenance is now scarce, and the one question Prerna wishes procurement teams would ask their suppliers.

In this episode, Hiten and Prerna cover how to:
- Test every capability against your core business, then find who is best in the world to deliver it.
- Judge partners on cultural fit, trust, and willingness to iterate, not only on price.
- Pair a partner's decision-grade data with your own context on supplier criticality and exposure.
- Ask suppliers where you rank on their priority list, not just how risky they are to you.
- Push your team to speak in business terms and bring supplier ideas to stakeholders.

Links:
Hiten Parmar on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hiten-parmar-033b421?originalSubdomain=uk
Prerna Dhawan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prerna-dhawan31/?isSelfProfile=false Join AOP and Beroe at ProcureTEX in Amsterdam, November 3rd: https://hubs.li/Q04lR_Xg0