The Weekly Pull #001

Procurement Hot Take of The Week: Measuring Vendors Like Athletes, Surviving Tariffs, and More

Author

Ana Zvijinschi
July 07, 2025

Hi nerds —

Procurement isn’t just RFPs and tail spend anymore. It’s dodging vendor landmines, catching finance off guard (again), and untangling contracts written in 2007. Here's your weekly dose of procurement sharpness.

What I’ve Been Nerding Out On

Both the Retail Supplier Scorecard and the Manufacturing Supplier Scorecard are live.
Clean criteria, clear thresholds, red flags flagged — built to be used in QBRs, not buried in SharePoint. I also broke it down like a procurement fitness tracker.

Want a copy? Just reply or grab them here.

Next up:

  1. Pharma Supplier Scorecard. It’s a whole other beast.

  2. Risk in the East: Asia Procurement Playbook. It’s practical guide to navigating supplier exposure in China, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

Signals This Week: What Just Happened?

1. Germany Fast-Tracks Defense Procurement

Berlin is ditching red tape to speed up military buying — startups included. Source

Why It Matters: This is a preview of how agile procurement will bleed into other sectors. This is your time to check your sourcing cycles.

Working on a big one: I’m currently unpacking how rising defense budgets are reshaping procurement far beyond military contracts — from supplier bottlenecks to cross-industry inflation.
Let me know what you'd want me to tackle first — compliance chaos, supply chain crowding, or where the money really goes. I’ll build it into the piece.

2. FBI Buyer Pleads Guilty to Bid Rigging

Even federal procurement isn’t safe from fraud. Source

Why It Matters: Internal process gaps are the real risk. Check your award logic and approvals.

3. Vietnam Tariffs Slam McCormick

$90M hit from new U.S. tariffs on spices and imports. Cinnamon, Vanilla, Black Pepper price to rise since they cannot be commercially grown in the US. Source

Why It Matters: Even “safe” geographies aren’t safe. Recheck your category risk assumptions.

4. Denmark Says No to Gutting ESG Laws

Pushback on weakening EU green due diligence rules. Denmark is set to take over the rotating presidency of the EU Council in July, hence greater political influence. Source

Why It Matters: ESG compliance isn’t going away — it’s just getting sneakier. Keep building supplier screening into sourcing.

The Bottom Line. What This Means for You

Procurement is not being asked anymore to just cut costs. It’s asked to dig deeper. We are increasingly looking to:

  • Model geopolitical risk into the sourcing strategy

  • Tighten internal award logic and compliance workflows (proactively)

  • Stay ahead of shifting regulatory enforcement zones.

Being reactive is no longer an option.

To wrap it up - Procurement Gut Check

Be honest: What’s your “fast-track” trick to get a deal moving when Legal’s swamped?

→ Sign the supplier’s paper and hope for the best
→ Just attach the old MSA and pretend it’s new
→ "We’ll fix the contract later” after the order form
→ Push it through as a renewal. No one checks.

💬 Vote here

I'll share the results and most outrageous reply next week.

Stay nerdy,
— Zvi

P.S. Send this to the one stakeholder who thinks Procurement “just submits the PO.”