Audio PodcastIn this episode of the Smarter Sourcing podcast, recorded at the ICR Conference, John speaks with Lara Smith Weber, CFO at Inari, a company creating more sustainable seeds. They discuss how Inari is working on its mission to “seed change for a renewed Earth” by genetically changing plants to be more sustainable, how it supplies the market, and the challenges of being supply-constrained. They also talk about how to build a procurement strategy by defining what’s “good” for your company, what to look for in new hires, and how new technologies like AI and data lakes can set companies apart.
Topics discussed:
- How Inari seeks to balance financial, risk management, and sustainability in their procurement processes.
- Where Inari sits in the supply chain and how it gets its seed to farmers.
- The challenges of being supply-constrained with the time it takes to grow more product.
- Why the best procurement strategy is based on what “good” looks like for your company — not your competition’s.
- How new technologies like AI and data lakes can help improve procurement and operations, and set a company apart.
- Why you should look for new talent who can “connect the dots” and see cross-functional impacts.
Guest Quotes:
“For a procurement manager, for sourcing people, the very first thing to understand is, what is the strategy of the company? So what ‘good’ looks like for us is very different than what ‘good’ looks like for a large manufacturing company or for an Amazon, which just has an amazing amount of volume going through it, right? So we’re trying to find that balance between financial, risk management, and sustainability in our procurement and make sure we kind of hit all three of those.”
“Sustainability is at the core of our business. It puts an additional lens on the procurement function … making sure that our suppliers are doing the right thing.”
“The very first thing to understand is what is the strategy of the company. So what ‘good’ looks like for us is very different than what ‘good’ looks like for a large manufacturing company.”
“We’re starting in AI, we’re starting to build systems that do it. It’s something that we’re still working on. But that’s something that’s truly going to differentiate the company as we go forward.”
Get in touch with Lara Smith Weber:
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About the Guest
Lara Smith Weber
Chief Financial Officer, Inari
About the Host
John Pavia
Executive Producer, Smarter Sourcing
