35 of the most forward thinking, global CPOs gathered in Ascot, England for our annual CPO retreat, Ovation. We've compiled the key soundbites overheard across the two days of invaluable conversations and presentations.

1. In association with…Presented by…
You are being disrupted. Learn to profit from disruption.

2. In association with
“The best digital disrupters are impatient. Frankly, sometimes obsessive. They
must move fast, or risk failure
Momentum is critical, so they launch products early and often. Then let
customers tell them how to make it better
Some call it the Beta mindset. Jeff Bezos calls it ready, fire, aim.”
James Bilefield
Digital Entrepreneur, former Digital President, CONDÉ NAST,
Part of the founding management team, SKYPE

3. In association with
“Clear communication is of utmost importance when
working with start-ups/SMEs.”
Dr. Catharina Paukner
Co-founder and Chief Scientist
CAMBRIDGE NANOSYSTEMS LTD

4. In association with
“The job of procurement is to inject
innovation into the company.”
Christian Lanng
CEO & Founder
TRADESHIFT

5. In association with
“AI is wildly more efficient than humans, the problem is it is
inscrutable, it can’t explain how it arrived at the answer.”
Kevin Slavin
Chief Science & Technology Officer, THE SHED,
Entrepreneur & Assistant Professor, MIT MEDIA LAB

6. In association with
“Cost of change will be far more
important than the cost of transactions in
the future.”
Christian Lanng
CEO & Founder
TRADESHIFT

7. In association with
“Digital transformation will be a strong enabler for economic growth and
productivity, reducing the operational procurement work, amplifying the
strategic procurement work, allowing resource investments to focus on higher
value added activities.”
James Bilefield
Digital Entrepreneur, former Digital President, CONDÉ NAST,
part of the founding management team, SKYPE

8. In association with
“To build a strong corporate culture, hire good people,
let them do their jobs, and expect and tolerate
mistakes.”
Wynne Lewis
R&D Director
3M

9. In association with
“Am I worried about AI? I’m much more concerned that AI will
crash than I am at it works.”
Kevin Slavin
Chief Science & Technology Officer, THE SHED,
Entrepreneur & Assistant Professor, MIT MEDIA LAB

10. In association with
“New materials have always disrupted our evolution.”
Dr. Catharina Paukner,
Co-founder and Chief Scientist
CAMBRIDGE NANOSYSTEMS LTD

11. In association with
“Robots’ impact on productivity is already significant
compared to other major technologies.”
Jeremy L. Wyatt
Professor of Robotics & Artificial Intelligence
UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM

12. In association with
“Research is the transformation of money into
knowledge and innovation is the transformation of
knowledge back into money.”
Wynne Lewis
R&D Director
3M

13. In association with
“Really successful companies do a couple of things really well and do
not get distracted by the noise. Then, they move forward with the next
couple of things that they’ll do really well.”
James Bilefield
Digital Entrepreneur, former Digital President, CONDE’ NAST,
part of the founding management team, SKYPE

14. In association with
“To learn from failure is not the glorification of failure, but
the glorification of learning.”
Dr. Christian Busch
Associate Director, Innovation & Co-Creation Lab
LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS

15. In association with
Navigating a digital world: “Think radical, think big, think
fast, think global, think different.”
James Bilefield
Digital Entrepreneur, former Digital President, CONDE’ NAST,
part of the founding management team, SKYPE

16. In association with
“In terms of blockchain, don’t hold your breathe in
procurement and supply chain. Transaction volume is
much too slow right now.”
Christian Lanng
CEO & Founder
TRADESHIFT

17. In association with
“So far there is no relationship between a country’s use
of robots and the number of manufacturing jobs lost.”
Jeremy L. Wyatt
Professor of Robotics & Artificial Intelligence
UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM

18. In association with
Recommended reading from the Ovation attendees:
Man’s Search for Meaning
by Viktor Frankl
Build, Borrow or Buy: Solving the Growth Dilemma
by Laurence Capron and Will Mitchell

19. Who is challenging you to profit from disruption?
Find out more: www.procurementleaders.com/ovation