Welcome And Warm-Up Banter

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Hello and welcome to the Let's Talk Procurement, the only show you need to master the art of procurement. Let's go. Thank you for strapping in for another episode of the Let's Talk Procurement Podcast. The only place that you need to come for semi-relevant procurement information and semi-funny banter. With me for a limited time only is the benevolent Luke Ten. How are you, my friend?

SPEAKER_01 0:42

Yeah, acceptable. I'm uh counting down the days to the big the big event. The uh as we as you probably know yourself, um the Futsal Euros final is happening uh in a couple of days. Okay. And um, you know, I've always said that I'm either uh the Spain ultra, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:06

And who's in the final?

SPEAKER_01 1:08

One of the well, it's the semi-finals today. My team's in the semi-final. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

I'm with you. I see where that's going.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

Um you might be asking uh why aren't I an English fan? Why aren't I a fan of the English team? Um we didn't actually qualify uh for the futsal Euros because we're ranked about 150th or something in the world.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

Uh do you do they have referees in futsal games? And do they have any different kind of skill sets to a normal ref?

SPEAKER_01 1:44

Um yeah, it it's I'd say it's harder to referee futsal than to referee 11 aside. Yeah. More more things to think about in a shorter space of time.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

Do they have VAR?

SPEAKER_01 2:00

They do, they do.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

So they're they're technically more advanced than the championship.

SPEAKER_01 2:07

Well the Euros are the Euros are more advanced than the championship, I guess. Yeah. I guess you are right.

SPEAKER_00 2:15

Well, look. Seeing as we are on the countdown to the footsal final and you are buggering off travelling soon, I thought we would do a quick episode around your preparation for your travels and how you've used your procurement techniques and your nearly fully qualified SIP status.

SPEAKER_01 2:35

That jinx it.

SPEAKER_00 2:36

Sorry. Uh, to basically prepare for this trip? Or not?

SPEAKER_01 2:43

Um well that could be quite a short segment because I haven't really.

SPEAKER_00 2:48

Good. Well, listen, have we had any uh any messages or anything noteworthy for the listeners today? From the listeners?

SPEAKER_01 2:55

News-wise, uh I want to say congratulations to you.

SPEAKER_00 3:02

Okay, I'm sweating now.

SPEAKER_01 3:03

What have I done? You've um you've you've grown some uh some hair. Some of your hair, some of your hair has grown back. I mean, probably not in the right place, but you've grown some hair back. I'll see where this is going, yeah. And yeah, I on behalf of listeners, I just want to say that we thought we thought it was all over for you. Um but yeah, I'm proud to say there is a resurgence happening. Um to be honest, every time I take the piss out of your hair, I feel slightly I don't know what the word is, uh, nervous because I know my time will come probably a lot sooner than I expect. Maybe once I come back from my little trip trip, you can have a six head instead of a five head.

SPEAKER_00 3:50

You've got that hairstyle that could be concealing a lot already, to be honest. How do I how do you I I don't know what the formal name is, but it's kind of like the whoa. Whoa.

SPEAKER_01 4:05

She Yeah, so the hairline's already bad. Hairline's gone. At my young at my young age.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

I think I think just to describe to my listeners, you've kind of got that that youngster haircut, it's it's kind of like the current trend. It's like short back and size, but then the top bit looks like broccoli or pot noodles, something like that just dumped on top. Um and the fringe is kind of like octopus legs.

unknown 4:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:32

Is that a fair way of describing it?

SPEAKER_01 4:33

Hopefully there's more eight more than eight strands of hair.

SPEAKER_00 4:36

There is, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

But yeah, yeah, no, it is. I mean, I'm just I I wouldn't say I'm I'm that much of like a fashion king. I don't really set that many, that many fashion trends, but I've got to be up there, right? So you know, this is this is what the current uh the current trends are.

Turning Travel Plans Into Budgeting

SPEAKER_00 4:53

It's pretty rough to be honest. Right, anyway, let's dive in. So, one of the big things we do in procurement is uh work the budgets and cost control, right? So, do you want to just fill the listeners into where you're going and kind of what your plans are for the next six months?

SPEAKER_01 5:12

Yeah, so so I plan to be away for four, six months, hopefully. Um a lot of that is dependent on funds. Uh to be honest with you, I haven't particularly done that much detailed planning as you would have expected. Um I've thought about my rough plan. Um, and that's if that's okay, that's what I can give you today. Um obviously with with caveats that this will change. It's not a contract, mate, don't worry, you don't need to carve out caveats and uh can never be certain with you after the uh the great incident of can we smoke smoke it.

SPEAKER_00 6:01

I think you've got it the wrong way around. Oh no, you haven't, no, it's the right way around, it's just not yeah, you need to put the tip closer to your mouth.

SPEAKER_01 6:07

Well, if it's like down here, that's a bit of distance still.

SPEAKER_00 6:10

Yeah, the sound bites come through quite small.

SPEAKER_01 6:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:14

Put the tip closer to that. The tip should be two or three centimetres away from your lip, almost tickling your moustache. Yeah, that's that's better.

SPEAKER_01 6:24

I'm scared that I'm breathing really loudly into it. Okay, cool. So so how do we make this relevant to procurement? Question one, have you got a budget?

SPEAKER_00 6:37

Uh very rough budget. You're you're worse than our like project managers. So you've got a rough budget, yeah. Is that broken down in sort of segments? Have you have you apportioned it to like flights and no? Okay. Um It's gonna be the worst episode of all time. No, it's fine. I mean, what what what kind of things do you think you can do then to to kind of limit your expenditure while you're out there?

SPEAKER_01 7:03

Um I don't really know. I guess just uh just you know every time someone asks me for a for a um uh money, I should do a backflip. You're gonna backflip for funds.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

Hope that they say, ah, that was pretty good. If I if I read out some procurement techniques, maybe you can relate them to not backflipping, but how you might use them on your travels across South America. Try that way, please. Give you some inspiration. Um standardise and simplify specifications to avoid gold plating and buying uh and avoid buying uh bespoke variants.

SPEAKER_01 7:51

So instead of buying a five-star hotel with all the amenities that I may not need, just go for a just go for like a a hammock now to uh now to two trees. Yeah, so in the rainforest.

SPEAKER_00 8:11

Sounds sensible. Um challenge and reduce your demand to cut. Unnecessary buying. What would you class as unnecessary? Uh well, challenge and reduce demand. How many beers do you demand on a night out?

SPEAKER_01 8:30

I demand I demand a lot of beers. Oh, I quite like standing up actually. I might stay stood up.

SPEAKER_00 8:35

So let's let's be real, right? We've got we've got a friend, a mutual friend, called uh two-pint Pete. And it's uh it's a well-known fact, but two-pint Pete drinks two pints and then he's done for the night because he's flying around. Um what would you say you're kind of What's my level? Um And we're we're not here to shame, right? Two pints is is a lot of liquid.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

And we'll we'll I think the thing about two-pint Pete, or average Pete as I like to call him, he he's funny after two pints. Yeah. I think after two pints, I'm still not funny. Yeah. I probably need about eight to be to be as funny as two pint P is. So then that's gotta be your your cost control method measures, right? Only eight pints a day. Only eight pints a day. Or to be fair, Central and South America the spirit of their choice quite often is tequila. That could be a more cost effective method. And do you like tequila? Um partially.

SPEAKER_00 9:43

Yeah. I tried it out in Mexico, like, where it's supposed to be like, you know, like the the pure proper stuff. Straight from the source. Better than you get here. Still horrendous to be honest for me. I just didn't really didn't really like it.

SPEAKER_01 9:55

It does, it does taste quite like um ethanol-y, I think.

SPEAKER_00 10:00

Yeah, I'm not a not an ethanol fan personally.

SPEAKER_01 10:03

Maybe that was just the one I got. Wonder why I was sick after. No, um, I think I think it it depends, right? You can uh you can have a couple of beers. I've I've gone through the the research that I have done um is I've gone and I've looked at the foods and the drinks for the countries I'm visiting. What are like what the like you know if you were coming to England, you couldn't you couldn't not have a carling in England, could you? Because that's basically our forget tea, forget um baked beans. Gonna want that was a drink. You've got to have a carling, right? So the equivalent of that in every country.

SPEAKER_00 10:44

So can of piss in every country.

SPEAKER_01 10:46

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:47

The classic.

Benchmarking Costs With Beer And Big Macs

SPEAKER_01 10:48

A standard, really bad local beer. Um, but I'm excited to try it. I'm excited to um to rate the differences. And I actually got a good tip from someone who who's done a couple of these backpacking trips. Um, a way to kind of like work out the costs and how you compare that in one country. Like, for example, um, if we talk in Central America, Guatemala, for example, I think is uh mid to low cost, whereas Belize, right next door, is quite a high because it's quite touristy, quite a high cost. So the way to work out that in each country is to compare the price of beer and accommodation. And you've got two kind of it's basically like RPI and CPI. Benchmarking, yeah. Benchmark, uh, the percentage differences.

SPEAKER_00 11:35

Do you know the Big Mac index?

SPEAKER_01 11:37

No, but that sounds like a very similar thing.

SPEAKER_00 11:39

Yeah, it's a published list online. You can literally research it and it's the price of a Big Mac in every country in the world that they operate, yeah. And uh you can you can genuinely see the most expensive place to buy a Big Mac in in the world versus the cheapest.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

Do you do you know what it is off the top of your head?

SPEAKER_00 11:54

No, I don't. I feel like if I had a guess, it would probably be Switzerland or somewhere like that, probably the most expensive.

SPEAKER_01 11:59

Yeah, I'd go with that, or somewhere like yeah, Switzerland or Liechtenstein or somewhere like that, or Singapore. Cheapest? Cheapest. Uh USA, because they make it there. Well, there's probably there's probably a bit of tax there, isn't there?

SPEAKER_00 12:17

So I've just done a quick quick googs. Yeah. The most expensive Big Mac in 2025 is Switzerland.

SPEAKER_01 12:25

It's Bahn.

SPEAKER_00 12:27

Uh, where it costs set roughly$7.99 in US dollars. Okay. For a bit, just it's just a Big Mac, remember, no chips, no milkshake, just a pure play Big Mac.

SPEAKER_01 12:35

We can't be far off that then in the UK.

SPEAKER_00 12:37

Uh it then says Euro countries consistently drift into the kind of top top majority. Uh Norway and then second. Uh the cheapest Big Mac is Indonesia.

SPEAKER_01 12:51

Indonesia.

SPEAKER_00 12:52

Yeah. Um, and that is as low as$2.38.

SPEAKER_01 12:57

That's makes sense. Should have thought Southeast Asia, shouldn't I?

SPEAKER_00 13:00

It's quite a good way to benchmark it, though, isn't it? You just you just uh Big Mac is a Big Mac no matter which country you're in.

SPEAKER_01 13:05

Does it have uh does it have Central and South America on there? Uh India. What is this obsession of yours with this name in countries that aren't where I'm going?

SPEAKER_00 13:20

Uh so Mexico and Argentina have the highest prices in Latin America.

SPEAKER_01 13:25

Yeah, that makes sense though. I think there's a lot of beef in Argentina though, so I mean partially surprising.

SPEAKER_00 13:33

Oh, here we go.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

But maybe it's not beef content. I don't know the recipe.

SPEAKER_00 13:38

So the top five, oh, the top five highest at the moment, as in as of uh still at the end of 2025, so it's not that great. Switzerland, Norway, Argentina, Uruguay, and then Costa Rica.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

Really? That's interesting.

SPEAKER_00 13:56

Uh so if we go down. Tell you the cheapest South American place on the list is Guatemala.$4. So, anyway, a little bit of insight there. You can use the BMI, figure out uh how much you're paying for your food and what what the relative cost of living is out there.

SPEAKER_01 14:21

If you look at the uh BMI too much, your BMI might increase.

Supplier Thinking For Tours And Cards

SPEAKER_00 14:29

Thank you. Uh another one is strategic sourcing and your supplier portfolio. So, a common procurement technique, as you all know, is uh consolidating your suppliers to leverage perhaps volume discounts or um trying to get some some benefits. Is that do you think there's anything new there or is that a redundant point for your travels?

SPEAKER_01 14:50

Um I suppose I could potentially uh book a tour and then have everything paid for after the company. For a tour company, yeah. Yeah, if I pay through the tour company, I suppose that's kind of consolidation, but I think with those you probably offset the savings of consolidation because you're paying more for the convenience of having everything booked so they had a margin on, right?

SPEAKER_00 15:18

Yeah, a tour guide. And it'll be in probably being pounds, so you'll probably be getting shafted.

SPEAKER_01 15:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:26

Um what about things like air miles or staying loyal to one airline and to get kind of your air miles or a hotel chain that you you know they might be quite popular?

SPEAKER_01 15:37

Yeah, I don't know. I think I think you can get this is probably a slightly different point, but on certain debit cards, yeah, you can if you pay with those cards, you can rack up like cash back or points. Yeah. Which maybe you could then turn into like an airport lounge or money off a flight or something.

SPEAKER_00 15:58

Have you got a card that can work internationally?

SPEAKER_01 16:01

Uh yes. I'm gonna say yes.

SPEAKER_00 16:06

That screams that you the answer is actually no, but you're saying yes, okay, we'll.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

No, no, the answer the answer is yes. Um why I hesitated was because I've got two. I think I think one of the ones is uh is one that kind of converts the currency for you. Um so obviously it's uh it's up to the bank to put forward their own rate and yeah in pounds. You pay in local currency, they convert that back into pounds at whatever rate they they feel like, I suppose. Um and I think my other one is a pre-paid one where you load it with money from that country. Um so kind of.

SPEAKER_00 16:50

Yeah, okay, I'll give you that. Build performance-based contracts and incentives that rewards suppliers for contributing towards cost reduction and efficiency.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

Yeah, maybe I could say um to a to a taxi ta taxi driver uh and you know, get me to this place for 50 quetzels and then I'll use you again. And then we'll some sort of gain share, like, you know, any any amount under any amount under a certain uh uh percentage, I'll split all. But then there's no still no still no benefit, because if they just run up the price, then then I suppose they'd take 100% of it, wouldn't they?

Solo Travel Savings Through Shared Costs

SPEAKER_00 17:49

No, yeah, it's a bit of a tough one that. So the other one is it's around supplier collaboration and continuous improvement, and I'm gonna link it into because you're actually travelling on your own. So can we get a sympathy noise, Aaron? Um he's he's travelling lonely, he's travelling solo, but we have to presume that he's gonna use his uh personality and his pizzazz to uh to make friends. To make friends, girlfriends, acquaintances, whatever you want to call them, and uh maybe build up a good network while he's out there. So perhaps you could you could do some demand consolidation. What do you reckon?

SPEAKER_01 18:29

In terms of in terms of what?

SPEAKER_00 18:32

You know, like oh, because if if you've made some friends and you all want to go and see a monument in uh Kabirki Boo, then you know, you you all just chip in for the taxi and then that's saving you. You know, you can divide you can divide that cost by four or five.

SPEAKER_01 18:48

It's good you said that. I hadn't I hadn't thought about that. Just not paying for other people.

SPEAKER_00 18:53

Yeah, or or um you know, if you if you see a nice hotel when it's£100 a night, why don't you just share a bed with your friend?

SPEAKER_01 19:30

If if that's asking you asking for an invite then.

SPEAKER_00 19:34

You're always welcome. But what do you reckon? Yeah, demand consolidation.

SPEAKER_01 19:38

Bit of that? I think the other the other option is to uh to do a podcast recording out there and then just offset the whole trip on expenses.

SPEAKER_00 19:51

So while I quite like that, and I think I don't need to expense the whole trip.

SPEAKER_01 19:57

Yeah, I'm happy CEO of LTP Industries Incorporate Limited.

SPEAKER_00 20:02

I'm happy for you to submit the uh request, yeah. That's fine.

SPEAKER_01 20:06

Just submit, okay.

SPEAKER_00 20:08

If if you had to say out of a hundred, a hundred being your most confident, what what are the odds or the chances that you're gonna do a recce while you're out there?

SPEAKER_01 20:21

Uh if you'd have asked me two weeks ago, I'd have said 75. Right. Ask me now, I'm saying 60. Ask you while you're out there. Ask me when I'm out there. You won't hear about it. Yeah, exactly, you won't get an answer. Yeah. No, um, I mean in the ideal world. I'll probably not. In the ideal world we'll keep in touch, right? But uh you know. What if I what if I um meet someone out there who wants to start a podcast? About travel or something. Yeah, yeah. I was actually thinking about starting a travel podcast. Maybe what you'll hear at the end of this episode is uh is a promotion from me that I'm starting a new podcast.

SPEAKER_00 21:04

Well I will endorse that. I think what I would love is if you just send me voice notes and then I can I can chat them into episodes. I think that'd be quite funny. Just where you know where you've got to, how you how your budget's coming along and um how many people you've you've you've kind of split a hotel bill with just to save your costs. Is that something you can do? Um keeping in touch, I mean, not sharing your insights to that.

SPEAKER_01 21:31

Um I've got I've got to keep in touch because I need to see the uh development of my pod son, don't I?

SPEAKER_00 21:37

You do, yeah. Yeah. I mean look, I've got no doubt we'll keep in touch on a personal level. I'm just talking for the the listeners out there that sort of only tune in for you, right?

SPEAKER_01 21:46

Yeah, yeah, there's quite a few, quite a few of them.

SPEAKER_00 21:48

There's at least one of them.

SPEAKER_01 21:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:51

And uh shout her out or her?

SPEAKER_01 21:55

Yeah. How do you know it's a her? Well, she's told us.

SPEAKER_00 22:01

Oh, you're gonna out like you don't know who it is now. Okay. Alright, we'll keep it a mystery. Oh well. Shout out to if you're hearing this, it's you. Thank you for all your support, obviously.

SPEAKER_01 22:14

Yeah.

Last Minute Checklist And How To Reach Us

SPEAKER_00 22:15

That's your message. You you're thanking her, not me, because she tunes for you.

SPEAKER_01 22:18

What he said.

SPEAKER_00 22:23

Well look, I think that's it, really. I think we just wanted to. Loosely translate you some procurement procurement uh techniques with your your travels. I think I'm kind of slightly worried that you've done no planning and no anything. Some some planning, some minimal planning. So for context, when are you flying from the we're recording this now? When's your flight? How many days, hours, weeks, months?

SPEAKER_01 22:49

Less than 48 hours. 47 and a half hours roughly.

SPEAKER_00 22:54

Wow. Have you packed? No. Have you got any local currencies while for while you're out there? No. Have you um got everything you need?

SPEAKER_01 23:07

I think so.

SPEAKER_00 23:09

Yeah?

SPEAKER_01 23:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:11

I think so. How many bags are you taking?

SPEAKER_01 23:13

One.

SPEAKER_00 23:15

Backpack or luggage? Backpack. How big is it?

SPEAKER_01 23:19

Uh 40-something litres, if that means anything. It's like a proper backpacker. Oh, like a big, big one.

SPEAKER_00 23:26

So you're really gonna stick out like a tourist and oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:29

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 23:30

Scream mug me. Yeah. Have you sorted out your phone contracts while you're out there?

SPEAKER_01 23:36

I'm gonna buy a sim when I get there, because apparently that's the cheapest option.

SPEAKER_00 23:42

With a new mobile number?

SPEAKER_01 23:44

Hopefully not.

SPEAKER_00 23:46

And have you got your plan for the flight sorted out? Like are you gonna raw dog it? Are you gonna watch a film or your headphones?

SPEAKER_01 23:54

Yep, uh, I'm going to listen to back-to-back episodes of Let's Talk Procurement Podcast.

SPEAKER_00 24:02

What a man. So basically, you're gonna fly to another country listening to yourself.

SPEAKER_01 24:07

Yeah. Talk about cultural immersion. I don't need that. I just need to I need to listen to myself speak.

SPEAKER_00 24:16

And do you know the local languages in all the countries you're going to?

SPEAKER_01 24:19

Spanish.

SPEAKER_00 24:21

You're only going to a Spanish-speaking countries, not the French.

SPEAKER_01 24:24

Er well, I think most of the French ones are in the Caribbean. Um so I don't know if I'll have enough money to to get there.

SPEAKER_00 24:35

And what about the Portuguese-speaking ones?

SPEAKER_01 24:39

Uh that's Brazil. So maybe.

SPEAKER_00 24:43

Are you gonna go to Brazil?

SPEAKER_01 24:44

Potentially.

SPEAKER_00 24:45

Are you gonna go to Guatemala?

SPEAKER_01 24:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:49

Are you gonna go to Suriname?

SPEAKER_01 24:53

Unlikely.

SPEAKER_00 24:54

Do you believe in life after love?

SPEAKER_01 24:58

No.

SPEAKER_00 24:59

No, just some last minute quickfire questions before you go, mate, so uh all the best.

SPEAKER_01 25:04

Okay, thank you. Um if this is if this is uh the last rec we do ever, then you know, it's been uh it's been fun. It's been I'd say I'd say like lukewarm.

SPEAKER_00 25:20

I'd say it's been that's the perfect way to describe it.

SPEAKER_01 25:22

Lukewarm banter. Um so maybe maybe we should do three Luke's because what this journey has taught me is that the third Luke was the friend that we made. That's true, isn't it? It's uh the third and the fourth Luke. Now I'm breaking the fourth wall because I'm talking to the listeners directly, but the fourth Luke was you. You all listening, um it's like they say the twelfth man in football, you are our fourth Luke. So we appreciate you. And if you want to get in touch uh to Luke One, I probably won't be here anymore. Um but the email address is two luke's one sit at gmail.com. That's the number two, Luke's plural, the number one c ip at gmail.com.

SPEAKER_00 26:14

Is that the only way you can get in touch now, is it?

SPEAKER_01 26:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:18

Cool. Well, all the best on your travels, mate, and uh if anyone does ask questions for you, I'll pass them on while you're in the arse end of Colombia and if you feel like replying.

SPEAKER_01 26:28

If I feel like replying, um yeah, you know my my hourly rate, so.

SPEAKER_00 26:34

Yeah, but it's converted to local currency.

SPEAKER_01 26:38

Yeah, fine. Alright. Deal. Well, listeners, I'll see you on the next one. I may not. But hopefully I will. And um goodbye from me, Luke 10. Goodbye from him, Luke One. Adios, amigos, and goodbye from Lukewarm banter. See you, maybe.