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Forty-seven and a half hours before a flight, Luke admits he has not packed, has no local currency, and only has a rough budget for a four to six month backpacking trip across Central and South America. So we do what we do best: drag travel planning into the world of procurement and see if cost control can survive contact with real life. If you care about smart spending, practical budgeting, and making better choices under pressure, this one hits close to home.

We translate procurement techniques into travel decisions you can actually use. We talk about standardising what you buy so you avoid gold plating, challenging demand so “just one more” does not wreck your travel budget, and using simple spend rules for the categories that quietly drain cash. We also get into benchmarking the cost of living across countries, including a brilliant backpacker shortcut using the price of beer and accommodation, then we take a detour into the Big Mac Index as a surprisingly useful reference point.

From there we explore the “supplier” side of travel: when consolidating through a tour company might save effort, when it might cost more, and how to think about payments like a procurement pro. We cover international bank cards, prepaid travel cards, currency conversion, and the small value-adds that stack up over months, like points and cashback. We finish with the realities of solo travel, including how sharing taxis and splitting accommodation can reduce unit costs without cutting the fun.

If you enjoy procurement, personal finance, or travel hacks with a bit of semi-funny banter, subscribe, share the episode with a mate who needs to budget better, and leave us a review. What’s your no-nonsense rule for keeping spending under control while travelling?

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A listener asks a simple question that every procurement professional should take personally: what can we do right now to stay future-proof over the next five years? Our first instinct is to joke about AI hype and quitting to “find yourself”, but the real answer sits underneath the banter: the best way to future-proof your procurement career is to build durable skills that survive new tools, new job titles, and the next wave of “must-have” tech.

Then we do something oddly practical for a show full of chaos, we open up CIPS past papers from the mid-1990s and read what counted as expert purchasing knowledge. International purchasing case studies, transfer pricing, global contract terms, countertrade, customs duties, and a surprisingly sharp question on procurement ethics across different countries. It’s a reminder that supply chain management is not just strategy slides and stakeholder engagement, it’s also trade mechanics, contracting, logistics, and knowing how to protect delivery, quality, and long-term performance.

We also compare those older exam themes with modern CIPS Level 5 and Level 6 modules, and you can hear the shift towards category management, negotiation, teams, and stakeholder management. The takeaway is not nostalgia, it’s balance: keep your commercial fundamentals strong, stay curious about technology like AI, and don’t let the “new” procurement role erase the hard edges that still matter when contracts go wrong.

If you enjoyed this, subscribe, share it with a procurement mate, and leave us a review. What skill do you think will matter most in procurement by 2030?

Support the show

Please get in touch as we love to hear from you listeners! You can use the "text" function above or drop us on email: 2lukes1cip@gmail.com or visit our website www.letstalkprocurement.co.uk

It would also mean the world if you can drop us a cheeky 5* rating on your platform of choice,

Cya Later

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We turn a silly pun challenge into a serious guide to passing the Advanced Practitioner project and building change that lasts. It ends with a live CIPS results reveal at the airport and a cheer as the plane boards. Will Luke 10 get his final pass of the journey? Will we ever hear from him again??

• how to frame an assignment title that wins approval
• primary research using stakeholder interviews
• programme vs project and why it matters
• structuring a 10,000-word business case
• behavioural science for stakeholder buy-in
• efficiency tactics that save time and build trust
• cost–benefit analysis and implementation planning
• project surgeries, timelines, and self-discipline
• live results reveal and next steps for travel

Support the show

Please get in touch as we love to hear from you listeners! You can use the "text" function above or drop us on email: 2lukes1cip@gmail.com or visit our website www.letstalkprocurement.co.uk

It would also mean the world if you can drop us a cheeky 5* rating on your platform of choice,

Cya Later