Shows / The Leading Edge
The Leading Edge
The Leading Edge is a new thought leadership series, offering in-depth insights into the key challenges, innovations, and evolving dynamics of the contract and commerce landscape.
We’re bringing these insights to our community in a new way – through a curated series of articles and accompanying podcasts featuring expert voices and industry leaders.
Episodes
- The Leading Edge
The budget is downstream of the contract
In this episode we explore why continuous planning can only be as effective as the contracts beneath it — and how making the commercial portfolio visible…
- The Leading Edge
The margin you borrow
In this episode we explore the hidden cost of cost cutting — and how CFOs can distinguish genuine margin improvement from savings that simply defer risk into…
- The Leading Edge
The margin problem facing CFOs – and the commercial solution
In this episode we explore why revenue growth is failing to translate into margin growth, and how a more integrated commercial operating model could help…
- The Leading Edge
The neglected asset that erodes financial performance
In this episode, we explore how organizations can turn fragmented commercial data into actionable intelligence – giving CFOs greater visibility of emerging…
- The Leading Edge
Transforming Contracts at Scale: Seth Claus & Mike Stetz on CLM for Federal Primes
Recorded live at NCMA’s World Congress, Nikki Mackay is joined by PwC Partners and CLM Leaders Seth Claus and Mike Stetz to explore what it really takes to…
- The Leading Edge
Legal y Procurement: ¿Socios o todavía están en mundos separados?
Analizar cómo está evolucionando la relación entre Legal y Procurement, dónde persisten los principales puntos de fricción y qué oportunidades existen para que…
- The Leading Edge
Powering the Business of Government: Nancy Patel on Connecting Cost, Contracts, and AI
Recorded live at NCMA’s World Congress, Nikki Mackay is joined by Nancy Patel, Vice President of Go-To-Market at Unison, to explore how technology is reshaping…
- The Leading Edge
Beyond Efficiency: Ivalua’s Paul Zammit on What Agentic AI Really Changes in Acquisition
Recorded live at NCMA's World Congress, this episode brings a perspective The Leading Edge doesn't feature often: the view from inside a software vendor…
- The Leading Edge
Speed vs. Control: What Top Contractors Are Getting Right and How They’re Evolving in 2026
Recorded live at NCMA World Congress in Florida, this special episode of The Leading Edge explores one of the defining tensions in government contracting: how…
- The Leading Edge
Elevating SRM from framework to competence
Supplier Relationship Management has never been more important—but why do so many organisations still struggle to make it work? In this episode of The Leading…
- The Leading Edge
Revealing the 2026 US Public Procurement Benchmark: Product vs. Practice, and Will AI Elevate or Eliminate Us?
Recorded live at World Congress, this special episode of The Leading Edge offers an exclusive first look at the findings from the 2026 US Public Procurement…
- The Leading Edge
The performance of performance-based contracting in public outsourcing: a meta-regression analysis
In this episode of The Leading Edge, Nikki Mackay is joined by Pedro Espaillat to explore the realities of performance-based contracting in public outsourcing…
- The Leading Edge
América Latina y China: oportunidades y nuevas exigencias para contratos, procurement y gestión comercial
Analizar cómo la creciente relación entre América Latina y China está transformando los negocios en la región, y qué implicaciones tiene para los profesionales…
- The Leading Edge
The Cost of Mismanaged Agreements; Why Contracting Must Reinvent Itself
Recorded live at Docusign's flagship event, Momentum, this episode of The Leading Edge tackles one of the most persistent and under-acknowledged problems in…
- The Leading Edge
From Contract Management to societal Value Creation: A public Procurement Portfolio Model
In this episode of The Leading Edge, Nikki Mackay is joined by Andrea Patrucco, Robert Handfield, and Daniel J. Finkenstadt to discuss a new approach to public…
- The Leading Edge
Desbloqueando el potencial de la Contratación Basada en Resultados
A medida que los gobiernos y las industrias buscan formas de generar más valor con recursos limitados, la Contratación Basada en Resultados (OBC) ofrece una…
- The Leading Edge
The Role of Lawyers in a Changing World
In this episode, we explore how the role of lawyers is evolving in response to shifting market dynamics, technological disruption, and new contracting models…
- The Leading Edge
Decades of Lost Potential in Defense Research and Development
In this episode, we unpack a deep and systemic challenge at the heart of U.S. defense innovation: how a flagship program intended to catalyse breakthrough…
- The Leading Edge
China's CCM capability gap: a strategic inflection point for global commerce
In this episode, we explore whether China’s transition from manufacturing to services is truly constrained by a lack of Contract and Commercial Management…
- The Leading Edge
¿La IA es la oportunidad que Procurement (Compras / Abastecimiento) estaba esperando para reinventarse?
Enfoque: En este episodio exploramos cómo la IA está transformando el panorama de Procurement, no al mejorar el modelo tradicional, sino al cuestionar su…
- The Leading Edge
To become ‘commercial’, public procurement must confront its contradictions
In this episode, we explore the uncomfortable truth behind the push for “more commercial” public procurement. Governments want faster delivery, better value…
- The Leading Edge
The Risk No Board Is Talking About: CEO Burnout
In this episode, we examine CEO burnout not only as a personal wellbeing issue, but as an overlooked leadership and governance risk. We explore how the very…
- The Leading Edge
Infrastructure's hidden constraint: is commercial capability your strategic bottleneck?
In this episode, we explore why commercial and contract management capability has become the hidden constraint in modern infrastructure delivery. As…
- The Leading Edge
Benchmark report 2025 – The race is on: navigating uncertainty through CCM resilience
In this episode, we explore how organizations are responding to a world where uncertainty is no longer an exception but the operating environment. The 2025 CCM…
- The Leading Edge
Don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater: findings from the global contracting benchmark
In this episode, we explore how to move from rule-following to results – building systems, skills, and mindsets that make federal contracting adaptive…
- The Leading Edge
Connected Contracts: Understanding the Power of Clause Linkages
Contracts don’t operate clause by clause — they function as integrated systems. The WorldCC Contract Clause Linkages Guide reveals how decisions made in one…
- The Leading Edge
Building a better Artificial Intelligence (AI) future – Agile regulations for risk mitigation
As AI technologies advance at unprecedented speed, the need for smart, agile regulations has never been more urgent. Striking the right balance between…
- The Leading Edge
Unlocking the Potential of Outcome-Based Contracting
As governments and industries search for ways to deliver more value with limited resources, Outcome-Based Contracting offers a bold alternative – shifting…
- The Leading Edge
Trust, Tension, and the Tactical Contract: Rethinking Deal-Making in a World of Uncertainty
In a world of constant disruption, contracts are under pressure to be both anchors and sails – able to provide stability and enable agility. In this podcast we…
- The Leading Edge
Does AI Create the Opportunity for Procurement Reinvention?
In this episode, we explore how AI is reshaping the procurement landscape – not by enhancing the old model, but by challenging its very existence. As…
- The Leading Edge
Buying and Selling AI: A Pricing Nightmare?
In this episode we highlight how AI is transforming SaaS pricing, replacing predictable models with complex, usage-based and bundled AI tiers that create cost…
- The Leading Edge
Germany’s Defense Procurement Crisis: It’s Time for Strategic Overhaul
In this episode, we explore the structural challenges paralyzing Germany’s defense procurement system. From fragmented ownership to cultural risk-aversion and…
- The Leading Edge
Analysis: Impacts of tariffs on corporate commercial policies and contracting strategies
In this episode, we explore how businesses are navigating a volatile global market landscape shaped by tariffs, geopolitical shifts, and supply chain…
- The Leading Edge
Data over doubt: stories of how data driven decisions overcome fear and uncertainty in contracting.
In this episode Tim Cummins shares powerful WorldCC member stories of how leveraging data can transform fear and uncertainty in contracting. Learn how to move…
- The Leading Edge
Designing Anti-fragile Supply Models in a Geopolitically Uncertain World
Why traditional supply models are failing and what it will take to build truly adaptive, collaborative systems. Read more here.