492: 85% of Procurement Teams Will Still Be Clearing Up Bad Supplier Data in 2027?! Graphite Has The Answer
Conrad Smith is the co-founder and CEO of Graphite, a company he established in 2018 after a 30-plus-year career in enterprise procurement. His extensive background includes starting his procurement journey at Intel and later serving as the head of procurement at Adobe. Smith's motivation to create Graphite stemmed from firsthand experience with the inefficiencies of supplier onboarding, where he saw process improvements consistently derailed by new compliance and risk requirements. He advocates for a fundamental shift from one-to-one data sharing to a collaborative network model, arguing that clean, trusted data is the essential foundation for procurement efficiency and the successful adoption of AI.
Today I’m joined by a company that wants to free you from the chaos of bad supplier data: Graphite.
Graphite make it simple and secure for buyers and sellers to connect and do business, saving them from endless onboarding and inaccurate data, and helping them to move faster, collaborate smarter, and make better decisions.
Today Conrad Smith, co-founder and CEO at Graphite, joins me to talk all about Graphite and what they do; building a network to create efficiency on a global scale; speeding up communication amidst tariff turmoil; and bringing you data you can trust.
Guest Bio:
Conrad Smith is the co-founder and CEO of Graphite, a network-based solution for onboarding and supplier management. He has over 30 years of experience in enterprise procurement and has led several global transformations in Procurement, IT, and HR. Conrad began his procurement career at Intel, where he played a key role in the development of Intel’s early purchasing automation and web tools, including first-generation CLM, savings reporting, spend analytics, and automated PR forms and workflow. He joined Omniture shortly before the company was acquired by Adobe; after the acquisition, Conrad became Senior Director of Global Procurement at Adobe, where he led Adobe’s Global Procurement transformation to dramatically reduce PR-PO-Contract resources and delays. Conrad earned his BS Degree in Biochemistry from Brigham Young University and later his MBA from the Marriott School of Management at BYU.
Conrad’s background and career journey.
How and why Conrad established Graphite.
An overview of Graphite – who they are, what they do, and how they help their customers.
The ideal client for Graphite.
The biggest challenges impacting Graphite customers, whether procurement can keep up with the pace of modern business, and why supplier risk and data is the ‘biggest hairball’ in procurement.
Why paperwork, legal, and compliance can make it almost impossible to establish new relationships and do business, and how Graphite can help ease that pressure.
Graphite’s Rapid Response feature, how it helps to speed up communication, and why that’s so crucial.
A case study exploring how Graphite helped a grocery store chain cut down time spent on their supplier management process by 75%, reduce labor, and improve data quality.
The big AI misconception, and the best way to prepare for the future of AI now. “AI eats data, it lives on it. Data is what makes it work. And I think there’s a false belief that AI is going to fix it, like: ‘I have an AI magic wand and all of a sudden I’ll have clean supplier data.’ But it’s not going to work that way.”
Resources & Links Mentioned
- Head over to Graphite’s website now to find out more and discover how they could help you too. You can also connect with Graphite and keep up to date with the latest over on LinkedIn, or you can connect with Conrad on LinkedIn.
- If you enjoyed this episode and want to hear more about procurement, check out 468: Make Intelligent Purchases Driven by Data, with ProcurementIQ, 462: Procurement Unlocked: Sourcing Best Practices in a Tariff-Driven World, with ProcureAbility or 243: Reinventing Freight Procurement with Emerge.
- Check out our other podcasts HERE.
