Critical Perspective: Leadership stability drives innovation, but SAP Ariba’s corporate structure may limit agility compared to smaller firms like Tealbook or ORO Labs. Agree or Disagree?

Leadership Table for ProcureTech Solution Providers*

_{NOTE* I selected the Finance Industry sector for the Key Focus column in this post, but I will build a matrix for the previously identified  Top 5 Procurement and Supply Chain Concerns For These Five Industries (According To Who!?).}

Who Are You?

Who are the faces and inspirations behind the above companies, and what do you know about them? After all, success begins at the top.

• Do they have a procurement background as a practitioner
• Do they have a supply and logistics background
• Do they have procurement industry-specific high-tech experience and expertise on the frontlines
• What makes them uniquely different from one another, and how does that impact ProcureTech implementation success and sustained outcome for practitioners

Summary Findings

Stephany Lapierre (Tealbook) is strongest in Procurement Practitioner, leveraging sourcing experience to build Tealbook’s supplier data platform.

Practitioner-Inspired Innovation: The inspiration for TealBook came from a real client interaction, where she saw the inefficiencies and frustrations practitioners experienced trying to access and manage supplier information. This practitioner lens shaped the entire vision and design of TealBook.

Firsthand Procurement Expertise: Before founding TealBook, Lapierre spent over a decade running a successful strategic sourcing and procurement consulting firm, focusing on large-scale sourcing optimization projects for major enterprises. This direct experience gave her a nuanced understanding of procurement practitioners’ daily challenges, especially around supplier data quality and process efficiency.

David Khuat-Duy (Ivalua), Sudhir Bhojwani (ORO Labs), Lalitha Rajagopalan (ORO Labs), Aatish Dedhia (Zycus), Jeff McRitchie (SAP Ariba), and Subhash Makhija (GEP) excel in ProcureTech Solution Development and Implementation, driving AI and S2P innovations.

Lalitha Rajagopalan’s 20+ years at SAP Ariba and leadership in ORO Labs’ AI workflows align her with ProcureTech Solution Development, complementing Bhojwani’s role.

No leader has significant Logistics and Supply Chain expertise, reflecting the S2P focus of their companies.

IMPORTANT NOTE: While three of the four reporting 4-Models indicated that only Stephany Lapierre had actual procurement practitioner experience, using the RAM assessment framework, enabled me to identify the one model that reported the following:

Estimated Percentage of All ProcureTech Founders with Practical Procurement Practitioner Backgrounds:

Category	Estimate (%)	Explanation
ProcureTech Founders with Actual Procurement Practitioner Experience	5–10%	Very small minority. Most founders come from software engineering, management consulting, or enterprise sales backgrounds — not from real-world procurement buying, sourcing, or supplier management roles.

Conclusion

This is why there is often a gap between what procurement practitioners actually need (flexibility, ease of use, supplier visibility) and what many ProcureTech platforms actually build (complex frameworks, IT-heavy systems, overengineered sourcing modules).

Companies like TealBook stand out because they design from the practitioner’s desk outward, not from the developer’s desk downward. The challenge is identifying which ProcureTech solution providers’ leadership make up the 5 to 10% with actual procurement practitioner experience.

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