Your supplier worked perfectly for 10 years. Then overnight, tariffs made them unviable. Now you're scrambling to find alternatives while maintaining quality, delivery, and relationships.
Welcome to 2025's biggest supply chain challenge.
What worked last month is obsolete today. India looked perfect until it wasn't. Mexico had advantages until the rules shifted. And traditional "set it and forget it" supplier strategies are dead.
In this episode of Procurement Pulse, host and SCOPE Recruiting Co-Founder Friddy Hoegener sits down with Flavio Albarino, VP of Procurement at TK Elevator, who's spent over two decades navigating offshore transitions, nearshoring strategies, and supply chain redesigns across multiple continents.
What we discuss:
00:00 Welcome to Procurement Pulse
01:58 Why HTS codes matter more than you think
04:48 The 80/20 strategy: Having vendor options ready before you need them
08:13 When your 10-year supplier relationship hits a tariff wall11:50 Why e-auctions killed your supplier relationships (and when they actually work)
15:24 The "control room" test: How mature is your procurement org?
19:34 AI is making market intelligence 10x faster
21:35 How to become tactical buyer to strategic leader
27:29 What TK Elevator looks for in procurement talent
Connect with us:
SCOPE Recruiting | https://www.scoperecruiting.com/ Connect with Friddy | https://www.linkedin.com/in/fhoegener/
Connect with Evan | https://www.linkedin.com/in/evan-cave
Connect with Flavio Albarino | https://www.linkedin.com/in/flavioalberino/
About Procurement Pulse: Real conversations with supply chain and procurement professionals who've been on both sides—building teams, solving problems, and staying ahead of what's coming next.
About SCOPE Recruiting: SCOPE Recruiting is a boutique supply chain recruiting firm where every recruiter is a former supply chain professional. Co-founders Friddy and Melissa, both ex-ABB global category managers, built the company after seeing how many “generalist” recruiters didn’t truly understand supply chain, procurement, or logistics roles.
By hiring professionals first and teaching them recruiting second, SCOPE delivers better matches, higher retention rates, and faster hiring results across manufacturing, procurement, logistics, and supply chain leadership.
If you're building a supply chain team and the usual recruiting approach isn't working, check out scoperecruiting.com.