As AI takes over analysis, leadership becomes less about data and more about people. This article explores why emotional intelligence isn’t a soft skill in the AI era — it’s the counterweight that makes judgment, trust, and leadership possible.

by Maximilian Groh, Feb 20, 2026

Emotional Intelligence as AI’s Counterweight

71% of leaders report heightened stress from AI transformation. Here's what's really happening—and what to do about it.

by Maximilian Groh, Feb 17, 2026

Leadership Burnout in the AI Era

Procurement isn't judged by savings alone anymore — but most organisations still measure it that way. This article explores how procurement leaders create real business value through risk management, speed, innovation, and cross-functional influence, and how to make that shift visible at the executive level.

by Maximilian Groh, Feb 13, 2026

Rethinking Procurement Leadership

Most supplier risk systems don't fail because they're wrong — they fail because they measure the past. This article explores how to spot the signals that predict supplier failure, why lagging indicators dominate procurement risk, and what I learned from one missed shutdown that changed my approach to risk forever.

by Maximilian Groh, Feb 9, 2026

Seeing Risk Before It Breaks You

Legacy isn't what you build — it's what you change in other people. This article explores how leadership legacy forms through everyday decisions, developed people, and systems that outlast you — and how to shape it deliberately without turning it into a performance.

by Maximilian Groh, Feb 6, 2026

Leading Legacy: What You'll Be Remembered For

Crisis doesn't test how much you know — it tests how well you decide without knowing everything. This article presents a practical framework for leaders operating at 70% certainty, covering how to communicate decisively and turn uncertainty into momentum rather than paralysis.

by Maximilian Groh, Feb 4, 2026

Leading Through Chaos

The hardest career transition isn't changing roles — it's changing identity. This piece reflects on the shift from technical expert to people leader: what it costs, what it creates, and how to grow into responsibility without abandoning what made you effective in the first place.

by Maximilian Groh, Feb 2, 2026

The Mid-Career Pivot: From Expert to Leader Without Losing Yourself

Great managers don't just get work done — they develop people who can lead without them. This article lays out a practical framework for turning daily responsibilities into leadership capability, and how to know when your team is ready for more.

by Maximilian Groh, Jan 31, 2026

Building Leaders, Not Just Managing Tasks

Modern leadership rarely comes with formal authority — especially in procurement. This article lays out a practical playbook for influencing decisions, aligning stakeholders, and driving outcomes when your responsibility far exceeds your direct control.

by Maximilian Groh, Jan 29, 2026

Influence Without Authority: A Leadership Playbook

AI won't negotiate supplier contracts for you. But it fundamentally changes what's possible before, during, and after the negotiation. This article explores how procurement teams combine AI-driven analysis with human judgment to consistently win better outcomes.

by Maximilian Groh, Jan 27, 2026

AI and Human Negotiation: A Hybrid Strategy That Wins Deals

AI won't replace your team — but it will change how work is done, how value is measured, and what leadership requires. These are the seven decisions managers must make to lead people honestly through AI-driven transformation in 2026.

by Maximilian Groh, Jan 25, 2026

Seven AI Decisions Every Leader Must Make in 2026

AI won't replace procurement professionals. But procurement professionals who use AI will replace those who don't.

by Maximilian Groh, Jan 23, 2026

The Procurement Skills Roadmap for the AI Era (2026–2030)

It’s easy to overspend on AI procurement software that looks impressive but delivers little. This piece lays out a six-step evaluation framework, shaped by real experience reviewing dozens of tools

by Maximilian Groh, Jan 21, 2026

A Practical Framework for Evaluating AI Procurement Tools

90% of Fortune 500s use ChatGPT in procurement. Get 20 copy-paste AI prompts for spend analysis, supplier management, contracts, and reporting—from a practitioner.

by Maximilian Groh, Jan 19, 2026

The AI Procurement Toolkit: 20 Prompts That Save Time

Agentic AI is coming to procurement in 2026. Here's what autonomous procurement agents actually do, which jobs are at risk, and the skills AI can't replace — from a practitioner's view, not an analyst's.

by Maximilian Groh, Jan 17, 2026

Agentic AI in Procurement: What It Really Means

The move from procurement to product management looks unconventional — but it makes sense. This article explores why procurement builds the judgment, trade-off thinking, and credibility that many product leaders spend years trying to learn.

by Maximilian Groh, Jan 15, 2026

The Hidden Path From Procurement to Product Leadership

Product managers often treat procurement as a final checkpoint. In reality, it's where many launches slow down or fail. Here are five mistakes PMs make — and what changes when procurement is involved early.

by Maximilian Groh, Jan 13, 2026

Product Managers’ Procurement Blind Spot

Most innovation dies in agreements nobody remembers negotiating.

by Maximilian Groh, Jan 11, 2026

Framework Agreements Shape Product Freedom

Two functions, both optimizing. Neither willing to admit what they're really protecting.

by Maximilian Groh, Jan 9, 2026

The Performance Trap

Not because they expose mistakes—because they expose choices no one wants to defend.

by Maximilian Groh, Jan 7, 2026

Why Product Teams Fear Procurement Reviews

Internal proliferation kills faster than the market—but we keep blaming competitors.

by Maximilian Groh, Jan 5, 2026

Most Products Die in Variant Complexity, Not Competition

They understand leverage, not just users—and it changes everything they build.

by Maximilian Groh, Jan 3, 2026

The Best Product Managers I Know Think Like Buyers

It reveals who is willing to disappoint whom—and when.

by Maximilian Groh, Jan 1, 2026

Design-to-Cost Is a Leadership Test, Not a Tool

A year of achievement revealed something unexpected: the best work doesn't always look like work at all.

by Maximilian Groh, Dec 30, 2025

What 2025 Taught Me About How Work Actually Moves

What happened when I chose teaching and technical depth over corporate advancement—and why it paradoxically moved everything forward.

by Maximilian Groh, Dec 29, 2025

The Year I Stopped Chasing Titles

Teaching marketing strategy after twenty years in business revealed something unexpected: not how much I'd learned, but what I'd stopped noticing.

by Maximilian Groh, Dec 27, 2025

The Questions My Students Asked That I'd Stopped Asking

What happens when development becomes a substitute for recognition—and why good companies let it continue.

by Maximilian Groh, Dec 12, 2025

The Economics of Being Almost Promoted

Why traditional strategic thinking increasingly fails to explain outcomes — and what this means for how we think, decide, and act under conditions of uncertainty.

by Maximilian Groh, Dec 11, 2025

What Leaders Must Rethink Today

Coaching tools promise insight, clarity, and progress. Most of the time, they deliver structure — but little change. This post explores why tools so often fail, and what actually makes them matter.

by Maximilian Groh, Nov 11, 2025

Why Coaching Tools Rarely Change Leaders

Brand protection is often treated as a legal or marketing exercise. In reality, it is about understanding where trust is fragile — and where organisations quietly undermine themselves.

by Maximilian Groh, Nov 3, 2025

Brand Protection Is Not About Control

Emotional intelligence is widely praised and rarely lived. This post is about what emotional intelligence actually demands from leaders — and why it is much harder than it sounds.

by Maximilian Groh, Oct 22, 2025

The Part of Leadership No One Wants to Practice

Leadership coaching is often treated as a set of tools or conversations. This post explores what coaching actually changes — and why its impact depends less on technique than on how leaders relate to themselves and their role.

by Maximilian Groh, Oct 11, 2025

What Actually Changes Leaders

Leadership is often treated as a personal trait. This blog post argues that leadership is better understood as a system — and explores what changes when leaders begin to see it that way.

by Maximilian Groh, Sep 7, 2025

Why People, Structure, and Self Cannot Be Separated

Benchmarking is widely used in strategy — yet often applied in ways that obscure judgment rather than improve it. This post explains what benchmarking is actually for, and how to use it intelligently.

by Maximilian Groh, Jul 5, 2025

Why Comparison Often Misleads Leaders