EP 8 – Process Starts with People: Building Better Systems Through Curiosity with Alex von Schledorn

In this episode, Liam O’Neill speaks with Alex von Schledorn, Head of Procurement Excellence at ETEX, whose career has taken him from manufacturing and flower exports in Ecuador to logistics, planning, procurement and operational excellence across Europe.

Alex’s route into process is anything but conventional. After working in his father’s business from a young age, he built experience across multiple industries before having to rebuild his life from scratch after moving to Europe. Those experiences shaped the way he approaches operational excellence today, combining a deep respect for people with a relentless focus on improving the systems they work within.

This is a practical and refreshingly human conversation about why process improvement is never really about technology. It is about understanding how organisations work, helping people solve problems and creating systems that make work easier rather than more complicated.

They discuss:

• Why working across every function of his father’s business taught him that you cannot improve what you do not truly understand
• How experience across manufacturing, logistics, sales and planning helped him develop a systems mindset that transfers between industries
• What rebuilding his career from scratch in Europe taught him about resilience, humility and leadership
• Why the best operational decisions come from trusted data rather than assumptions or instinct
• How organisations can unlock significant value by using the capabilities they already have before investing in new technology
• The importance of helping people understand why systems like SAP work the way they do, rather than simply expecting adoption
• How a simple robotic process automation solution transformed document management, reduced manual effort and improved audit readiness across the business
• Why AI should enhance human decision making rather than replace accountability, and why organisations need the right foundations before introducing it
• How building relationships, understanding different cultures and picking up the phone remain some of the most powerful tools for driving process ownership
• Why attitude is ultimately the biggest differentiator for anyone building a career in operational excellence

Whether discussing procurement, process management or digital transformation, Alex consistently returns to the same principle: technology matters, but people, curiosity and a willingness to solve problems are what create lasting improvement.

Host: Liam O’Neill, Managing Director at bpmd

Guest: Alex von Schledorn, Head of Procurement Excellence at ETEX