4 min read
Building Agility Through Emergency Procurement Readiness
Philip Ideson : December 14, 2025
“The first time that you speak with a supplier shouldn't be in a time of crisis. Our best customers work with us regularly, and we're constantly hearing from them.”- Rick Bond, Chief Revenue Officer, Safeware
When a crisis hits, everyone looks to procurement for answers… and speed.
What most people outside the function don’t see is how much that speed depends on the groundwork laid months or even years before the emergency.
In this Art of Procurement podcast episode, I speak with Tammy Rimes, Executive Director of National Cooperative Procurement Partners, and Rick Bond, Chief Revenue Officer at Safeware.
Both work at the center of emergency response, and both understand exactly what it takes for procurement to support a community when the stakes are high.
Their perspectives reinforce something I’ve seen over and over in my own career: the organizations that thrive under pressure are the ones that invest early in relationships, contracting strategies, and resilience.
Below are some standout moments from the conversation and my reflections on what they mean for procurement leaders today.
Speed and Structure in Real Emergencies
“Just starting with the first responders… most of my customers have ‘no money, no money, no money,’ and then they have $112,000 they have to spend by Thursday at five o'clock. And that's the way government tends to work, right? When it happens, it happens hard and fast.” – Rick Bond
What Rick describes here is the reality many public-sector teams face: demand comes in waves, and when it hits, it’s immediate. This is a perfect illustration of why emergency procurement can’t rely on traditional competitive timelines. The opportunity to run a full RFP isn’t just impractical, it’s impossible.
This is exactly where cooperative contracts shine. They give procurement a way to maintain compliance without sacrificing responsiveness. But they also require us to build familiarity with those contracts long before we need them.
Due Diligence Doesn’t Disappear Under Pressure
“As a purchasing director, before I piggyback on anybody else's contract…it could be a cooperative, it could be a state contract… I still need to conduct my own due diligence.” – Tammy Rimes
Cooperative agreements may speed up the process, but they do not eliminate accountability. Even when time pressure is intense, procurement must validate terms, pricing structures, funding requirements, and indemnification language.
This echoes something I’ve witnessed repeatedly: speed doesn’t remove risk – it amplifies it. The best procurement teams build muscle memory around due diligence so that when fast decisions are required, they know exactly which stones need turning.
Proactive Contracts Are the New Preparedness
“After going through an emergency experience, I wondered, ‘why am I not setting up contracts in advance?’… So what we did after our major fire emergency was set up as-needed contracts.” – Tammy Rimes
This is one of the most powerful lessons from the episode. Instead of waiting for the next fire, flood, or storm, Tammy’s team built $0 contracts that could flex up instantly when needed.
In my experience, this is the hallmark of a mature operating model: the organization doesn’t just react better, it reduces the number of times it has to react at all. Too often, teams assume that preparedness is a luxury. But in practice, preparedness is the difference between control and chaos.
Procurement Is Invisible… Until It’s Not
“Purchasing is invisible until it's not. Nobody cares how things magically get there.” – Tammy Rimes
When everything works, procurement stays behind the scenes. But the moment supply fails – whether it’s PPE, water, or emergency equipment – we’re suddenly at the center of every conversation.
That’s why building trust and transparency inside the organization matters so much. The better we tell our story and demonstrate the value of proactive planning, the easier it becomes to secure the investment and collaboration we need before the next disruption hits.
Build Relationships and Shared Responsibility
“Our best customers work with us regularly, and we're constantly hearing from them… We can work together towards mutual goals rather than just waiting till the heat of the moment.” – Rick Bond
Rick frames something we don’t talk about nearly enough: emergency readiness is built on ongoing partnerships and solid supplier relationships. The first call to a supplier shouldn’t be made in the middle of a crisis. Strong relationships allow suppliers to scale faster, prioritize appropriately, and give honest guidance about what is – and isn’t – feasible.
From a procurement leadership standpoint, this means shifting our mindset. Our role isn’t just to control cost; it’s to help shape a supply chain that will hold up when everything else is under strain.
Rethinking Warehousing and Stockpiling
“A lot of agencies have reduced their warehousing or got rid of it. And then when an emergency happens, they have nothing on hand because they’ve always relied on the suppliers.” – Tammy Rimes
This is a reality that many agencies learned the hard way during the pandemic. After years of leaning on just-in-time delivery, teams realized that “lean” can quickly turn into “fragile.”
My takeaway mirrors Tammy’s: resilience requires balance. You don’t need to stock everything, but you absolutely need clarity on which items must be available instantly and which suppliers truly have the capacity to deliver during widespread disruption.
Why Supplier Understanding Matters
“Meeting with suppliers on a regular basis really helped educate me about their industry… what’s coming up, what's on the horizon, what have they done for other agencies similar to mine?” – Tammy Rimes
This is one of those deceptively simple best practices that has the opportunity to transform the profession. Procurement can’t be experts in every category, nor should we try. Our role is to understand enough to make informed decisions, ask the right questions, and translate supplier insight into organizational readiness.
In my own experience, supplier conversations almost always reveal risks or opportunities we wouldn’t have spotted from the desk. They’re one of the fastest ways to build procurement’s intelligence and credibility.
Preparing when things are calm is what allows procurement to deliver when everything around us is not.
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