An Interview with Lauren Shukla, Global Category Lead at Astellas Pharma

Lauren Shukla global category lead of agency production and channel delivery at Astellas Pharma will be hosting this yearamp8217s conference The ANAamp8217s Peter Kenigsberg spoke with Lauren about her views of the industry outlooks for the future of procurement expectations for the conference and morePeter Kenigsberg ANA Youamp8217ve experienced both sides of the marketing industry over the course of your career from agencyside account management to clientside procurement What was the biggest adjustment for you in transitioning from one side of the industry to the otherLauren Shukla Astellas The biggest adjustment was recognizing that the steps behind content creation the campaign process and overall brand strategy development arenamp8217t as intuitive to everyone on the client side as they were to me coming from an agency background There tends to be a lot of energy trying to put guardrails around agency work without understanding the agency operating model and what amp8220idealamp8221 actually looks like The real transition for me was learning to step back and become a translator My role became helping my procurement team and our center of excellence understand the art of the possible with agencies and to demystify the content creation process in a way that is accessible to people who havenamp8217t lived it Once we did that the conversation shifted from policing to partneringKenigsberg In your 2025 Advertising Financial Management Conference presentation you talked about procurementamp8217s impact on change management As part of conducting an effective change management strategy you said to build trust amp8220focus on improving not provingamp8221 Where can procurement find those quick wins to show improvement and be seen as a trusted partner that is not simply looking to prove themselves rightShukla Iamp8217m a big believer that the unexciting jobs are the ones that earn you the most credit Itamp8217s not always about the headline savings or the flashy negotiation win The most trustbuilding work looks like chasing down a PO thatamp8217s holding up a campaign or working through a change order or pushing hard on SLAs to make sure partners are held accountable Those moments are exactly what the business notices When a marketer knows procurement is in their corner solving problems that slow them down thatamp8217s when you stop being seen as a gatekeeper and start being seen as a partner Trust is built in the small moments not always savings relatedKenigsberg There will be multiple presentations during this yearamp8217s Advertising Financial Management Conference about the impact AI will have on marketing procurement and the industry at large How if at all is AI reshaping your role at AstellasShukla The reality of operating in highly regulated environments is we are likely a few years away from seeing AI make substantial measurable impact However in the meantime what AI has done is reenergized the art of the possible Itamp8217s prompted us to reexamine business decisions and operational models that would have seemed out of the question a few years ago This process itself has been meaningful and has uncovered value and efficiency as we challenge the status quo with AI in mindKenigsberg For those new to marketing procurement what do you suggest they do in their first 90 days to set themselves up for successShukla One of most important things Iamp8217d tell a new marketing procurement professional is to learn your companyamp8217s business cycle Understand when budgets are being developed and who is building them If youamp8217re showing up to the conversation after your stakeholderamp8217s budget has been approved and teams are ready to begin work or to sign a scope youamp8217ve already missed the window Try to insert yourself into the conversation well before decisions are made The second thing Iamp8217d challenge new and old members of procurement is the instinct to focus on building relationships with senior leaders alone Itamp8217s often not the organization leaders who are making the daytoday decisions about the suppliers and the agency relationships Find the stakeholders closest to the work and build your credibility this is where youamp8217ll have the most impactKenigsberg Whatamp8217s one thing agencies should know about strategic sourcing that they might not be aware of todayShukla I think thereamp8217s a common assumption on the agency side that coming in at or slightly under the budget signals fiscal responsibility but thatamp8217s not how procurement sees it We are evaluating if a dollar amount matches the work associated with the scope We are evaluating the agencyamp8217s efficiency the level of complexity of the work amp160and if the resources being deployed are the ones needed to do the workKenigsberg If you could amp8220wave a magic wandamp8221 what industry issue or problem would you fixShukla If I could wave a magic wand I would give every stakeholder or client complete visibility into how every dollar in media is working for them Full transparency into media buying and measurement wouldnamp8217t just change how we plan invest and partner It would level the playing field To give marketers the ability to truly strategize their campaign approach against business results rather than making decisions on incomplete informationKenigsberg What are you most looking forward to at the 2026 ANA Advertising Financial Management ConferenceShukla Iamp8217m looking forward to the concentration of thought leadership Thereamp8217s real value in being in a room with such a diverse range of speakers and perspectives all focused on trends insights and challenges that matter to our industry Itamp8217s not often that you get that level of expertise and leadership perspective in one place I always walk away with an amazing insight that shapes how I approach my work moving forwardFor more information about this yearamp8217s conference and to register please click hereThe speaker is a paid employee of Astellas Statements of fact positions taken and opinions expressed are those of the speaker individually and unless expressly stated to the contrary do not necessarily reflect the opinion or position of the speakeramp8217s employer Astellas or any of its subsidiaries andor related entitiesThis article is written by Peter KenigsbergPosted at MediaVillage through the Thought Leadership selfpublishing platformClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageorgMyersBizNet

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