Lytica’s CEO Weighs In on Team-Building, AI & What’s Next for Procurement
Martin Sendyk, Lytica’s President and CEO, was recently interviewed by ProcureTech as part of their series featuring ProcureTechSTARS — the digital Procurement CEOs and Founders who are transforming Procurement and the enterprise.
Prior to joining Lytica in 2020, Martin held senior-level positions with large global enterprises such as Assent Compliance, Irdeto, Nortel, Motorola, and Newbridge. Now having been at the helm of Lytica for four years, Martin continues to be recognized by his industry peers as someone who’s making waves in Procurement.
Read on to catch the highlights of Martin’s ProcureTechSTARS conversation, including his takes on team-building and generative AI.
On Lytica’s Journey So Far
Martin firmly believes that Lytica is solving a billion-dollar supply chain problem. With electronics now being so pervasive in our daily lives, many new electronics manufacturers have emerged. And a lot of them are very large companies needing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year on sourcing and procuring electronic components. But is that spend being optimized to capture the best possible value without sacrificing component quality? Most of the time, it isn’t.
So, how is Lytica progressing towards solving this billion-dollar problem? Martin believes the company’s key strategic advantage is its use of real customer pricing data to help companies find the right price for their components. But beyond that, Martin thinks Lytica’s switch to a subscription-based business model is a significant step forward. This approach has allowed Lytica to forge strong, multi-year relationships with clients to help them save long-term. It also ensures clients can stay on top of pricing fluctuations and consistently have access to the most up-to-date pricing data for each component.
On Growing a Great Team
Martin says the foundations of a great team are rooted in establishing the right mindset and spreading it throughout the organization. He believes the fundamentals of hard work, determination, and perseverance never go out of style. Additionally, the following values have certainly contributed to Lytica’s strong team development:
- Move with velocity — make progress at a fast pace, in the right direction.
- Take calculated risks — get yourself in the right position and then go for it.
- Take ownership — own the position you play and trust others to play their roles.
- Show respect — for our customers and for each other.
- Have a sense of humor — always remember to have passion, energy, and fun.
Martin has applied these principles, coupled with a remote-work philosophy, to build a great team at Lytica. As he puts it:
“We also work in a hybrid or mostly remote model and it’s allowed us to hire the best and the brightest people all over North America, Europe and Asia. This has really changed the face of the company. We’ve not been limited by just hiring people who are within driving distance of the office. We’ve got an amazing team, a world class team, and I’m very proud of that.”
On Innovation and AI
Martin sees innovation as a way of life for Lytica, and the company has started introducing new products that expand the customer’s benefit beyond just saving money. Driven by its proprietary data, and supported by AI-assistive technology, Lytica also aims to help clients better understand why they might be underperforming in certain supply chain targets, and what steps to take next in order to achieve overall performance improvement.
That being said, Martin thinks generative AI has become slightly over-hyped. He believes it’s clearly an important part of the equation, but the true magic remains in being able to provide unique datasets and analyzing the data in a way that makes it incredibly meaningful to its intended audience.
On What’s Next for Lytica
Martin believes Lytica is already well on its way to achieving its vision. So, the first step is to stay on the current course and continue generating awareness for Lytica within Procurement departments to help more and more companies optimize their supply chains.
Beyond that though, there are several messages that Martin thinks the industry needs to embrace, and that Lytica will be pushing in the years to come:
- Procurement is important — CEOs need to view it as a strategic part of their company, not an afterthought.
- There’s room for improvement — whatever companies have been doing so far hasn’t worked very well, so they need to take a new approach.
- Become data-driven — it’s time to upgrade the IT systems and replace the old, dirty data with up-to-date supply chain data that will improve decision-making.
- Embrace transparency — sharing your component spend data creates a fairer and more efficient market, which is good for everyone.
Head on over to ProcureTechSTARS to access the full interview and learn how Martin celebrates success with the team (hint: it involves axes).
About Lytica
Lytica is an electronic component spend analytics and risk intelligence company that uses real customer data to help companies make their supply chain more cost-transparent, more resilient, and more predictable. Lytica’s advanced electronic component market intelligence platform employs machine learning and AI to analyze real-world pricing data, offering true market insights to reduce costs and mitigate supply chain risk. Fortune 500 and blue chip companies around the world rely on Lytica to find better prices, manufacturers, and suppliers. To learn more, visit lytica.com.
