Podcast
The Kris Stasukaitis Interview | Podcast
50 minutes
Description
Kris Stasukaitis shows why procurement is about more than a lower price. It is about protecting the business, building the right supplier base, and making sourcing decisions before risk, quality issues, or disruption turn into much bigger problems.
Kris is the Associate Director of Mechanical Commodity Management at Shure, with nearly two decades at the company. He explains why supplier diversification matters more than ever, how tariffs, COVID, and the chip shortage changed the way companies think about risk, and why dual sourcing can be worth the cost when one missing part can stop everything.
He and Spencer also talk about working closely with engineering without creating vendor lock-in, how to judge whether a supplier price is truly fair, and why the best procurement teams help the business succeed instead of only cutting cost.
Speakers
Spencer Penn
CEO & Co Founder
Kris Stasukaitis
Director of Mechanical Commodities
Key moments
Intro: The man behind the mic
Meet Kris Stasukaitis. He's one of the rare ones actually using the degree he went to school for.
The consulting-to-industry leap
Why Kris traded the "hired gun" life of consulting for the "skin-in-the-game" reality of manufacturing.
Scaling a 100-year-old icon
How Shure evolved from mics to conferencing systems, staying relevant through three generations.
Global sourcing & the Mexico shift
The "China + 1" reality: Why regionalization is the new standard for the explorer spirit.
Risk: The cost of insurance
Explaining to Finance why "wasting" money on dual sourcing is actually the smartest move you'll make.
Navigating vendor lock-in
How to keep engineering and procurement in sync without accidentally handing over the keys to a supplier.
The product development secret
How Shure uses cross-functional "Commodity Teams" to design quality in, rather than inspect it later.
How to actually onboard at Shure
Thinking about supplying for Shure? Kris explains why the "shotgun approach" to cold-calling never works.
Surviving the great chip chortage
Lessons from the trenches: Why relationship-driven sourcing beats the gray market every time.
The fair price vs. the lowest price
Why Shure wants their suppliers to make money (seriously). It's about trust buckets, not margin-squeezing.
The next generation of talent
Kris's pitch for procurement: It's not just cutting POs; it's military-grade logistics for the BC era.
The power of tangibility
Why seeing a Shure mic on stage at a concert makes the 11:00 PM calls to China worth it.
Culture & the 47-year career
The secret sauce of longevity: Treating your associates like owners, not renters.
See this sourcing workflow in practice.
LightSource is the AI-native sourcing platform for direct materials. See it on your own parts and suppliers.
