Dario Kulic: Architect of High-Performing Procurement Ecosystems

Turning AI, automation, and analytics into tools that elevate people, not replace them.

Factories, hospitals, and production floors move through long lines of decisions. Every order, every delay, every approval carries weight. People working in these spaces feel the pressure of keeping things steady while hoping their work brings progress. This daily reality mirrors the environment that first pulled Dario Kulic toward procurement. He saw how a single thoughtful action could lift an entire operation. That idea stayed with him and kept growing across his career.

Dario often reflects on his beginnings at Ford Motor Company. He witnessed how strategic procurement could free resources and open space for innovation. This moment awakened more than a career interest. It stirred a belief that efficiency can give people room to create. He understood that smart systems bring freedom. This belief carried him into complex industries such as automotive, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, and manufacturing, where he spent twenty years building a clear and steady path.

During these years, he developed a drive that went deeper than cost targets. He met professionals who gave their best effort yet felt stuck in repetitive work that drained their energy. He wanted something better for them. His purpose grew from this. He moved toward transformation work because he felt an urge to prove that change is achievable, measurable, and deeply human.

In his current assignment, Dario serves as Global Process Owner for Source to Pay and Procurement Transformation Advisor and Consultant at his client Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. His work focuses on creating processes that bring clarity and remove barriers. He believes that efficiency is a way to liberate people. This guiding belief inspired the creation of Kulic Advisory and Consulting, where he serves as Founder and Managing Director. The firm reflects his commitment to practical improvement and long-term value. Dario’s aim is to build a firm which gathered like-minded advisors and consultants to increase the value for clients in future.

Dario brings his experience, his conviction, and his human approach into every project. He carries a mission anchored in one steady truth. When people are freed from tasks that weigh them down, they rise, and entire organizations rise with them.

Let us learn more about his journey:

The Experience That Shaped His Message

When people ask Dario where his views on procurement and transformation truly began, he always returns to the same chapter in his life. During the Bayer Animal Health carve out and Elanco integration, he found the moment that would shape every message he delivers today. He was working across more than 35 countries, stabilizing operations while new systems were being launched in the middle of a global merger and the uncertainty of COVID.

In that storm, he guided his team through more than 300 process improvement activities, reducing headcount from 30 to 17 while protecting quality. The breakthrough came from building a global power user concept of 130 power users across 35 countries in only 3 months.

What he took from that experience became the foundation of his voice as a speaker. “Transformation succeeds when leaders trust people, remove non-value-added work, and create systems that serve humans. Technology only becomes powerful when paired with empathy, communication, and belief in a team’s potential,” admits Dario.

The Moment He Realized His Voice Reached Beyond Procurement

There was a point in his career when Dario understood that his perspective carried weight far outside procurement. It happened after he presented a business case showing how conversational AI chatbots could eliminate $4 million in operational costs, save 26 years of work annually, and free 40 full-time employees from non-value adding tasks using tools the company already owned.

Executives from finance, HR, supply-chain, and IT immediately recognized that his insights applied everywhere. At that moment, he realized that his message was not about procurement. It was about redefining how humans interact with work. Invitations soon followed: Marketing 2.0 Conference in Dubai, OPEX Summits across 3 continents, advisory board positions with World BI, PharmaSource, and Life Science Networks. His cross-industry background became a vantage point that allowed him to speak to anyone, not just procurement professionals.

Turning Complexity Into Stories People Understand

As his responsibilities expanded, people often wondered how he made complex global transformations sound so clear. Dario would point to what he calls the universal language of waste. Everyone understands wasted time, unnecessary complexity, and frustration with inefficient processes.

He often brings audiences into a moment from Toyota, where he led a wire harness cost reduction project that saved €17.75 million. But when sharing this, he focuses on the eight-step problem-solving methodology, breaking big problems into attackable pieces, conducting root cause analysis, and building consensus across diverse stakeholders.

These principles apply whether you are optimizing the supply chain, streamlining customer service, or improving product development. The story resonates because the principles apply anywhere. Eliminate what does not add value. Empower the people closest to the work. Measure what truly matters.

Where Execution Becomes Motivation

Many speakers rely on vision alone, but Dario’s path was built on execution. His storytelling brings those achievements to life, so they do more than inform.

He often reflects on something he learned early. Execution without narrative is just data. Narrative without execution is just inspiration. He bridges both by revealing the emotional journey behind the metrics. When he discusses achieving a 95% engagement score 25% above industry average, he does not just present numbers. He shares breakthrough conversations. He talks about the procurement specialist who finally felt her work had meaning because they eliminated mundane tasks consuming 60% of her day.

He structures every keynote around a simple arc: Problem (the human cost), Journey (setbacks that taught us), Solution (practical strategies), and Impact (measurable results and human transformation). This transforms case studies into compelling stories that audiences act upon.

Challenging the Myth of Hierarchical Leadership

Throughout his career, many around him assumed that leadership required hierarchical authority. Dario pushed against that idea long before he ever spoke on a stage.

At Elanco, he managed cross-departmental task forces and led 50+ business process employees without a disciplinary function. At Toyota, he coordinated vehicle buildout activities across multiple countries through influence alone.

His belief is clear. Real leadership is about creating trust, demonstrating expertise, and building consensus, not wielding authority. The most transformative changes he drove came from earning the right to lead through competence, empathy, and relentless focus on value creation. True transformation is collaborative, built on mutual respect and shared purpose. He invites audiences to ask themselves something that often shifts their perspective. When I speak, I push audiences to ask: “Am I leading through position or through impact?”

How Trust Shapes His Presence on Stage

Trust has always been the thread running through Dario’s relationships, and that same thread carries into the way he connects with an audience.

Trust is earned through authenticity, and authenticity requires vulnerability. He does not present himself as the expert with all the answers. He presents himself as a practitioner who has failed, learned, and succeeded through persistence. He has built trust with suppliers, C-suite executives, frontline employees, and external partners by consistently valuing their perspective and prioritizing win-win outcomes.

This translates to active engagement in his keynotes. He does not lecture; he converses. He asks questions, invites challenges, and adapts based on audience energy. Colleagues describe him as fair and balanced, someone who speaks up even when challenging other leaders, possessing natural charisma combined with substance. These qualities emerge because he genuinely believes every person in his audience has insights that could teach him something.

This is why audiences do not just listen to him; they interact with him.

Reframing Efficiency as Human Liberation

One of the strongest ideas he delivers onstage is the reframing of efficiency itself. For Dario, efficiency is not a limitation. It is liberation.

He shares a provocation. People should only provide the necessary input and simply press send to execute the full process automatically. What people shouldn’t do is execute every step manually, because these manual efforts represent time wasted in a collective trance caused by repetitions of mundane tasks that make real operational costs invisible.

This idea shifts the entire room.

This reframes efficiency from doing more with less to freeing humans for meaningful work. The procurement specialist who now focuses on strategic supplier relationships instead of data entry. The finance professional who analyses trends instead of reconciling invoices. Efficiency, properly understood, is profoundly humanistic. It recognizes that human potential is our scarcest resource and every minute spent on non-value-adding work is stolen from innovation. When audiences grasp this, efficiency transforms from cost-cutting into liberation.

This is one of the messages people quote long after the event ends.

Showing Technology as an Enabler

When he speaks about technology, he speaks not as a futurist but as someone who guided digital transformation from inside the work.

He uses a framework Technology as Enabler, Not Replacement. Technology should amplify human capability, not substitute for human judgment. During the Elanco transformation, they didn’t implement technology to eliminate jobs; they implemented it to eliminate job frustration. Automation freed employees from repetitive work, allowing them to focus on exception handling, strategic decision-making, and relationship building activities requiring uniquely human skills. Practical examples of conversational AI handling routine inquiries 24/7.

Workflow automation eliminates approval bottlenecks. Data analytics reveals hidden patterns, empowering strategic choices. The key message technology disrupts processes, not people. When we embrace technology as a tool for value creation rather than cost reduction, we unlock possibilities that benefit organizations and individuals.

He shows audiences that technology does not erase humans. It elevates them.

The Story That Reveals the Emotional Side of Change

Among all his experiences, one story captures the emotional center of transformation more clearly than any slide deck ever could.

He shares the AP stabilization project at Elanco, a transformation touching 4,000+ employees across 40+ countries. The emotional turning point came during a town hall when a long-tenured accounts payable specialist stood up and said, For 15 years, I’ve felt like a robot processing invoices. Now, with these changes, I finally understand how my work connects to our mission of improving animal health. Thank you for giving me my purpose back.

That moment stays with him.

Transformation isn’t about systems or technologies; it’s about restoring human dignity and purpose to work. The tears were not about efficiency gains; they were about recognition, meaning, and renewed engagement. Behind every process improvement are real people seeking meaning. When we honour that truth, transformation becomes truly transformative.

This is why he does the work.

Staying Grounded in Substance Over Performance

Even with recognition, Dario approaches keynote speaking with humility shaped by experience rather than performance.

He follows practice what you preach and preach what you practice. Every keynote is grounded in real projects, actual results, and honest reflections, including failures and lessons learned. He has received awards Outstanding Leadership Award 2024 and, Most Innovative SAP Procurement Consultancy 2023, but he never leads with accolades. He leads with problems solved and people empowered.

His presentations feature real data, actual case studies, and practical frameworks audiences can implement immediately. Colleagues describe his keynotes as providing thought-provoking and actionable insights with humour to keep audiences engaged while maintaining exceptional expertise. He is not on stage to impress; he is on stage to equip. If one person leaves with a practical idea they can implement Monday morning, they have succeeded.

That mindset is why his sessions feel grounded.

A Message for the Next Generation

When he speaks to young professionals, he sees the next era of procurement rising in front of him.

The future of procurement belongs to those who see themselves as business partners, not order takers. Your value isn’t in executing transactions, it’s in enabling strategy. The next era requires three core competencies: digital fluency (understanding how technology amplifies human capability), strategic thinking (connecting procurement decisions to organizational objectives), and emotional intelligence (building relationships that create value beyond contracts).

He recalls his journey from commodity buyer to global process owner to illustrate that career progression follows value creation. Procurement professionals who drive transformation, embrace technology, and build cross-functional partnerships become indispensable. His message: Don’t wait for permission to lead. Identify waste, propose solutions, build consensus, and deliver results. Organizations that thrive in 2025-26 will recognize procurement as strategic, and professionals who thrive will prove it through action.

He gives them not just advice, but a blueprint.

Call to Action for 2025–26

As organizations face complexity, Dario delivers a message shaped by nearly two decades of transformation work.

The core theme is Sustainable Efficiency Through Human-Centred Automation. Organizations face unprecedented pressure, economic uncertainty, sustainability imperatives, talent shortages, and technological disruption. The solution isn’t choosing between efficiency and humanity, it’s recognizing they’re inseparable. His call to action: Stop tolerating waste that diminishes human potential. Every manual, repetitive, non-value-adding task represents not just operational cost, but human cost, engagement, creativity, and fulfilment sacrificed to inefficiency.

He is delivering this through keynotes at major conferences across continents, advisory board positions shaping industry thinking, and practical demonstrations of how existing technologies create transformative results. His work with Kulic Advisory & Consulting, partnerships with CIPS and World BI, and his role at Merck provide platforms to reach diverse audiences. As he stated, I believe the world needs my work and initiatives much more than the world yet thinks. This isn’t arrogance; it’s recognition that the principles he has proven across 18 years can help organizations and individuals thrive amid complexity.

The future belongs to those who embrace efficiency not as cost-cutting but as human liberation, who see technology not as a threat but as an enabler, and who recognize that sustainable success requires putting people at the centre of transformation. That’s the message he is delivering with clarity, conviction, and practical wisdom that audiences can act upon immediately.

Aim for simplicity and clarity, always. Enjoy yourself in the process. Attitude before profit. Be a role model in every aspect of life for others. Authenticity is the new way. Fear is the past, courage is the new present and attitude the new future.

This is the message he carries into the next decade of his work.

To be Designed Separately:

About Dario Kulic:

Keynote Speaker. Thought-Provoking Leader. Game Changer. Independent Procurement Consultant. Next Generation Leader. Global Process Owner for Source to Pay at Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. Founder and Managing Director of Kulic Advisory & Consulting. Associate Partner with Brainbox Digital. Advisory board member for World BI, CIPS, Pharma Source, and Life Science Networks.

With 18 years of experience in procurement and transformation, he has delivered over $150M in operational cost savings, $20M in Sales through his own Product Developments, 300+ process improvements, and achieved industry-leading engagement scores. His keynotes have inspired audiences at the Marketing 2.0 Conference in Dubai, FLUXX in Qatar, OPEX Summits in the US, SSOW in Europe, Hackett in London, SAP Headquarters in nearby Frankfurt and many other forums across three continents.

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