The Malbek Blog

Every contract tells a story. The problem is that most organizations have lost the plot. Contracts govern virtually every commercial relationship a business enters into, from vendor agreements and customer deals to employment terms and partnership arrangements. Yet for all their importance, contracts are strikingly easy to lose track of. They scatter across shared drives, […]

You have found the right business partner. The vision aligns, the skills complement each other, and the opportunity looks promising. Now comes the part that many entrepreneurs and business leaders would rather skip: putting everything in writing. It is tempting to move forward on a handshake, especially when trust runs high, and everyone is eager […]

Enterprise application integration has become the defining challenge for contract managers at large organizations. You know the frustrations: the contract lives in one system, customer data in another, procurement somewhere else entirely, and the signature platform? Its own island. Each tool works fine independently, but together they create a fragmented experience where valuable time disappears […]

Organizations spend a significant portion of their revenue on supplier agreements, materials, and services, averaging 43% of total costs*. Manufacturing companies typically allocate between 50% and 80% of their revenue to procurement, while service-based businesses generally spend between 25% and 35%. The procurement specialist stands at the center of this process, ensuring every dollar delivers […]

Ever wondered why some legal teams finish contract reviews in minutes or hours while others take days or weeks? The secret often lies not only in the contract management software itself, but in how well it connects with other business systems. When your contracts live in isolation, every approval becomes a treasure hunt across multiple […]

You’ve finally convinced leadership that your organization needs a Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) solution. The next step? Sitting through vendor demonstrations. But here’s the thing! Watching a CLM demo isn’t like test driving a car. You can’t just kick the tires and trust your gut. These demonstrations represent significant investments in both money, time, and […]

Last week, on invitation from Manish Agnihorti, I joined 200 legal professionals, AI researchers, and legal operations leaders at Carnegie Mellon University for the Pittsburgh Legal AI Summit sponsored by Coheso. Walking into the event, I expected the usual mix of vendor enthusiasm and cautious optimism that characterizes most legal tech gatherings. What I got […]

Non-disparagement clauses serve as protective shields for organizational reputation, preventing parties from making harmful public statements about each other. Consider the following scenario: A high-performing sales executive leaves a pharmaceutical company for a competitor. Two weeks later, several negative reviews about the company’s “toxic culture” appeared on Glassdoor, and LinkedIn posts show up that criticize […]

A single procurement decision can make or break a company’s quarterly results. That reality places procurement managers at the center of organizational success, where they balance countless variables: cost versus quality, speed versus reliability, innovation versus stability.  These professionals manage billions in corporate spending—part of the massive $13 trillion global procurement market*—while building supplier networks […]