Category Archives: Current affairs and general interest
The Great Supplier Network Debate – and Some New Music!
It’s the time of year at Spend Matters where if we’re not furiously writing or attending or speaking at any number of procurement events, we’re putting together free webinars just for you, our readers, to attend. Here are three that will be coming your way in the next few weeks: Tuesday, May 21, 2013 9-10am CDT The Great Debate: Will Supplier Networks Thrive, Implode, or Evolve? This is what AP, treasury, procurement, and supply chain managers need to know about the future of eProcurement, e-invoicing and business connectivity – featuring a live panel discussion that incorporates audience questions and commentary [...]
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Down the Procurement Pub – with Basware, Coupa, Procurement Leaders and Icona Pop
Actually, I spent some of last night down the procurement pub – a pleasant 90 minutes with an old friend and fellow ex CPO who wanted to pick my brains on procurement software in return for 2 pints of the very pleasant Hogsback Brewery T.E.A. (The brewery, just a few miles down the road from here, is pictured). I could only offer a fraction of what he would have got out of Jason Busch, Pierre Mitchell or Thomas Case from Spend Matters US but maybe I’ll share my very impressionistic and high level view of the “meta trends” in that [...]
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From Hubris to High Court (almost) – The Story of Southwest One (Part 1)
(We are delighted to have finally persuaded Dave Orr to write for us, and as a Somerset citizen, he will be laying out the fascinating story of Southwest One over the next few weeks – a story that everyone involved in outsourcing should note with interest… and we’ll tell you a bit more about Dave himself next time). Apart from glorious countryside, hills and moors, rural Somerset is probably best known for a rustic blend of cider, cheese, cricket, the Wurzels and the Glastonbury Festival. Oh….we also split atoms and some whopping new nuclear reactors at Hinkley Point are coming, [...]
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Dark Procurement – ethics and moral dilemmas
(We’re pleased to have another guest post from Dr Gordon Murray, procurement writer, academic and practitioner – see his own excellent blog here). The tragedy of the Dhaka factory collapse, which led to the death of over 1,000 innocent factory workers, has placed some procurement strategies under a cloud. There is a dark side of procurement with moral dilemmas which recognises there is more to ethics in procurement than the CIPS code. Those directly responsible for the supply chain management of clothes with a ‘Made in Dhaka’ label are faced with a question as to whether or not this is [...]
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Alex Ferguson – lessons in talent management and succession planning
(This post, written by Gert van der Heijden, was first published in Dutch on our Spend Matters Netherlands site. ) Last week Alex Ferguson, the coach and manager of Manchester United announced his departure after a period of more than 27 years. An icon bids farewell to football. But last year, Professor Anita Elberse from Harvard Business School published a case about the leadership of Sir Alex. This provided lessons to managers in other organizations, not just football. The strength of Ferguson includes his success in developing young talent. From his early days at Manchester United, he started to develop [...]
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Down the procurement pub – CIPS, the cost of risk management and the big UK / EU debate
So got my latest copy of Supply Management yesterday. I haven’t read all the articles yet, but there is content in this edition that all CIPS members should read. (Some of it is on-line as well of course. ) That includes a description of the new Congress, the body chaired by Melinda Johnson that represents members’ interests to the Institute. I was pleased to see that all the elected Congress delegates have got their email addresses on the CIPS website so members can contact them, although it has been left fairly loose in terms of how exactly that contact might [...]
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Demand elasticity and variable pricing as illustrated by the Rolling Stones
To someone with a deep interest in both music and procurement, the news that the Rolling Stones have had problems selling tickets for their latest US tour was exciting, giving us a chance to combine both here! Here’s the NME: “On Friday (May 3) it was reported that the band had failed to sell-out the allocation of their high priced tickets ($600) for their opening night at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. They also released more $85 (£55) tickets to fill out the arena”. This takes us back to some interesting aspects of economic theory. The economic ideal for [...]
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Yes Minister – Three Cheers for the Complex Transactions Group!
(Part 2 of our latest homage to the brilliant Yes Minster and Yes Prime Minister series, written by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn. Part 1 is here). So Minister, you raised the new Cabinet Office Complex Transactions Group. This is the team who are going to help us with complex IT projects. I understand they were going to call themselves the “Big Deal” team until someone pointed out this sounded a little too much like a TV game show for comfort. - So are you against that idea, Humphrey? More interference from Cabinet Office. and this time it isn’t just [...]
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Liam Maxwell and the Eton connection – Spend Matters ahead of the news again!
A bit of politics – with a slight procurement connection – for this Bank Holiday weekend! There’s a fuss in the UK press after the elections last week around whether David Cameron is surrounding himself with too many old Etonians – chaps from his school like recent appointees Jo Johnson and Jesse Norman. Now the press have got hold of the fact that the Government’s Chief Technology Office, Liam Maxwell, was Head of IT at Eton School. The London Evening Standard yesterday reported this and said: But how has Maxwell’s Etonian connection slipped by so unnoticed? Sorry, it certainly wasn’t [...]
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ISM Conference Coverage, Compliance and Supplier Management, English Evolution
Jason Busch, Pierre Mitchell, and Thomas Kase spent the first part of the week at ISM’s annual conference in Dallas. Pierre describes the buzz/general feel as encompassing “Leadership” and Jason lays out some future scenarios on Spend Matters PRO. Jason talks compliance and supplier management: Compliance Approaches: Our Survey Results and Analysis Compliance Elements and Supplier Management Do you find yourself wanting to get more from P2P through the use of better analytics and KPIs? We can help. And for a bit more on analytics, Pierre talks BorgWerner. We take a quick diversion from hard-hitting procurement content with a guest [...]
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Down the Procurement Pub – ISM, German PMIs, Balfour Beatty and Happy Vappu!
My US colleagues, Jason Busch and Pierre Mitchell, have been at the Institute of Supply Management’s 98th annual conference in Dallas this week. You can read a good overview here. What’s obvious is just how much more of a big thing the event is compared to the CIPS conference in the UK. OK, the US is a bigger country, but CIPS has in some ways been the more successful Institute over the last ten years. So why has CIPS never got to the position where someone like Condoleezza Rice – the keynote speaker this week at ISM – could be engaged? [...]
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Reginald D Hunter and verbal contracts
Reginald D Hunter, the American stand-up comedian, spoke at the UK Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) awards dinner the other night. It didn’t go down too well with certain people unfortunately. Hunter, who is black, made various jokes that covered racial issues. Perhaps he wasn’t aware of the sensitivities in football right now, ranging from individual players who have been accused of racist comments, to endemic problems in some countries with supporters racist chanting or worse. So a bit of a furore has blown up. But our interest was sparked when the PFA announced that they were trying to recover the [...]
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Why the MOD DE&S GoCo probably won’t happen
We featured the potential “GoCo” (government owned, contractor operated) solution for the Defence Equipment and Support organisation (DE&S) earlier this week after the UK government announced the next phase of the work towards this possible end for the Ministry of Defence’s procurement and logistics organization. “Throughout the next 12 months, MOD will continue to work with the Treasury and the Cabinet Office on the ‘DE&S+’ option to explore the extent of change that could be delivered whilst keeping the organisation fully within the boundaries of the public sector. In parallel, a commercial process will be launched today that will enable [...]
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What does the Bangladesh tragedy tell us about supplier management?
At the CIPS Surrey session last week, I talked about supplier information in the broadest sense. We got onto the topic of how much responsibility buyers could, and shoul,d take for driving social responsibility and sustainability in the supply chain. Just how much can you feasibly do? Is it only first tier suppliers where you have some responsibility, or should you be looking at second and third tiers? Or even more? And what can you do if your suppliers simply lie to you, or have all the right certificates (but obtained locally through bribery, perhaps)? Of course this was hugely [...]
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A decision to delay the decision about MOD procurement as DE&S uncertainty continues
Last week, Philip Hammond, the UK’s Defence Minister, announced the next stage in the move towards turning the MOD’s Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) organisation into a “GoCo” – a government owned, contractor operated entity. This whole initiative has been dragging on now for years . Bernard Gray, the architect of the plan, joined MOD in January 2011 but wrote his report (the beginning of this whole debate) in 2009, so it has taken some time just to get to this point of announcing – well, announcing that no real decision will be made for another year (at least)! Whilst [...]
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Rethinking Procurement Data, ISM Conference, P&G’s Supplier Finance Strategy
It was an exciting week for the Spend Matters US headquarters in Chicago. We have given up our ramshackle IKEA chairs for streamlined, ergonomic Herman Miller Aeron swivel chairs – does this mean we’re a real office now?? (Check back later today for the whole story) Aligned spines aside, there’s a lot of other stuff going on too: Pierre Mitchell wrote an open letter to the WSJ about their article on how “big companies pinch suppliers on payments.” He says: “It is my view that P&G is trying to create value here thoughtfully. I don’t come to praise P&G like [...]
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- Francis Maude speaks – is the Minister for Procurement an enemy of procurement ? : Ian Taylor said: So is it time now to reinvent the OGC? Things do go around. That's the Office of Governmen... more
- Francis Maude speaks – is the Minister for Procurement an enemy of procurement ? : life said: It's obviously not just Francis Maude either - there's not been a lot of demanding / infor... more
- Francis Maude speaks – is the Minister for Procurement an enemy of procurement ? : PlanBee said: Why does the public sector need to make things up? Its redefining the role I have done for... more
- Francis Maude speaks – is the Minister for Procurement an enemy of procurement ? : Peter Jones said: Maude could start with a dictionary or this extract from Bristol Council - either way he h... more
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