About Tony Colwell

Tony Colwell is a UK-based Executive Interim Manager & Consultant. A specialist in procurement & supply chain, logistics and change management, Tony is passionate about stakeholder engagement, collaboration and effective process.

Change Management: 7 Essential Elements of Stakeholder Engagement

Posted on 10 February 2012 by Tony Colwell

Stakeholder engagement is a critical factor in the success of business change, especially business transformations, which may require significant cultural change. Business transformation typically involves people, process and systems changes which need to be delivered in order to produce a step change within the business. The design of effective processes and application of appropriate technology is not enough to ensure success. Insufficient acceptance and adoption of the new processes, arising from inadequate engagement of stakeholders, is a common cause of transformation failures. Continue reading →

How to Select Strategic Suppliers – Part 2: Reconciling Buyer and Supplier Perspectives

Posted on 8 February 2012 by Tony Colwell

Few customer-supplier partnerships are equal. Buyers need to be wary of entering into dependent relationships where the supplier will gain a dominant position. This is the second part of a 2-part article which sets out to examine how and why Procurement might consider the supplier’s perspective when selecting suppliers. It is particularly relevant for strategic supplies, where value creation and value capture are key objectives. Continue reading →

How to Select Strategic Suppliers – Part 1: Beware the Supplier’s Perspective

Posted on 7 February 2012 by Tony Colwell

Few customer-supplier partnerships are equal. Buyers need to be wary of entering into dependent relationships where the supplier will gain a dominant position. This is the first part of a 2-part article which sets out to examine how and why Procurement might consider the supplier’s perspective when selecting suppliers. It is particularly relevant for strategic supplies, where value creation and value capture are key objectives. Continue reading →

How to Determine Procurement Organisation – Part 3: The 5 Dimensions in Detail

Posted on 27 January 2012 by Tony Colwell

This is the third in a series of articles which examine the internal and external factors which, when taken into consideration, will indicate the preferred model for procurement within a business. Continue reading →

Avoiding the Pitfalls of Centralised Procurement: 18 Reasons why procurement cost-saving initiatives fail to deliver to the bottom line

Posted on 26 January 2012 by Tony Colwell

This article is an update to an earlier article – the fifth in a series on how to avoid the pitfalls of centralised procurement.

In the first article I commented on the reasons why, when many large organisations embark on centralised procurement initiatives with the promise of substantial savings, direct increases in profitability fail to materialize within the business units. A discussion to capture the views of other procurement professionals has been running at Procurement Professionals Group on LinkedIn.

This week I re-analyze the comments – 311 at time of writing this article – from 118 contributors, excluding myself. Continue reading →

How to Determine Procurement Organisation – Part 2: 5 Dimensions to be Considered

Posted on 21 January 2012 by Tony Colwell

This is the second in a series of articles which examine the internal and external factors which, when taken into consideration, will indicate the preferred model for procurement within a business. Continue reading →

How to Implement and Enhance a Gate Process – Part 6: Summary and 7 Top Tips

Posted on 14 January 2012 by Tony Colwell

This is the sixth in a series of articles on how to implement and enhance a gate process. The series offers advice in the context of consumer products. This article is a summary of the first 5 Articles together with my 7 top tips. Continue reading →

How to Determine Procurement Organisation – Part 1: 10 Objectives for Procurement

Posted on 12 January 2012 by Tony Colwell

A discussion has been running in the Procurement Professionals Group on LinkedIn to explore why do centralised procurement initiatives often promise substantial savings, then fail to deliver to the bottom line? Apart from historically falling short of expectations, we are facing new issues such as increasing emphasis on corporate social responsibility and sustainability. The discussion prompted me to write a short article setting out 5 models for procurement organisation and start another discussion, Continue reading →

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