This blog entry is inspired by Leo King, independent journalist, who recently asked three questions and interviewed me for an article in The Times, 21 January, “Building a First-Class Procurement Function.” These are my notes in preparation for the interview, with a few additions and corrected grammar for this publication.
The Public Accounts Committee (“PAC”) published its report last week, ” Cost reduction in central government: summary of progress“. The report may be of interest to procurement stakeholders in both public and private sectors :
Judging by the limited references in the literature on purchasing practice and purchasing organisation, it would seem that purchasing activity analysis is a much underrated tool.
Why is activity analysis an important tool in determining purchasing organisation and establishing good practice? Continue reading
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
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
A discussion has been running in the Procurement Professionals Group on LinkedIn to explore the reasons why centralised procurement initiatives often promise substantial savings, then fail to deliver to the bottom line. Various contributors have expressed different interpretations of “centralised procurement” which has prompted me to write a short article setting out the five models for procurement organisation. Continue reading
This week I was alerted by Dutch procurement consultant, Robbert den Braber, to a blog by technology sourcing expert, Dr Michael Lamoureux – a critique of an article by Accenture senior manager Kamendran Govender entitled “Command and Supply” about procurement practice to achieve superior supply chain performance.
Another article by freelance writer Stephanie Overby, “Is There a Lack of Innovation From Outsourcers?” reviewed the findings of a 2011 Forrester Research Survey, where 41% of outsourcing clients cited lack of innovation as the biggest challenge with their existing IT services relationships, and quoted Forrester analyst, Jan Erik Aase, “I believe my findings apply to any vendor relationship.”
The articles resonated with my recent blogs “How to Start a Strategic Value-Added Programme” and “How to select suppliers to create value” where I focused on assessing supplier’s capability to collaborate and innovate, to help us optimize existing products/services, and to achieve our desired business outcomes.
Now I aim to stimulate readers to think about why procurement (and other) organisations’ performance may be missing the mark. Continue reading