I’m going to pick up on Dave Henshall’s blog from last week, looking at some of the comments that were made by readers of Dave’s piece (so thanks to those who influenced this).
I’m afraid the entire debate of whether government should abandon the OJEU, while interesting, started from a false premise. Having spent the weekend at the Reading Festival, it is a bit like me starting a debate about whether I would prefer to be lead guitarist for the Arcade Fire or Blink 182. It passes the time amusingly but doesn’t really have any relationship to reality. (more…)
September in the UK always feels like ‘back to school’ time, despite the fact that I’m at work, have not just had six weeks off and have not been at school for quite some time.
Still, the late summer bank holiday has been and gone, colleagues are back from their vacations and the autumn term is upon us.
This puts me in mind of uniform prices, and just as GCSE and A level results rise every year, it seems the cost of a school outfit declines.
At the risk of sounding preoccupied with the UK public sector, we can’t ignore developments of the past few weeks.
The Audit Commission is to be scrapped, 44,000 cost-saving ideas have been posted on the UK Spending Challenge website, and two big hitters have been appointed to spearhead the latest efficiency effort.
John Collington, now former Home Office commercial director, was expected to take up his post as head of procurement in the Cabinet Office’s new Efficiency and Reform Group yesterday. And Sir Philip Green, the chief of clothing retailer Arcadia Group, has been asked by prime minister David Cameron to lead an external review of government spending. (more…)
Salespeople and purchasers – a combination with the potential for conflict, if ever there was one.
We could sit and talk about how we, as the vendor community, respect and support the efforts and dedication of purchasing. But let’s skip this and deal with the elephant in the room that exists when a salesperson is face-to-face with a professional buyer. (more…)
I have been thinking rather a lot about Chrissie Hynde, lead singer of the pop group The Pretenders. Perhaps I ought to clarify that last remark. Recently I have been thinking a lot about the song Hymn to Her, a hit record (as we used to say) in 1986.
It is the lovely refrain of that song, performed by Ms Hynde, that has been in my head: “Some things change, some stay the same.” This is the potency of popular music, to paraphrase Noel Coward. It can say apparently very simple things but in a memorable and powerful way. (more…)
Copper is the commodity of the moment, evidently. Demand from fast-growing economies such as China – combined with ageing copper mines struggling to keep up – have caused the metal to attract such a premium from scrap merchants and buyers that unscrupulous individuals are going to extraordinary lengths to get hold of it.
In Leeds a man was admitted to hospital recently with severe burns to his face, hands and chest after causing an explosion while trying to cut through a live copper cable with a saw. (more…)
In the first of his regular diaries following the progress of his upcoming MBA course, Chris Atkins, procurement officer at Knowledge Pool, explains his motivation for furthering his studies.
As my CIPS graduate diploma studies drew to a close with my final level six exam last November, like most students I felt a sense of relief that it was all over. (more…)
On reading this my immediate thought was that these researchers clearly didn’t examine the progress of the England football or cricket teams, because if you follow this logic their collective failure over multiple decades should have made them almost unbeatable by now. (more…)
One feature in Supply Management that I look forward to reading (and writing) is My way to the top.
My favourite part (and I can probably vouch for the rest of the SM team on this) is where we ask senior purchasers more light-hearted questions to get to know them a little better, such as “What song sums up procurement?”
The football transfer window will close at the end of the month. Perhaps it is not a standout date in every procurement manager’s diary, but it has got me thinking. Football clubs and managers are buyers in a very real sense. The Premier League, pumped with foreign cash, is boosting the astronomical prices paid for the world’s elite players. (more…)
I’m going to pick up on Dave Henshall’s blog from last week, looking at some of the comments that were made by readers of Dave’s piece (so thanks to those who influenced this).![[Bloglines]](http://blog.supplymanagement.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/bloglines.png)
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