On the surface procurement may not appear to be a risky profession. But as spend values increase, supply chains lengthen and the demands on buyers grow, the opportunity to make a cock-up that has serious repercussions – and in some cases might even bring down your business – becomes ever greater.
Families of soldiers killed while serving in Afghanistan have reacted angrily to news this week that the Ministry of Defence has paid out £47 million in bonuses this year to its civil servants.
With all this doom and gloom I was somewhat cheered to read research from Coutts that has found philanthropy is holding up, despite the downturn.
The environmental record of supermarkets is under the spotlight again with the release of a report by watchdog Consumer Focus
“Fourteen of 16 departmental commercial directors believe OGC has done little to address skills gaps within their department.” This was the view cast by the National Audit Office in its most recent review.
A story about planned savings at Nokia Siemens Networks caught my eye last week. As well as making an enormous €500 million (£446.9 million) of cost savings through job cuts and business restructuring, it believes it can save more than €500 million extra through better purchasing.
When I signed up to attend the ProcureCon conference this week in Brussels, the last thing I expected was to be shown a You Tube clip of father and son comedy-dance act Stavros Flatley’s first audition for Britain’s Got Talent.
I have just started a new job. I’ve been lucky enough to work for a number of companies and I love the excitement that surrounds a new role. Just as by the end of their first day salespeople know how to complete their expenses, finance will have counted how many light bulbs could be removed to cut costs and IT gurus will have already bypassed the firewall, there are things procurement can do to become effective quickly.
It was difficult to miss the Office of Fair Trading’s (OFT) announcement on 22 September that 103 of 112 construction companies listed in its investigation into anti-competitive behaviour would share fines of £129.5 million. The mainstream media lapped up the bad news/cowboy builder’s story.
A parade of press releases was issued from the construction companies picking up fines to explain how they became involved and outlining the lessons learnt from the inquiry. Hand-wringing SOAPBOX followed from trade organisations setting out the damage the investigation had done to the reputation of the industry.
Benchmarking oneself or one’s company can be a tricky issue, especially if you don’t want to pay a fortune for the privilege.
