Course: Effective Purchasing, Tendering and Supplier Selection, 18-22 December 2016, Dubai

Last course of 2016 for me is in Dubai, and I hope that we shall give a good send off to what has been a rather dramatic year (to say the least).  I rather hope that 2017 will be less dramatic.  Let's be optimistic about it, anyway.

This might be my last Dubai course for some time (we are still looking at 2017 dates) so I hope that I shall see you there.
The course title rather says it all, but there is a full description and book form here.

After that is Christmas in the UK, and then 2017.  Bring it on.  Hope you have a good one.

Course: Tendering Procurement and Negotiation skills, Dubai 4-8 December 2016

I am currently in damp old London Town, but in a couple of weeks I shall be off to Dubai to run Tendering, Procurement and Negotiation skills.

We have run this a couple of times already this year and the reception has been good - well I know I would say that but it has.

It is a bit of a "Ronseal" course - it does what it says on the tin.

Dubai is great in December - particularly the shopping.  Even if the exchange rate has not been in favour of sterling recently.  Hopefully the course content will help get over the shock.  Hope to see you there.

Training course: Applying EU Procurement Processes, Manchester, 30th June 2016

This is the second of 2 single days from CIPS covering the fundamentals of Public sector procurement in the EU.  Which on that date we still will be, though we might not be some time later.  Whatever happens in the referendum though these regulations will be with us for the next few years.

It does help if you have attended the first of these days, but it is not essential - particularly if you have some experience. 

In this course we look in more detail at some of the less usual procurement processes, such as Innovation Partnerships, and flesh out a bit more of the surrounding requirements we outlined in day 1.

You can do both days in a row or spread them out to suit yourself.

Full details are here.

Hope to see you at one or the other - or even both.

Brexit and Public Procurement

I've been meaning to mention the impact of possible Brexit on Public Procurement, but just haven't had the time.  And it looks like Pinsent Masons have covered most of what I wanted to say - here linked on the excellent Spend Matters blog.

In short, if we stay nothing changes.  If we leave, nothing changes - at least not for quite a while.  And even then it might not.  We are signed up to the WTO Government Procurement Agreement, which is the basis of quite a lot of the EU Procurement directive, and therefore our procurement regulations.  Deciding what whether we would leave that agreement, and if so what we would change will probably not be top the the government's agenda post Brexit.

As Pinsent Masons have pointed out, rather than reducing bureaucracy the Government seems quite keen on adding things on top of the directive (with good intentions) so we might end up with more regulation rather than less.

Any how over the next 5 years, I would not expect to see a lot of change.  After that?  Who knows.

The price of oil - a case for investing in training

This week I am due to be in Dubai presenting courses on Procurement and Supply Chain Management.  Instead I am at home writing material for the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply, which in some ways suits as it is nice to have a few days in a row to write rather than clutching hours here and there.

So far this year we have cancelled 5 weeks worth of courses in or for the Middle east, which is not surprisingly dominated by the oil and gas industry.  The dramatic fall in the price of oil (currently about $41/barrel down from over $100) has meant a massive cut in spending on training across the ME and in particular the oil and gas sector.

Now I have a vested interest in this because I work as a trainer, but I think we should make the case that training in procurement and supply (above other things) should be protected because it should pay for itself.

The usual argument is that when there is a financial shock it is sensible to cut back on discretionary spend - don't spend money unless you have to.  And I don't argue with that. 

However Procurement in the oil and gas industries in recent years has been focussed on Quality, delivery, availability, effectiveness and other non-price issues.  The high price of oil, and the relatively high margins it gave, meant that Price was not the dominant issue.  Now we are in a different environment.

Now Safety and Quality are things that cannot be comprised in process industries, but we can pivot to put far greater emphasis on price and cost rather than issues such as flexibility or efficiency.  That does require a change within the organisation, and a change in emphasis for the Procurement team and Suppliers.

In some situations that may mean a focus on partnership and joint cost reduction.  In others it may moving to a much more adversarial relationship than before.  The trick is in deciding where and when.

Which is where training comes in.  Training is not just about learning new things.  It is also where we can go back to basics and build up again in a new pattern.  It is where we can challenge established ideas and established ways of thinking.  It is where we can learn from others and test new concepts in a risk free (or low risk) environment.  In good training it is where we can plan how we are going to deliver in this new world.

In short a Procurement and Supply Chain training course could, and perhaps should, allow delegates to come away to save ten or more times the cost of the training.  At the least delegates should come away with some plans to save the cost of the event within a tight timescale (perhaps 3 months).  Those savings will then repeat over coming months adding multiples to the overall cost reduction.

The Return on Investment on Procurement training is high anyway, but when you need to save a lot of money in a hurry it is even better.  Particularly if it allows you to avoid making "savings" that will in the end cost more through lost production.

OK, you can say that I am self-serving in making this argument, but I think it makes sense.  In a losing football team you need to stop conceding goals.  You don't do that by getting rid of the Goalkeeper.

Procurex North: Manchester 8th March 2016

Apologies for the lack of posting, but I have been rather busy on a number of rather interesting training programmes that I hope to be able to tell you about later.  They should be continuing throughout this year (and maybe next) so I do hope to get clearance from the client.

One thing I can mention though is that I shall once again be presenting at Procurex North in Manchester on 8th March 2016.  I shall be running one of the training zones (not sure which one yet), but more importantly Sally Collier Chief Executive of the Crown Commercial Service will be giving one of the key note speeches.  I'll forgive you if you listen to her rather than me.

Hope to see you there.