Procurex North - promo video

The event was great as usual - but I've been very busy since then developing and delivering a range of courses for CIPS. 

Procurex is of course BIPS - confusing I know.
I can be glimpsed in the video of the Procurex North event at about 2 minutes and 55 secs - see here.

Hope to see you there next time.

Procurex North 8th March 2016 in Manchester

Hope to see you there.  I have a rather full dance card of presentations. I  hope not to overrun.  I shall be in the Supplier Training Zone from 1pm (and a few other odds and ends before that)

Tesco - late payment scandal

So Tesco have been rapped on the knuckles for late payment - see BBC here.

Almost a year ago I was writing about this here. 

Let's be clear - this was a deliberate breaking of agreed contracts by a large customer taking advantage of smaller suppliers.  Tesco are claiming they are undertaking "reorganising, refocusing and retraining our teams".  This is disengenous.  They knew exactly what they were doing, and they did it as a deliberate policy.  If they are serious about the apologies they need to sack the managers responsible immediately - all the way up to the board.  Don't pretend they have already gone, or did not know what was going on.  Fraud is a hard word but what else do you call signing contracts you have no intention of honouring?

People could have (and may have) lost jobs and businesses so that Tesco managers could claim inflated profits and cashflow, and falsely claim bonuses.  Those bonuses must be recovered, and the victim businesses compensated.

In the end the accouting scandal of which this is part might cost Tesco £500m in fines.  Was it worth it?

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.

Preparing Perfect Tenders - Leeds, 4th November 2015

Been on holiday, and so not much notice for this one.http://www.passprocurement.co.uk/topics/preparing-perfect-tenders/

Ideal for me because it is just around the corner in Leeds.  And about one of my favourite topic - how to win tenders.

Bit late but still room for any latecomers.

One day on Project Management in London

Tomorrow (21st October 2015) I shall be running a one day course in London for LMC covering some issues in Project Management.  A bit late for booking for this course (sorry) but they do have a lot of other interesting courses available at their website www.lmcuk.com

And now I shall retreat back to fuming about my bank declining my card for my hotel in London because "hotel transactions are sometimes fraudulent".  Indeed, but as a frequent traveler they are also rather essential.  My hotel took the opportunity to decline my early (discounted) booking in favour of more lucrative clients.  Luckily I have found a replacement that is only a bit more expensive. 

Procurex Scotland- Tuesday 6th October 2015

Pretty much straight after the weekend I shall be going to Glasgow for the annual Procurex Scotland event, on Tuesday 6th October 2015 at the SECC.  Some very interesting talks - which I may well miss because I shall be presenting in one of the Key Event Zones.  You can't say you haven't been warned.

Hope to see you there - always an interesting event.

If Scotland is a wee bit far there Procurex events in 2016 in Wales, Ireland, and the North and South of England (some of which I shall not be at, so you can pick and choose).