Rising above

 I am currently marking some assignments from Italy.  

Given the results of Euro 2020 and the Olympics 4x100m men's final I have revenge in my hands.... but I shall rise above.

Instead I shall have pizza for tea.  And might just put pineapple on it as my petty revenge.

They are pretty good actually (at football, running and writing assignments, and of course food).

Good news/bad news - Procure4London

The local authorities in London are banding together to procure collectively.  This should achieve the twin aims of reducing costs, and making it easier for smes to bid for business (though not necessarily to win business).  The site went live on 9th September 2011 - see here.

Why do I say good news/bad news?  Well partly the point  I made about about whether this will help smes.
But secondly, it will be another portal.  Opportunities are already supposed to being shared through ContractFinder, and many London opportunities (not just Olympic opportunities) are going through Competefor.  The original intention was to have Competefor as a legacy of the Olympic Games.  That probably died with Glasgow 2014 decided not to use it, but it seems a shame not to use it for this opportunity.  There may be issues I do not understand but it seems from here like a duplication of effort - and cost.

One step forward, one step back...

CrossRail - fall out from the Bombardier/Siemens decision

The Prime Minister has announced (rather quietly I thought) that there will be no review of the decision to award the Thameslink to Siemens rather than Bombardier.  This is not surprising as the alternatives were going to be extremely unpleasant - at best we could find a valid reason to annul the competition, and restart the process with the award (hopefully) coming to a different company.  At worst the UK gets a hefty fine from the European Union and sued by Siemens.  In the middle the government looks powerless to act.

The fallout continues though, and in the link here it is reported that Alstrom have withdrawn from the process to supply trains to the CrossRail project.  Now if you have not been following these projects, it should be pointed out that CrossRail and ThamesLink are major projects - far larger and more expensive than the Olympics, but with a much lower public profile.  Both should make a major contribution to travel in London and the South East. 

The government has announced that it delay the tend for the trains by a few months (from late 2011 to early 2012)  and will review the procurement process.  The shortlisted companies are Siemens, Bombardier, Hitachi and Ferrocarrilles.  Alstrom have withdrawn from the bidding process.

The question is what can the government achieve?  Although they blame the previous administration for the rules, in reality all that is happening is that the process is following EU procurement rules.  Transport Secretary Philip Hammond says he wants to change the rules so that "UK companies compete on an equal footing with Continental competitors".  Of course that is already happening, or we would be able to lodge a case with the EU for illegal support, non-competitive behaviour, cross subsidies or something similar.  If we have evidence that it is not happening, then what are we doing using the EU legal system to correct the problem.

What the minister means, and most of us would be behind him on this, is that he wants the work to go to a British company.  In practice this means Canadian company Bombardier, rather than German company Siemens.  The withdrawal of Alstrom may be a sign that they perceive the UK government to be "rigging" the process so that Bombardier wins. 

Which then leads us to ackward consequences.  If Bombardier do win, will people think it is a political fix?  Will Bombardier actually have the best bid?  Or will we be paying a higher price for lower quality to keep jobs in Britain?  And will the EU approve it?  Will it actually help Bombardier in the long term if they can only win business that is "sorted" for them?
If Siemens, or one of the other bidders win, what will that mean for the government's rhetoric?

It is politically unpopular, but the government could take the tack of pointing out that we want fair competition across Europe, and the way to do that is not to impose barriers but to ensure other countries follow the due process.  If we give preference to national companies, how can we complain about other countries doing the same?  And where does the balance lie between encouraging business competition and nurturing developing or weak business sectors?  And having given a lead that national governments can ensure business goes to national companies, what will the impact be on UK exports?

The government is encouraging British business to have an input on their submissions on proposed changes to EU procurement legislation, and I encourage companies to have their say.  However realistically the choice for the UK government is to agree to EU procurement policy, and the consequences of that single market, or to withdraw from the EU.  There is a lot of support for withdrawal in both the country and the government (though personally I do not agree) and it is possibly the time to have that debate about the benefits (advantages) and obligations (disadvantages) of being in the European Union.

Business Ethics revisited

The Chief Executive of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, John Scott has resigned after accepting gifts and hospitality from potential suppliers - see here.

I have no idea of the extent of these gifts, or hospitality - only one instance is referred to by the BBC article. However after the problems in Dehli in 2010 it is essential that 2014 is squeeky clean. Glasgow has had a bad image in the past for perceived public sector corruption, and 2014 will need to ensure that the highest possible standards are met in order to overcome that image. Whether it is deserved or not, is not the point. The point is that the Games are to showcase Glasgow, and to a lesser extent Scotland and the rest of the UK, and therefore need to able to come through repeated and intense scrutiny with no blemishes.

This is difficult because the process of identifying sponsors requires a great deal of "shmoozing" and relationship building to encourage the sponsors to contribute hard cash. However the line between sponsors, supporters and suppliers can be quite blurred in major sporting events - and companies move from being one to being another quite often.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of this particular case it was right for John Scott to go - regardless of his past contribution to the Games, in the future he media would not let go of this incident, and would concentrate on identifying other potential wrong doing. The contagion has to stop at the first point.

The fact that with a year to go before the London 2012 Olympics we are not seeing this sort of story about them is testiment to their hard work in establishing and maintaining standards of business ethics. But many a slip between cup and lip.

A slow down in the Public Sector

When the changes to the public sector were announced, my first thoughts (as a consultant to the sector) were that we would either see a reduction in the number of public sector contracts being put up for tender, or a "splurge" as publically funded bodies spent money while they had it, followed by a reduction. As we move into 2011, it looks like the first of those is pretty much what happened. If you look at the sites were public sector tenders are advertised, the number of opportunities being listed seems significantly lower than this time in previous years. I anticipate that it will be even lower after March 2011, when the new financial year starts.

The two big projects that will of course continue to have requirements are the London 2012 Olympics, and the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. However both of those are now pretty close, and anyone wanting to be involved has a narrowing window of opportunity.

A further change that is coming is that the regional Business Link operators are being closed in November 2011 (rather than March 2012 as many expected). From April 2011 we should expect that regional support services will be running down, ahead of the establishment of a limited national service from November 2011. As a consultant this is mixed news - the Business Link organisations have occasionally introduced me to clients, but in some ways we were in competition. In future businesses looking for support will have to look to the private sector, which means more opportunities for PAWA and similar companies. I would strongly suggest any business looking for support takes advantage of the Business Link now while it is still there in your region - any free or funded support they can offer you is unlikely to be available after this year (or even before that).

Rio 2016

Hard to believe that it is more than 4 years since London won the right to stage the 2012 Olympics. What a thrill it was, coupled with a certain Schadenfreude at the French disappointment. London 2012 made a great pitch - pointing out the UK is such as young country, and that London is one of the great international cities. Maybe only New York has that same buzz. And now less than 3 years until the Games themselves.

Although it may have been easier for UK companies to get business in Madrid or Chicago because of proximity or a common language, there should be lots of opportunities in Rio. The fact that this is the first Olympics in South America, means that there will not be the level of established infrastructure and preferred suppliers that there is in Europe and North America.
Obviously some of that will develop during the World cup of 2014 - but the page will be blanker than it is for most Games, and UK companies should have the momentum coming out of 2012 to do well.

Delivering the London 2012 Olympic Games

We are luckily enough to be involved in helping companies look at supplying the London 2012 and other major events - details when possible.
In the meantime, here is a link to YouTube from the CIPS website, showing one of the showcase speeches at the 2008 conference by John Armitt, Chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority. In case you were in doubt about the role of the ODA, it is often said that they build theatre and LOCOG put on the show - which indicates the difference in the size of the budgets.