Bad Buying by Peter Smith

That's a book by Peter Smith, not examples of bad buying he has carried out!

 Not out till October, but it looks very interesting and I know I shall be first in line.  He promises it will cover Brandenburg airport in Berlin, which is one of my favourites (just because it is nice to have an example where we can compare with a British project that was mostly very successful - Heathrow Terminal 5).

In the meantime there is a website and Peter is promoting it on twitter at @gpetersmith.  

Peter is finding lots of things for the sequel in current government practices during the pandemic.

I only wish I had thought to write it first - but I am sure Peter will do a better job than I will.  

(I also expect lots of music tips)

Full disclosure - I've only ever met Peter once, when he asked me to write a brief article about tendering tips - which I never did! 

New UK Procurement regulations - February 2015

The new UK Procurement regulations, enacting last year's EU procurement directive, have now been introduced to parliament and will take effect in England,Wales and Northern Ireland on 26th February 2015 I believe (the document linked to by www.gov.uk still helpfully has the phrase "date to be inserted" where the date should be, so I am not certain).  Scotland will follow later in the year (reminding us once again that Scotland, whilst part of the Union, is a different country with a different legal system).

These new regulations are something we have been discussing for a couple of years, and anticipating in earnest since this time in 2014 when the directive was passed.

There are some significant changes such as new procurement routes (Innovation partnership, competitive procedure with negotiation) and some more minor ones (the process should generally be faster).

If you want to know more then you can read the PDF at this link here, or attend one of the training courses that I have been plugging run by BIP Solutions or the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply where it will be it will be a little bit more digestible.    There is also a government discussion document about the introduction of the new regulations which is available here.

When I have had time to digest the changes, we shall also update our book Excellence in Public Sector Procurement (Emmett & Wright, Cambridge Academic 2011) which naturally will need to take account of the new regulations.  No timescale for that, but not before the summer I expect.

More books

As has been hinted at in previous posts, I now have the go-ahead for two new books - The Quick Guide to Purchasing Management, and the Quick Guide to Purchasing Negotiation.  They will probably come out in that order because I have more notes for the former than the latter.  I suspect there will be more interest in the Negotiation book, but I hope I am wrong.
The books will be shorter than Excellence in Public Sector Procurement, but are intended to be in depth studies rather than general introductions.  They will be applicable to both public and private sector Purchasing. 

The timescale for publication relies on me writing them, but I am hopeful that both (or at least one) will see print this year.  That might seem slow, but so am I and so is the print publication cycle. We have not yet decided on whether will be electronic editions, and that probably depends on the Kindle sales we have achieved for other books - which I shall not find out about until March or so.

I might trial some sections of the books hear, so please feel free to comment and improve them ahead of publicaction.

Book Review: Intervention - The Battle for Better Business

As the economic continues to bump along the bottom in the UK, there is a continual focus on the ways to increase entrepreneurship and stimulate the economy.  Many of the people who have found themselves outside of regular employment are setting up in business for themselves, creating a new wave of business start-ups.  There is considerable academic (and far from academic) debate about how best to support entrepreneurs, whether we should, and if we do what types of entrepreneur to support.  Should support be focussed on so called “high growth” prospects, which have the capacity to grow rapidly from a few founders to companies employing hundreds?  Should we instead focus support on the large established companies that employ significant numbers of people?  Or are those businesses types of business able to support themselves, and should we focus on the small one man band new entrants to the commercial world?

These arguments are not new, and I have just finished reading a book that covers some of this ground.  Intervention – the battle for Better business (by Elliot Forte) covers the history of the BusinessLink business support group in the UK since its introduction by Michael Heseltine to the effect abandonment of the model under the current coalition government.

In the name of full disclosure I should point out I was both a client of and supplier to a variety of Business Link organisations, and so benefited greatly from their activities during the past 15 or so years.

The book is written by a Business Link insider who obviously valued their activities, and sees it as a shame that they have been closed down to be replaced by a website containing basic business information.  He is hardly uncritical of the way the organisation(s) operated, and in particular the way they had to adapt to constantly changing political priorities.  (one Business Link Operator I worked with closely changed its name, remit and organisation every 2 years for a decade – which was hardly beneficial for productivity).

I tend to agree with his conclusions that Business Links were particularly beneficial for the smaller operators.  There is an argument put forward that most of the information needed to setup and run a successful small business is available on the web – but many people setting up for themselves are practical people who benefit from a conversation rather than trawling through web pages.  For the same reason the excellent books provided by banks to new starts tend to sit on the shelves.  I think these micro start-ups are the ones who benefit from business advisors – but they are exactly the people who do not have the money (or self awareness) to employ one.  The larger and potentially more successful businesses can buy in their own support rather than using a government subsidised service.

Perhaps the biggest problem is the 10 to 50 man business that would benefit from external business advice, but is sceptical of consultants and will not employ them.  Here the Business Links provided a good introduction at subsidised prices, often free.

The book highlights the relatively low cost of Business Links and the large number of businesses that they touched – however lightly.   The current Business Link website largely duplicates and consolidates  information available in other places.  The government is focussing resources on companies with potential for rapid growth through the Regional Growth Fund, which is equivalent to the running costs of Business Links for a decade.  So we are placing quite a large bet on companies meeting their potential.

My concern is that we have a new community of small scale entrepreneurs starting in business during the depths of a recession.  Those that come through this will be the foundations of Britain’s next entrepreneurial community – but many will fail when their redundancy money or savings runs out.  A little bit of government funded support could increase the percentage making it through, and give a stronger business community in the future.  I too think the Business Links were a useful, if far from perfect, contributor to business success in the UK.

Book Review in Supply Management

My book with Stuart Emmett “Excellence in Public Sector Procurement” has been review in Supply Management.  See here.

If I can take the author’s usual creative care in picking out bits of reviews, it describes it as  “a fine book” but would like to see more focus on actual Excellence.  Comments like that are actually very helpful in the plans for a 2^nd edition, if there is sufficient interest/demand.

The book itself is available at Amazon here.

Kindle edition of Excellence in Public Sector Procurement

There is now a Kindle edition of our book Excellence in Public Sector Procurement available through Amazon.  This has the twin advantages of being both lighter and cheaper than the print edition - assuming you already have a Kindle of course, though you can also read it on PCs and smart phones using the Kindle App.

Keep that thought

Like many people I am often trying to juggle several different projects at the same time.  Currently, there is a sourcing project, a raft of new courses, work on contract management, and a major programme focussing on smes in supply chains that starts in April 2012.  Along with that I have agreed to write two new books (short ones this time) as part of a new range designed by Stuart Emmett (my co-author on Excellence in Public Sector Procurement).

To keep track of these, and any ideas that come along to me, I have a system of paper and electronic folders and a number of project plans and timelines. 

For the books and courses Stuart has an excellent filing system of case studies, news paper clippings and reference documents.  I find that once things hit my filing cabinet they tend to stay there.

So I am experimenting with Evernote, which is an electronic app that syncs across my phone, pcs and laptops and allows me to drop documents, images, web pages  - basically any electronic stuff - into a folder marked with key words.  It seems to be helping with the early stage process of grabbing a lot of things and looking at them until you can see what fits and what does not.  I thought it might be helpful for others too.  It is a freemium programme (free for limited use), and not I am not getting a cut.

Other productivity tools I use are Dropbox, which allows me to sync a folder of documents across my phone, laptops and pcs and is invaluable in allowing me to work on the same document in many different places.  It also reduces the worry for a travelling trainer that I might somehow lose my laptop and presentation - I can always retrieve a copy from my Dropbox.  Again freemium product - you get a limited amount of space free, but have to pay for more.  If you are interested, then we can both get more space for free if I refer you into Dropbox.

As a trainer I frequently subject people to "Death by PowerPoint".  Personally I rather like it, but I know some people hate it.  For a recent (successful) pitch we used Prezi instead, which was a rather more fun and interesting way of showing information.  Again this is free to try, but anyone can see what you produce.  A limited licence is $59/year or $159/year for the full version.  I had an objection to paying for an annual license, but it was pointed out to me that even Microsoft Office has a limited life before it is fundamentally obsolete - isnt that similar to paying an annual license?  Reasonable point.

So now to actually try and use these productivity tools to be productive, rather than blogging about them.  If you want to follow up on Evernote there is an interesting article about it on The Next Web here.

New book on Public Sector Procurement

Our new book is now published by Cambridge Academic, and is called “Excellence in Public Sector Procurement in Public Sector Procurement-How to control costs and add value”

Co-authored with Stuart Emmett, it has been written because whilst, there are many general books covering Procurement, not many cover solely the public sector.

Yet this sector spends colossal amounts of taxpayer’s money on goods and services; the NHS alone, for example, is one the largest organisations in the world.

The UK public sector also has its own peculiarities and differences from the private sector, for example, the EU Procurement Rules that guide and direct how purchasing must be undertaken.  At regional and local level there are additional priorities, which are often subject to political oversight.  In addition there are opportunities to use Procurement as a tool for wider objectives.

It may be that such regulation constrains and limits procurement best practice and therefore such tensions will also be briefly explored in the book. However the main thrust of the book, will be the requirement to work working within the existing rules and guidelines.

The style of the book is our usual one of being direct with little jargon. It covers all of the basics as well as providing detailed and wider discussions to encourage thought and practical application. To facilitate practical application, the book is illustrated by case studies and application checklists.

The contents cover the following main sections:

Part one. Procurement Objectives

·         Procurement Evolution and The Supply Chain

·         Strategic and Organizational Procurement

·         Procurement Objectives

·         The 5 Rights

·         Product and Services Differences

·         Procurement by the Strategic Requirements

Part two: The Procurement Cycle

·         Needs/Specifying

·         Sourcing

·         Enquiry and Evaluation

·         Tendering in the Public Sector

·         Order placing and Contracts

·         Handling orders

·         Progressing and Delivery

·         Loss and Disputes

·         Balancing Commercial and social objectives

Part three. Public Sector Procurement Frameworks

·         Overview

·         The Regulatory framework

·         Lower Value Procurements

·         Best Value concepts

·         SME concordat

Part four. Best Practice and Contexts

·         Suppliers pricing

·         Relationship based approaches

·         Outsourcing with NHS Case Study

·         Private Finance Initiative

·         ICT and E- Procurement

·         ICT Project Procurement

·         Buying from the third sector

·         Supplier Development

·         Contract  Management      

·         Budget management  

Part five. Public Sector Procurement: some Conclusions

·         Size of the public sector

·         Controversy: Is tendering the best way?

Appendices

·         Public sector Procurement in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

·         International Public Procurement challenges

This book is intended for:

·         Professional managers in all public sector procurement and supply roles and positions.

·         Suppliers in the private sector who need to understand the public sector

·         Academics such as lecturers or students studying business topics like procurement, purchasing and the supply chain

·         Students of professional institutes such as the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply, The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, Institute of Supply Management and others.

The book is available right now from:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Excellence-Public-Sector-Procurement-Stuart/dp/1903499666/ref=sr_1_37?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1322819339&sr=1-37