Calderdale Meet the Buyer

More information about the Meet the Buyer event we are running on 21st November 2012.


http://www.businessgrowthcalderdale.co.uk/announcements/97/Connecting-Manufacturingl

The West Coast Mainline Debacle

The shambles over the awarding of the West Coast Mainline contract is the big public sector procurement story of the moment.

The story is being covered in a number of places - Peter Smith at Spend Matters has covered it a number of times, including providing links to the original tender (if you are interested enough).  Robert Peston over at the BBC has of course also commented.

Rather than rehash entirely, I will just make a few points.  Peter Smith has pointed out that there are 3 possibilities - first that the process was flawed, secondly that the correct process was not followed correctly, and finally that something changed somewhere through the process.  The current line is that it is the first problem, and that the fault lies with the civil servants who set up process.  Some of them are disputing that.

I think the first thing to say is that the problem in many people's eyes was the result, regardless of the process.  If the process had been flawed but awarded it to Virgin there would not have been this fuss.  People I know who use the service are happy with Virgin and concerned about changin - even if First are promising a better service.  We all know that people are very reluctant about change - even for the better (see Machiavelli).  This allowed Richard Branson to create the fuss which lead to the review which got us to the current situation.  I do not believe First group would have been able to achieve that.

If it is the wrong process, then we have to understand why.  There are suggestions that it was wrong assumptions about Risk - which is part of the process, not how it was applied.  It is a very long contract (15 years) and all assumptions about what will happen over the length of the contract are speculation ("It's difficult to make predictions - especially about the future" - Yogi Berra).  What will the oil price be in 2027? Which party will be in power?  Will we have superconducting electricity distribution?  Will we have self driving cars?  All of these could have impacts on both demand and delivery of train services.  So, it is tricky.

As to why we should compensate bidders for the cock up in the process - we want them to bid again in future, and the fault was ours (the public sector) not theirs.  EU procurement law allows them the potential recovery of the damage to their company resulting from the mistake, so they are due compensation.  The costs will in any case in some way be charged to the public purse - through higher fees if not a direct payment.

This one is going to rumble on and on.  Sadly there is a great risk it will be a political football rather than a learning opportunity. 

The one lesson I would like the government to take from this is that procurement is important, and needs to be supported to ensure value for money and efficiency.  It is not just a cost.

Robert Peston's blog at the BBC is here.
Spend Matters latest post on the matter is here

BTW the illustration is not a Virgin train but an old Russian train iirc.

Masters of Money

There is a great series being shown on BBC Two on Monday nights - Masters of Money, presented by BBC Economics editor Stephanie Flanders.  See here for a link to the programme on iplayer.

These days it is useful for all of us to know a little bit about economic theory, to help us to decide which approach is most likely to be followed by politicians, and which appoach is most likely to work.  Sadly these are not always the same (whichever party is in power).

This is the sort of stuff that the BBC can point at when justifying the license fee - bringing knowledge to the masses.

Calderdale Manufacturing Meet the Buyer

I am involved in a Meet the Buyer event that is being held in the Calderdale area (around Halifax, UK).  The venue is The Shay (Halifax Town FC ground), on 21st November 2012.
The focus of the event will be on Manufacturing.  More details to follow, but I will be one of the speakers entertaining people whilst waiting for appointments as well as helping to set up and run the event.

Engineering Procurement

Check your diaries and book ahead, I shall be running a one day course for IChemE on Engineering Procurement on Wednesday 23rd September 2013.  Yes, next year not this year (2012).  So you have more than a year to wait.

This course will of course focus on the procurement for the Chemicals industry, in particular for Chemical Engineers.  It is new enough that it is not yet advertised on the IChemE website, and I shall let you know when it is.  Booking is through the IChemE, and the price should be about £500 +VAT for IChemE members, £600+VAT for non-IChemE members (but don't hold me to that).

We live in a Science Fiction World

The pace of change around us is relentless, but often imperceptible.  The other day my son announced he needed a photograph to take to school.  This is a faff, but hardly a major issue apart from the fact that he announced it at about 20 to 9.  After a few seconds of panic, I realised the answer - quick photo on the iphone, then wirelessly print on his printer in his bedroom while he ran upstairs to fetch.  When I was his age the best we could have hoped for was a polaroid, or a photo booth.  Otherwise photographs had to be batched till you get roll developed which took about a week.  (how many were on a roll?  I can't remember).

These changes are hardly life changing, but just a sign of how much things move on and we don't really notice.

Last week there were a couple of inputs on the same topic by Penny Arcade here, and Warren Ellis here.
Let me cut and paste a small section of Warren Ellis's talk...
"
There are six people living in space right now. There are people printing prototypes of human organs, and people printing nanowire tissue that will bond with human flesh and the human electrical system.
We’ve photographed the shadow of a single atom. We’ve got robot legs controlled by brainwaves. . .
Here’s another angle on vintage space: Voyager 1 is more than 11 billion miles away, and it’s run off 64K of computing power and an eight-track tape deck."

I recently read 25 things you need to know about the future, but Christopher Barnett.   If you don't know what is happening in the 25 areas he discusses, then you owe it to yourself to find out.  Otherwise the future will creep up on you unnoticed even more.  And it is amazing!

Fundamentals of Supply Chain course

I shall be running a 4 day Fundamentals of Supply Chain course 15th to 18th October in Hastings, which is a lovely UK sea side town on the south coast.  This is going to be a small number  of delegates so any one interested in joining in please let me know - it will be a chance to have a course in a really small group and get personnalised support. 

Details are here.