After a short break due to the Covid19 pandemic (5 years?) we are returning to running this course face to fact in Rugby for a full 2 days.
Will be a great opportunity to network and of course to interrogate me about what I meant.
Hope to see you there.
Full details here
Just to confirm: this is going ahead and we are getting pretty full for numbers - so if you are interested, best to book now.
I am delighted to be starting a new series of courses with GovPD, starting 4th June 2025 with Understanding and Implementing the Procurement Act 2023.
The course is online and (as usual with me) will have lots of opportunity for delegates to interact and ask questions.
This first running is just about sold out but we are going to be running it more times in 2025/6, with the next date on 5th August 2025.
Full details of the course are here. Hope to see you there.
Well, at least with a tariff things are merely (a lot) more expensive. It may lead to some suppliers dropping out of the market, and some products and services no longer being available.... but in theory they just add cost, inconvenience and drive inflation.
A bigger concern, which I think has been there but just not really a major focus of attention, is that China is not only a key manufacturer but a key source of raw materials. Which they have tight control on. Through the belt and road initiative they also exert control on some alternative sources of supply.
A particular choke point may be on rare earth metals (physicists joke that they are not rare, not earth and not even metals... but ignore us).
Controlling access to these essential elements used in advanced materials has long been a key Chinese economic strategy - and now they may just turn off the supply to the USA. And the EU.
Not being able to get things at any price is a bigger problem than higher prices.
A couple of articles here and here.
Good luck out there.
WELL, we are still in uncertain times. Tariffs are being introduced, reduced, raised, paused, exempted on what feels like a daily basis.
So, from a Procurement & Supply Chain point of view let's take the positives - our role in the organisation is (currently) critical to success - maybe even to survival. So, for once in our lives we are on the main stage (or at the very least, we should be - it may not be happening for you).
And because of the complex nature of some of these tariffs (see below) it is vitally important that we understand the origins and structure of our supply chains. So, we should be supported in those investigations rather than being told just to get a shipment for Tuesday...
Being less flippant and exaggerated, it is a good reminder of the Covid-19 lesson that unless we really understand our supply chains we are not aware of the risks and opportunities within it.
Good hunting.
The world has changed. It is not the same is it was on 31st March 2025.
I'm not in a position to tell you what to do in response, apart from to suggest that doing nothing is not an option.
The good news for Procurement and Supply Chain professionals is that our organisations now need us, and need us to be on top of our game.
Even if you management has not requested you to do so, I recommend you look hard at your existing supply chains and review your Risk Registers. Consider what might change and what your options are (if you have any).
The situation is likely to remain fluid for quite some time. Good luck!
Well the new National Procurement Policy Statement (NPPS) is here.
And 3/5ths of it seem pretty simple to reconcile with procurement. The other 2/5?
Well that is why you need to come along to PASS Procurement's course on Delivering Against the new NPPS = 27th March 2025 online. Full details here.
hope to see you there.
(We have rescheduled the online event from April 2025)
The ever popular What Engineers Need to know about Contracts course is being run twice by IChemE this year - once online in October 2025, and once face to face in July 2025.
The face to face event is of course limited in numbers, and is getting pretty full already so if you want a couple of days in Rugby better get booking.
The online course is pretty much the same content but 3 half days rather than 2 full days, and of course it is much easier to accommodate any number of delegates.
Full details of the courses are available here.
Hope to see you on one or the other (honestly no need to book both...)
(BTW this is not the highly regarded course that goes into details of the IChemE suite of model contracts, though we do mention them).
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