David Noble is one year into his role as CIPS Chief Executive and Supply Management has a very interesting interview with him.  I’m going to publish two posts on this; today it is the good news; tomorrow I’ll pick up on one particular issue where I’m somewhat less positive!

When Simon Sperryn, the previous CEO, ‘left’ suddenly in mid 2009, Noble was parachuted into the role; but given he didn’t come through a long, detailed recruitment process, he has been a pretty good argument for emergency appointments.

He has stabilised what was rapidly becoming a difficult situation for CIPS, got the finances back on track, and revenues are increasing again by the sound of it,  so he – and the Board and Council – deserve a lot of credit for that.

Membership at 65,000 continues its seemingly inexorable growth.  However, with 20,000 students in China, that brings big issues over the next few years in terms of offering those people ongoing support once they have their qualification.  But that’s not a bad problem to have.  And the CIPS qualification is becoming increasingly recognised as THE global standard, particularly amongst the public sector worldwide ; again, a great strategic position to be in for the Institute. There may be competition coming from sources such as IIAPS but CIPS is well positioned here, and certainly seems to be in a better position than ISM in the US for instance.

In the Corporate market, CIPS is trying to expand, but cautiously. Supply Management says that Noble,

“…reports success in his goal of making the institute a “first port of call” for CPOs, and would particularly like to explore the area of corporate membership. “

But this is a tougher area for CIPS; there is strong competition in the corporate market from networking / solutions organisations such as the Strategy Council and particularly Procurement Leaders; and getting too far into what might be termed ‘consultancy’ brings some dangers for the Institute.   And despite Noble’s worthwhile attempts at “pushing the message to senior business people, politicians and civil servants”, I am not convinced CIPS is really listened to in Whitehall  (’twas ever thus; I know previous top civil servants  considered CIPS the ‘trade union for buyers’ and were duly suspicious of our motives!)

But all in all, there is a lot to be positive about; and I was pleased to see Noble talking about social media and a “negotiating challenge” for schools and colleges.   I regret we didn’t get into this sort of activity enough when I was involved with CIPS, and if Noble and his team can finally grasp that opportunity, and make procurement a profession of choice for the next generation, that will be a significant achievement.

Tomorrow – my big “on the other hand”….!

After Caroline Booth’s departure to be a Mountie, Lloyds TSB have selected a young, untried professional as their new CPO - Supply Management had the scoop here. Mike Whitby is just 33 and only shaves on a Sunday…

OK, let’s get real.  Lloyds have gone for a guy with vast experience, from my generation of procurement people (in fact he left NatWest just before I joined and we’ve bumped into each other over the years many times).  Mike has also worked at Barclays, as well as firms such as Reuters and Best Buy (Carphone Warehouse), and has tremendous knowledge and experience in procurement.  I think Mike must have worked with Mark Fisher, his new boss and main Board Director at Lloyds, back in Natwest days; Fisher was the number 2 in the NW Retail Bank when I was there.

FIsher was one of the few NatWesters who did well out of the RBS takeover, ending up on their Board, then joining Lloyds to oversee the integration of HBOS; he is perhaps the leading ‘banking back office integrator’ in Europe.  I know he has also been very supportive of procurement and Caroline.

I wonder whether he had Mike in mind for the role from the outset; I did pick up comment swirling around the procurement ether that the recruitment process wasn’t particularly ‘active’.  I certainly didn’t see the job advertised, (although I’m happy to be corrected on that).  If it wasn’t, that might be seen as disappointing from a transparency point of view, given we (the taxpayers) own about half of the bank   Saves us money though I suppose on adverts and fees…..

Mike has a pretty direct style, which may be somewhat different to Caroline’s modus operandi; but I’m sure he  understands exactly what needs to be done to drive further value from procurement, and I wish him all the best for his exciting new role!

Did you see strictly Come Dancing? (Not that I watch it usually of course, just happened to be passing etc etc…) Do you realise that Felicity Kendall, and I’m being a little ungallant here, is older than Anne Widdecombe!!  Wikipedia her if you want to know the details.  Kendall’s performance would have been impressive in terms of her flexibility for someone literally half her age; and my goodness, she is in great shape…. In fact, here she is… Anyway, I hear you say, what’s that got to do with local sourcing?  Well, Jason at Spend Matters discussed on Friday whether Walmart’s intention to increase the proportion of locally grown produce on sale in their stores was likely to work.  And that reminded me of one of the early episodes of  the BBC comedy series from the late 1970s, The Good Life, where Kendall and Richard Briers played Tom and Barbara Good, a comfortably-off couple who   decide to pack in the day jobs and go self sufficient in their suburban environment. Way ahead of its time actually when you think about it, with its themes of sustainability and localism.

Anyway, in one episode, they took their surplus produce to their local restaurateur.  Yes, he said, those lettuce and carrots look really good.  So £90 for the quantity you have available?  Sounds OK, says Tom.   So that’ll be £90 every month, replies the restaurant guy….

No, says Tom, this is it!  This is our entire surplus for this season! Which obviously is no good for the restaurant that needs regular supply. And that was – and is – the reality of a small supplier, bigger buyer situation in the fresh produce market.  Now these days, they might be able to nip off to a farmer’s market when they had something to sell; but the problems remain for the small grower.  I know this is an extreme example, but it illustrates Jason’s point; it is a worthy initiative by Walmart, but don’t under-estimate how difficult it will be to make it work.

And I’m very much looking forward to seeing Ms Kendall next week…

Guy is a good friend of mine and a great procurement leader; Abbey National / Santander, now Fujitsu CPO.  He is also one of those excellent individuals who is never afraid of being the contrarian in the room.  So when he was asked to write a blog for CPO Agenda, he immediately thought, like all good bloggers; how can I upset as many people as possible in the minimum number of words?

He obviously considered insulting various constituencies; political maybe, or golfers, or beer drinkers.  But no, all of that would be too easy. Let’s go straight for the jugular.

So here is his piece; why procurement people who use an iPhone are idiots!

Nice one Guy; next week, “People who drive BMWs are psychopaths”… (wait a minute…)

Tanzania hosts East Africa Procurement Forum

Dar es Salaam was the venue last week for this event, attended by 200 plus delegates from Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and beyond.  The PPRA site has a good summary here of some of the speeches; interesting to see that issues such as outcome-based procurement, better use of technology, accountability and transparency are global concerns for public procurement.  I was particularly struck by retired high court Judge, Honourable Justice Thomas Mihayo, who said that he considered 100% of the country’s budget to be procurement because, “Salaries are paid after a payee renders a service to a client, and therefore to me that is procurement”. An interesting thought….we may come back to that.

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells

Yes, we are just – oh, I don’t know, lets say about 60 shopping days from Christmas.  Deep joy, as they say (sorry, I am somewhat of the Scrooge school of thought where Christmas is concerned).  And Portsmouth City Council have issued an OJEU notice inviting bids for,

“Installation, maintenance, removal and storage of Christmas illuminations.”

So if there are any teams of elves out there, with the appropriate health and safety accreditation of course, then get your expressions of interest in now!  Given the lead times actually, I suspect this is for 2011 onwards; or it might start with removal of the decorations this Christmas.  Anyway, Merry Christmas from Portsmouth!

Trinidad procurement policies and Balfour Beatty…

The Trinidad Express reports that;

“Works Minister Jack Warner revealed yesterday the People’s National Movement (PNM) government paid $21 million to international firm Parsons Brinckerhoff for a transport study and no study was done.”

These accusations against the previous Government seem to be in response to more allegations of dodgy procurement levelled at the current incumbents – including the award in one day of a $47m contract for upgrading the lights at Piarco airport…

Anyway, Mr Warner let loose a wonderful diatribe.  The previous Government had promised to bring in procurement policies for years but failed to do so; the new Government is now trying to clamp down on corrupt public procurement practices.  But interesting that a firm well known in the US and Europe may be mixed up in this local Trinidadian political fighting; Parsons was acquired by Balfour Beatty last year.  I’ve seen no response from them or Balfour on this.

Coincidence is a strange thing.  Having spoken this week for the first time in 20 years to an old friend from my days at Mars – a fellow member of the cricket team, no less (and we’ll be featuring him further here in the future, he said mysteriously…), I then came across a recruitment ad for Mars while looking for something totally different on the Web.

I came through the Mars Graduate trainee programme, which was, like the firm itself, excellent.  They now have training programmes in different functions, and for the first time this year I was delighted to see they have a specialist Procurement training programme. with a £29,000 starting salary – Mars always did pay well.  It sounds like a very good programme – I’m thinking of dyeing my hair and applying…

Mars is still probably the best company I’ve ever worked for,  or even with.  And of course I’m biased by my own experience, but Procurement is a great career.  So if you’re one of our younger readers (and I know we have a few) and you’re tempted, go for it.  And I’d be happy to tell you more about Mars (or indeed procurement) if you email me  (psmith@procurementexcellence.com).

I would suggest however that if you’re vegetarian, you tell them early that you’re not keen on being a meat buyer for Pedigree Petfoods…  I have some stories….

You do wonder sometimes, don’t you?

I was genuinely shocked to learn that Andrew Manley, the MOD’s Director General (DG), Commercial was also made the acting Chief  Executive of Defence Estates last month.

Manley has been relatively invisible (to the wider procurement world at least) since he took over as DG late last year – he may have been doing great things within MOD but he has not registered externally.  (I got a kicking from a reader last time I said this, but I do think that, at his level, we taxpayers might expect to see some evidence of what is going on in this area?)

The DG role is huge; the MOD’s third party spend is some £20 Billion a year, and given the number of NAO reports, press and other comment around the state of MOD programmes and procurement, one would have thought that being responsible for that agenda was quite enough for any one person, however skilled they might be.  Even Alan Sugar might struggle a little….

But no, apparently he (that’s Manley, not Lord Sugar) has the capacity to take on Defence Estates as well;  one of the largest estates in Europe, with a value of £15 Billion, and over 1,000 staff.  Now this is only a temporary appointment apparently until after the Strategic Defence Review (SDR); but we all know how temporary roles have a tendency to run on longer than expected, and even if it is temporary, it seems a major distraction from the critical commercial issues MOD faces.  And shouldn’t the top Commercial man in MOD be fully engaged with the SDR itself?  Or perhaps he wants to distance himself given the press the process is currently getting.

I asked the proverbial MOD insider about the situation.  “It doesn’t make any sense”, was all they would say.   I make no criticism of Manley personally – I’d love to buy him a pint or two, he may be the best manager MOD has ever seen, and in this case, I don’t suppose for a moment that he went looking for this new role.   I suspect he was made the proverbial offer he couldn’t refuse.  But, with no background I’m aware of in Property and everything else going on, this strikes me as a very strange move .

What has happened to the supposed focus on procurement, value for money and commercial issues?  And is this perhaps another blow, (following Nigel Smith’s departure), to the standing of procurement generally within the public sector?

On this chilly Sunday morning, at the time of year when nervous yet excited youngsters head off to university, here’s a story about my first week at St John’s College, Cambridge some (xxxx) years ago.

Like many, I was tempted along to club and society fresher meetings more by the quantity and quality of the drink on offer than by any real interest in the topic.  So when we heard that the Lady Margaret  Boat Club (the confusingly named St John’s rowing club) had multiple barrels of Abbott Ale, we were there like a shot.  Rowing?  That’s what posh schools did, not comprehensives in Sunderland.  And I was pretty weedy, so no way I was going to get involved with pulling a dirty great boat along the river at the crack of dawn.  Football yes; rowing, no way.

After a couple of pints, the promotional speeches from the Boat Club committee started.  The first guy told us that it required hard work, early mornings, etc etc.  Yeah, right.  Like we were going to do that!  Another pint was called for.

Then a tall, curly haired bespectacled chap, a post-graduate student with a mellifluous Irish accent, stood up.  He must have been about 6 ft 1 and didn’t look undernourished.  “I’m Keith Jeffrey, the first boat cox” he said. “Almost certainly the biggest cox in Cambridge, quite possibly the UK”.

He then gave the most humorous yet inspirational speech I had ever heard (and probably ever have).  He talked about the history of the college, of the boat club, the Olympians who had gone before us, the teamwork and feeling of achievement, the joy of a cold, sharp morning on a glass-like river, the dinners and celebrations, the boat burnings after a successful Bumps,  and what we could do for Lady Margaret Boat Club.  By the time he finished, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house, and every one of us had signed up for a term of water-based punishment; starting at 7am the next morning.

Keith was an amazing cox – he was far to big really, he hardly fitted into the boat and was taller than half the crew.  But he had such amazing personality, humour and motivational abilities it didn’t matter.  His weight was irrelevant; the boat went faster with Keith in charge.  I also took to coxing; I had the advantage of being a more suitable size, and so my university life, my friendships and even arguably my career was changed by Keith’s speech that night (I leveraged my coxing experience into milk round job interviews in a pretty big way!)  So I owe him a lot.

How on earth does this relate to MI6? ( I hear you say).  Well, I haven’t seen him in the flesh for probably 20 years, but I’ve just watched Professor Keith Jeffrey interviewed by Andrew Marr on BBC 1 TV.  He is now an eminent historian and the author of the new official history of MI6, published this week.  He’s lost the curly hair, but he is still an absolutely natural communicator.  It sounds like a fascinating book; and if the BBC have any sense, they’ll give Keith his own TV programme.  Something historical I guess; but I would pay good money to hear him talk about pretty much anything.  Even rowing.

It’s coming up to a year since I started the Blog, and we will also be announcing some exciting news later this week.  So I thought it was a good time just to say a sincere “thank you” to everyone who has read the blog, made comments and suggestions, and said nice things (or not so nice, but constructive, things)  when we’ve met.

I’ve enjoyed writing it but it wouldn’t be the same if no-one read it! Readership has grown steadily, but it would be great if everyone who is a regular could spread the word – tell your friends, send a link to your favourite post to your mailing lists, force your staff to read it under pain of demotion, that sort of thing…

Anyway, our news will follow in the next couple of days and thank you again!

Peter

There’s a good interview with Nigel Smith, who was CEO of the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) until very recently.

Nigel is pretty bullish but considered about what OGC achieved; I was personally pleased to see the emphasis he placed on the Procurement Capability Review programme.  He also recognises – rightly I think – that the capability to execute everything that is needed in public procurement over the next few years is probably still not in place despite his and OGC’s efforts.  That supports the need for more collaboration, he argues.

Finally, I noted his response to SM’s question on Philip Green’s appointment to look for ’savings’. Nigel said,

“I suppose you can never have too much advice can you …”

Now that’s what I call a ringing endorsement!