Throughout this Intelligent Supplier series, we’ve explored eight key behaviours that define an Intelligent Supplier, highlighting how each trait contributes to a successful win-win partnership. The evidence is clear that the future of supplier–client relationships extends far beyond traditional transactional…

Commercial trust in strategic supplier relationships concerns the way ‘on-the-ground’ behaviours impact the confidence parties have in one another. Essentially, doing what you say you’ll do, when you say you’ll do it, is a positive starting point for relationship building.…

In a recent article we looked at what experience tells us should be involved in good contract management and supplier relationship management within complex projects, and the main differences between the two disciplines. In this article, we look at the…

The ramifications of a breach of contract in a strategic and/or complex project/service delivery relationship can be significant to your organisation, your supplier’s business, and for everyone who is relying on the completion of the project you’re working on or…

‘Harmony’ is one of the elements that is good for business. However, the further reality is that there needs to be a little ‘constructive tension’ in any organisation, to challenge accepted norms, alongside the freedom to express these challenges to…

While change can be worrying, often it’s the anxiety surrounding a prospective change in the status of your strategic suppliers/partners which can cause more uncertainty. Therefore, rapid, inciteful and accurate information to determine the validity and severity of an issue…

They say that in a crisis you find out who you really are. In fact, US founding father, Thomas Paine said it far more eloquently than that in 1776 when he wrote: “These are the times that try men’s souls.…

A research report on ‘The value of supplier codes of conduct: supporting transparency and improving performance’, co-authored by sustainability, business and human rights consultancy Ardea International and the University of Westminster Business School, has presented some interesting analysis. It includes…

In the public sector, procurement should have, at its foundation, strictly process-orientated procedures, with clear supplemental processes to make sure that solutions and services purchased are fit for purpose, not just that they follow legal procurement compliance. However, if those…

New York-based turnaround management specialists, Alvarez & Marsal, were appointed as administrators of NMC Health after irregularities were discovered in the company’s accounts. By the end of 2020, it was reported they had issued a ‘preliminary notice’ of a potential…

Optics are important in today’s commercial world – how you ‘look’ in the eyes of your consumer matters, more than ever before. Companies invest heavily in developing their audience’s perception of their brand – the ethics, morality and mission that…

Strategic partnership relationships are inherently complex entities. At their outset, you will inevitably know less about one another than six to twelve months later. However, at the outset you are expected to develop a roadmap in the form of a…

There are key differences in the core functions of private and public sector organisations. When you bring them together in a complex strategic supplier relationship, you will have some who will be fundamentally opposed to the partnership from an ideological…

Government support for British business has come in many forms throughout the Covid-19 crisis – always welcome and often significantly beneficial. Network Rail is one public owned entity that is doing its bit to help. It is representative of the…

A couple of months ago, news broke of challenges in a number of Leicester-based clothing factories. Reports suggested that workers were being paid below the minimum wage, with allegations of exploitation and human trafficking and of a workforce forced to…

It’s encouraging to focus an article on a success story. The one that caught our attention is the strategic supplier relationship between the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and social justice charity Nacro, whose role is to assist in the reform…

A consortium led by the UK government and Indian conglomerate Bharti Global has won the right to buy ailing satellite business OneWeb (subject to approval from the company’s creditors, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court and regulatory approval) for USD$1bn. The UK’s…

In June, NHS supplier Redcentric reportedly suffered a dual blow of financial and reputational loss. The reputational issues were related to the announcement that three former employees were to be prosecuted for ‘fraud, false accounting and misleading an auditor after…