I remember my first few days in the world of work vividly. I had joined British Aerospace as an Undergraduate Engineer and spent a year in industry before going to university. In my first days as an ‘engineer’ we spent time being taught and practising engineering drawing which in those days was physical, involving a…
‘Innovation’, ‘big data’, ‘the cloud’, ‘sustainability’, and the list goes on. Business loves buzzwords. There’s no two ways about it, every technology wave, or generation has it’s lexicon. I came across a great quote from Henry Ford’s autobiography in which he speaks about ‘making to order’: Ask a hundred people how they want an article…
Are you really walking the talk? Can you measure your actions and see improvements? This article reveals survey results that cover issues like these — results that might inspire a second look at your organization… As organizations, we believe the future of the professions we represent will be greatly enhanced by our ability not only…
The process of making a cup of coffee is about as simple as a task gets. That’s not to say producing the perfect crema doesn’t have its fair share of innovation, science and technique, but ultimately it’s a repeatable, mechanistic process. It’s a market which from the last available research, which was for 2012, grew…
Increasingly we live in a society where we expect everything to be available instantly, 24/7/365. Yet often we take for granted the time and effort that it has taken to achieve this for each individual product or service. On another axis the world is becoming increasingly interconnected and therefore more complex. How many of us…
Back in October 2012 I wrote an article titled “Software by the Month – A better proposition than your gym membership?” in which I highlighted the increasing trend towards subscription based business models in terms of software licensing. In the article I investigated the opportunities for software publishers and users alike that the model could open…
In one of my sessions at the recent IACCM EMEA conference which looked at contracting skills I posed the question that whilst we would rarely let a product get to market without some form of testing or prototyping, how many commercial or contract management professionals consider testing their contracting structures or agreements? If we look…
I recently wrote an article on the investigation by the UK telecoms regulator of mobile phone contracts, only a day later it was publicised that the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is going to be looking at free web and phone games aimed at children and that charge for extras through in game purchases. I…
Competition is acknowledged as a core tool for procurement and whilst suppliers often decry it there are even upsides for them. Often the fact that a buyer is running a competition shows intent to purchase, gives a finishing line to aim for, and boundaries to work within. A well run competition, through focus and by…
I was recommended to a TED lecture called ‘use data to build better schools’ given by Andreas Schleicher. Andreas is from an OECD funded organisation called PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment). It was a great use of 15 mins and gave some great insights into the difference between access to education and equality of…