Client Supplier Relationship

Over the last few years a number of infrastructure and construction solutions organisations have reportedly been experiencing financial challenges, well before the recent pandemic took hold. In recent news, infrastructure giant Costain Construction has also announced a financial rights issue.…

In January 2017, multi-billion-dollar Fortune 500 business AECOM announced its tie-up with IBM. A $2.7 billion IT outsourcing deal to develop a ‘smart water’ solution to drive more efficient water and waste management. It was an ambitious initiative by two…

In these extraordinary times, many of our organisations are struggling: Struggling with losing personnel as increasing numbers of staff are on sick leave or self-isolating as someone they are close to is ill with what’s suspected to be COVID-19. Struggling…

We are living through unprecedented times. Britain is in ‘lockdown’; all but ‘those who cannot work from home’ are being asked to stay at home and the government is paying companies to encourage staff and non-key workers onto furlough leave…

How much do you know about what’s really going on with your strategic supplier relationship? Do you trust your supplier implicitly when they report on progress against your business outcomes, send through requests for payments and inform you of costs?…

A recent article in Computing highlighted the stark reality of just how much we continue to rely on technology. It was reported that a failure in the Electronic Patient Records – EPR System at King’s College Hospital meant that patients…

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is the UK government department responsible for implementation of government defence policy and for the British Armed Forces. The MoD manages the day to day running of the armed forces, contingency planning and defence procurement.…

In a recent PAC (Public Accounts Committee) report titled Brexit Consultancy Costs, the committee brought to light the government’s £97m spend on consultancy firms (up to April 2019). It suggested this spend seemed to fail the government’s own standards in…

The Salvation Army is an amazing organisation that supports the most vulnerable in our communities. It is now an entity that turns over some £300m, has over 8,000 suppliers, each of which gets a share of the £160m it is…

This is the second of two articles on the subject of the role of Intelligent Client Function (ICF) teams in managing the all too often complicated supplier/client relationship. The first article was titled ‘The 8 Intelligent Client Functions Skills to…

This will not come as a surprise to many out there, but complex supplier relationships are, well, complex in nature and, therefore, will naturally be difficult to manage.   If you have ever been involved in a sizeable client/strategic supplier…

You may have experienced the sinking feeling that a strategic supplier relationship is not going the way you had hoped (and indeed planned for). In fact, you may well be experiencing that feeling at present. That being the case, it…

We have noticed (and continue to encourage) a steady increase in the use of social enterprise companies in the day-to-day service delivery activities of the modern-day organisation/business. Where profits and positioning were once the unchallenged, primary goals, it seems that…

When Interserve went into administration there were many who slipped all too easily into the perception that this was going to be Carillion all over again. You didn’t need to look very far to see pundits and papers warning of…

We know from our own experience, and via the media of course, that many strategic supplier relationships have their ups and downs. Traditional good practice tells us that when a relationship is heading in a downward trajectory, we should consider…

Successful strategic (complex) client / supplier relationships tend to have one thing in common – a collaborative mindset. This is one where parties not only work extensively together to achieve big, bold goals, but also where they overcome seriously challenging…

To promote better productivity through more collaborative problem-solving it would be useful to shift perspectives, so that when things go wrong people recognise that it’s not always the other person’s fault. Often issues are multifaceted, and the longer that they…

In last week’s post on using an expert to fix a failing provider relationship we touched upon the fact that repairing a relationship is almost always better than terminating one. Termination is a rocky road to travel down. The potential…