Don’t Be a “Bad Negotitor”
As it is the holiday season, here is a short extract from my Bad Buying book rather than a fresh article – taken from the chapter on negotiation. Nothing Else […]
Entries by Peter Smith
Support to Disadvantaged Suppliers Attracts Fraudsters
Programmes to support minority owned businesses, smaller firms, social enterprises and the like via public sector procurement have become increasingly popular over recent years in many countries. The Social Value […]
2022 – How Was It For You, CIPS?
The CIPS 2022 report and accounts are available now – and it was a difficult year for the Institute.
Why Isn’t Competition Working in the UK Petrol Market?
Why are prices so high in many countries, including the UK? Global forces and events are part of it, but there is increasing evidence that firms providing goods and services […]
PPE Dumped – An Unhappy Reminder
There was an unhappy reminder of the pandemic and the PPE Bad Buying saga recently when several hundred pallets of PPE (mainly aprons, it seems) were discovered apparently dumped in […]
Waste in Woking – Taxpayers will Pick up the Bill
Woking’s council has made disastrous property investments and taxpayers now face losses of hundreds of millions.
Disqualifying Suppliers from Government Contracts
It feels like the new UK Procurement Bill has been moving through Parliament for years – it is only a year in fact, although before that there was an extended […]
Twelve Tips for Presenting to a Procurement Audience
If you are speaking to a procurement conference audience in a sales / marketing capacity, you need to seize the opportunity – here are some tips to help.
Huge Ship, Tiny Error, Major Problem
Picture: LPhot Alex Ceolin, UK MOD© Crown copyright 2019 You may know the expression “don’t spoil the ship for a ha’pworth of tar*”, but we have a case now where […]
TSB Systems and Contracting Failure- CIO Fined
In my Bad Buying book, I wrote about the IT disaster that affected millions of TSB bank customers back in 2018. Here is the story from the book. “In 2015 […]