Organisations can now improve their approach to commissioning by learning from best practice

A range of services are being promoted to help people adopt the approaches of commissioning superstars. They are based upon the findings of a research team led by Prof. Colin Coulson-Thomas which reveal organisations that excel at purchasing behave differently from their peers. According to the Professor “Those who want to raise their game can learn from those who secure the benefits of effective purchasing and identify areas for improvement by benchmarking against best practice.”

The research study examined 137 purchasing questions. The resulting 175 page A4 report ‘Effective Purchasing, the critical success factors’ can be used to review an organisation’s approach, strategy and practice, and assess where it stands in relation to the achievements of others. Various policy issues are examined, including relationships with suppliers and ways of measuring purchasing performance.

The Professor believes world class commissioning will be a priority for public as well as private organisations in 2009: “NHS Primary Care Trusts and other UK public bodies, and organisations in other parts of the world are adjusting to a new regime of commissioning. Instead of providing services themselves they are increasingly purchasing services from other organisations.”

According to Coulson-Thomas: “A comprehensive benchmarking service is also available to help people assess their organisation’s performance. Completing a questionnaire enables you to compare your approaches with those of peers and high achievers as recorded in the database.”

The resulting bespoke and confidential benchmarking report includes comparisons with the average for all organisations participating in the research and those that win most benefits from their purchasing functions, as well as a ‘top ten action checklist’.

Prof. Coulson-Thomas explains: “To help users pinpoint the issues which are really important for their firms, the benchmark reports contain a ‘top ten action checklist’ which highlights where the particular organisation falls furthest behind the most successful. This can enable those who are already successful to identify and address particular weaknesses.”

The ‘Effective Purchasing’ report contains 79 diagrams and checklists of key action points. Further information on the critical success factors report and the bespoke benchmarking service can be obtained from http://www.policypublications.com. Both the report and the benchmarking service can be ordered from this website.

Reviews of the approach adopted by a particular organisation and various presentations, courses and workshops on the critical success factors for effective purchasing are also available. Those who would like further information on the study led by Professor Coulson-Thomas and the resulting services, or would like to discuss the key findings can contact him via http://www.adaptation.ltd.uk.

Professor Colin Coulson-Thomas is an experienced consultant and author of ‘Winning Companies; Winning People, making it easy for average performers to adopt winning behaviours’. He has reviewed and improved the processes and practices of over 100 companies, helped over 100 boards to raise board and/or corporate performance, and spoken at over 200 national, international and corporate conferences in 35 countries. He can be contacted via http://www.coulson-thomas.com

Over 2,000 organisations have participated in various investigations led by Prof. Coulson-Thomas into what high performers do differently. The critical success factors which have been identified are set out in a series of reports produced by Policy Publications. Further information, these reports and his book ‘Winning Companies; Winning People’ can be obtained from: http://www.policypublications.com

Innovators and entrepreneurs are missing opportunities to grow their companies according to Prof. Colin Coulson-Thomas speaking at the iFestival exhibition held at The Walkers Stadium in Leicester: “They develop exciting new products while adopting traditional and losing approaches to winning business. Their technical creativity needs to be matched by innovation in their approach to business building.”

According to the Adaptation chairman, “Understanding is critical. Sales personnel who do not understand the nature of their company’s innovations and the impacts they can have struggle to communicate with prospects who do not understand how they might benefit. High tech developments are often too complex for people to understand if traditional approaches to training, selling and e-learning are used.”

The Professor’s ‘Winning Companies; Winning People’ research programme identifies what successful people or winners do differently in areas such as winning business, building customer relationships and creating and exploiting know-how. Over 2,000 companies participated in the latest round of studies, and critical success factors or ‘winning ways’ for key business building activities have been identified.

The more successful innovators recognise that however exciting their breakthroughs they are unlikely to be adopted if people do not understand them. Coulson-Thomas explains: “Instead of pushing their products winners focus on helping people to assess their requirements, understand what is on offer, and select a way forward that helps them achieve their goals. Instead of hard selling they make it easy for people to buy.”

Coulson-Thomas believes: “The difficult work in areas like competitive bidding and building customer relationships has been done. We have identified critical success factors for key business development activities and what high performers do differently from their less successful colleagues.”

The Professor showed iFestival delegates how a new generation of support tools can help sales staff, account managers and prospects to understand complex offerings: “Using a sales accelerator developed by Cotoco sales staff at Eyretel were able to work with prospects to assess their needs, design and cost solutions, and generate proposals in forty minutes rather than the four weeks previously required, and in most cases without the need for specialist engineers to be in attendance.”

Coulson-Thomas revealed “At Eyretel the new approach led to sales increasing by 25% in eight weeks, and a two thirds reduction in the technical support required by the sales team. A return on investment of over seventy times the cost of developing the sales accelerator was obtained in the first year. Eyrtel won an innovation award for its support tool and was acquired by another company that subsequently listed.”

Examples of how support tools can make it very easy for average performers to adopt winning ways, understand complex areas and handle difficult tasks are given in Prof. Coulson-Thomas’ book ‘Winning Companies; Winning People’ (Policy Publications, 2007) which can be ordered from: http://www.coulson-thomaspublications.com.

Critical success factors for winning business are set out in best practice reports covering sectors such as engineering, manufacturing, IT and telecoms and seven professions; and a four-part ‘Winning New Business’ resource pack consisting of a report based on the experience of over 300 companies, a report on the top 20 winning business skills, 30 bidding tools and a CD-Rom containing these and other resources.

Details of the ‘Winning New Business’ resource pack, individual winning business reports, and related workshops can be obtained from http://www.adaptation.ltd.uk. Companies can also now compare their practices with their peers and high performing winners. Details of bespoke benchmarking and other services can be obtained from http://www.coulson-thomas.com

The iFestival is a celebration of innovation. The 2008 iFestival consisted of 158 separate events, culminating in an exhibition, series of lectures, and gala dinner at The Walkers Stadium, the home of Leicester City Football Club.

Prof. Colin Coulson-Thomas, author of ‘Winning Companies; Winning People’ has reviewed the processes and practices for winning business of over 100 companies, advised over 100 boards on director, board and business development, and presented at over 200 national and international events in 35 countries. He can be contacted via http://www.adaptation.ltd.uk and http://www. coulson-thomas.com