Speaker Prof. Andrew Cox

Committing to the Eight Step Challenge: Conference Speaker Professor Andrew Cox speaks to PfH.

Professor Andrew Cox, Foundation Professor of the MBA and Centre for Business Strategy and Procurement at Birmingham Business School will be delivering a plenary session on world-class procurement at the PfH Annual Conference and Exhibition 2009 entitled "Collaboration: The Mother of Invention."

PfH spoke to Professor Andrew Cox ahead of the Conference to find out more about his views on why the standard public sector approach of ‘three bids and a buy with the usual suspects' must be thrown out, and why organisations should adopt the eight step approach to develop world-class procurement. At the Conference Cox will be explaining the difference between vertical and horizontal collaboration and how this impacts on potential win-win outcomes for both buyers and suppliers.

Tell us about your career background. How did you get to the role you are in today?

I was originally a Professor in Political Economy & International Studies and interested in how to regulate markets for beneficial social outcome. In the early 1990s I became involved as a consultant with the European Commission, advising them on the implications of their public, defence and utilities procurement rules and policies. From 1993 I was the second CIPS Foundation Professor in Purchasing & Supply Management at Birmingham University Business School, where I established the world's first MBA in Strategic Procurement Management. In 1998 I was awarded The Swinbank Medal by CIPS for outstanding services to British purchasing and supply.

Since then I have worked with numerous public sector and private sector organisations to develop world-class organisational and individual competence in purchasing and supply chain management. More recently I have been operating on a visiting, part-time basis at a number of Universities (including Birmingham, San Diego and Nyenrode), as well as playing a major role in the establishment this year of the International Institute for Purchasing & Supply Management. Through its International Black Belt qualification the IIPSM offers the first truly international standard of competence for practitioners in purchasing and supply.

What key issues are you going to tackle in your speech at the Conference?

I will tackle the issue of when collaboration is appropriate and when is it not, both for buyers and suppliers.

What will be your main message to social housing organisations? What can they learn from your research and experience?

I am intending to explain that implementing collaboration is not easy, and that sometimes it is not appropriate, but that when it is appropriate it can provide tremendous improvement in value for money outcomes for buyers. I am also intending to explain the difference between vertical and horizontal collaboration, and how this impacts on potential win-win outcomes in purchasing and supply, both for buyers and suppliers.

The theme of PfH's conference is ‘Collaboration: The Mother of Invention'. Tell us about one important collaboration which led to creativity or discovery.

Morecambe & Wise created some of the best family entertainment for generations.

In football Busby & Murphy gave us "the Babes".

What is the link between collaboration and world-class procurement? How can collective intelligence help social housing organisations improve their procurement strategies?

This is a big question-in general collaboration provides one of the means for maximising leverage of goods and services. It is normally easier in the public sector than in the private sector, where competition laws make buyer collaboration difficult, and because "free riding" is less problematic in the public sector. Also, public sector organisations can sometimes commit to longer-term deals than the private sector. In general, sharing of information reduces transaction costs in the search and selection of suppliers, as well as providing a stimulus for innovation by suppliers.

Which procurement practices should social housing organisations throw out and what best-in-class practices should they adopt?

If they are using the standard public sector approach of ‘three bids and a buy with the usual suspects' they should think again, and do their job properly. There is an eight step approach to world-class procurement and supply that must be managed in a rigorous and robust manner. I will be explaining this at the conference.

Tell us about an example of world-class procurement that is already delivering innovation and ideas.

NHS Purchasing & Supply Agency (PASA) has been highly commended for its partnership with the Design Council to reduce hospital-acquired infections, by incentivising suppliers to work both with NHS clients and the Design Council, to create innovative supply solutions. This was achieved by allowing innovative suppliers to own the intellectual property rights from the collaboration in order to provide better value for money for the NHS, while also creating new markets for suppliers.