Reflection on China

This month’s blog is another reflection on China, and how we’re promoting to new members, keeping current members informed and generally promoting CIPS and the profession in the region.

This work has coincided with the official leadership change which takes place every ten years. The new leaders will become the focus of a lot of media speculation in the coming weeks as to their plans for China’s future economic and political direction. In the last thirty or so years since China started opening up to the wider world, the economy has gone from being smaller than Italy’s to being the second biggest in the world, and by the time of the next leadership changeover in 2022 China could well have replaced the US in the top slot.

Although the rate of growth is expected to slow from around 10% to 6% or 7%, China will undoubtedly continue to be a dominant economic power for the foreseeable future. For the west, this brings particular opportunities and challenges. That growth trajectory is creating the world’s largest middle class, and consequently the largest consumer group, who are demanding the same sorts of products and services enjoyed in the US and Europe. Education is being increasingly seen as the passport to that lifestyle and the concept of professionalism is gaining a stronger foothold as a result.

Several UK chartered professional bodies are doing well here, and CIPS is no exception [CIPS China page]. We have been established in the education field for some years, working in partnership with the China Communications and Transportation Association (CCTA) and the Chinese National Education Examinations Authority (NEEA), and now have over 38,000 people studying CIPS qualifications in the region. Education is at the heart of our presence here, so, for me, a highlight of the trip has been the two awards ceremonies we have held in Beijing and Shanghai to celebrate students’ exam success. We had more than 100 students receiving their awards at each event, mini-versions of the annual Graduation Ceremony held in the UK.

The visit has also included three local professional network events, in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, to promote the benefits and demonstrate the support that a local network can provide to members and the profession more generally. In each centre we’re forming small teams to work together, with support from CCTA and CIPS staff, to develop these local networks and link them together to start forming a regional procurement community. Their aim will be to provide a point of contact for knowledge and advice, the sharing of best practice and raising the profile of the profession.

Next activity in China is a round table discussion on the future of procurement with local business leaders, and CIPS Head of Membership and Publishing, Malcolm Youngson, will be visiting branches in Thailand and Singapore to update members on the development of the CIPS network in this region. We are covering a lot of ground, but I have no doubt that Asia will be very important to CIPS’ global expansion in the next few years and has the potential for the CIPS community here to become the standard-bearer for good practice in the economic power-houses of the next decade.

This month’s blog is another reflection on China, and how we’re promoting to new members, keeping current members informed and generally promoting CIPS and the profession in the region.

This work has coincided with the official leadership change which takes place every ten years. The new leaders will become the focus of a lot of media speculation in the coming weeks as to their plans for China’s future economic and political direction. In the last thirty or so years since China started opening up to the wider world, the economy has gone from being smaller than Italy’s to being the second biggest in the world, and by the time of the next leadership changeover in 2022 China could well have replaced the US in the top slot.

Although the rate of growth is expected to slow from around 10% to 6% or 7%, China will undoubtedly continue to be a dominant economic power for the foreseeable future. For the west, this brings particular opportunities and challenges. That growth trajectory is creating the world’s largest middle class, and consequently the largest consumer group, who are demanding the same sorts of products and services enjoyed in the US and Europe. Education is being increasingly seen as the passport to that lifestyle and the concept of professionalism is gaining a stronger foothold as a result.

Several UK chartered professional bodies are doing well here, and CIPS is no exception [CIPS China page]. We have been established in the education field for some years, working in partnership with the China Communications and Transportation Association (CCTA) and the Chinese National Education Examinations Authority (NEEA), and now have over 38,000 people studying CIPS qualifications in the region. Education is at the heart of our presence here, so, for me, a highlight of the trip has been the two awards ceremonies we have held in Beijing and Shanghai to celebrate students’ exam success. We had more than 100 students receiving their awards at each event, mini-versions of the annual Graduation Ceremony held in the UK.

The visit has also included three local professional network events, in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, to promote the benefits and demonstrate the support that a local network can provide to members and the profession more generally. In each centre we’re forming small teams to work together, with support from CCTA and CIPS staff, to develop these local networks and link them together to start forming a regional procurement community. Their aim will be to provide a point of contact for knowledge and advice, the sharing of best practice and raising the profile of the profession.

Next activity in China is a round table discussion on the future of procurement with local business leaders, and CIPS Head of Membership and Publishing, Malcolm Youngson, will be visiting branches in Thailand and Singapore to update members on the development of the CIPS network in this region. We are covering a lot of ground, but I have no doubt that Asia will be very important to CIPS’ global expansion in the next few years and has the potential for the CIPS community here to become the standard-bearer for good practice in the economic power-houses of the next decade.

The importance of rigorous standards in qualifications November 2012

More than 45,000 school students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will be re-sitting their English GCSE exam after receiving lower than expected grades this summer following the shift in grade boundaries in between exam series. If you have a child caught up in all this, you’ll know that quite apart from the impact it’s had on individual pupils and their parents, it’s sparked a major row in the education world. Critics of Ofqual and the examination boards involved have described the moderation of the qualification as ‘chaotic’, and tantamount to an admission that over the years some qualifications have been ‘dumbed down’ to increase the number of passes. As a result, an alliance of schools, local authorities and teaching unions is seeking a judicial review to address what they see as mismanagement by the exam providers.

Whatever the legal outcome, this episode has shaken public confidence and raised doubts about the standards of the qualifications. For any organisation that offers regulated qualifications, like CIPS does, the integrity of those qualifications is absolutely vital. There has to be a level playing field and students and their employers must be confident that the results are consistent and fair. We must be able to demonstrate consistency across our entire suite of exams, that there is no difference in the marking regime whether you are sitting an exam in Peterborough or Pretoria, in May or November. We must also ensure that the standard of assessment for each qualification is rigorously maintained through our team of subject experts and rigorous quality assurance processes and procedures, and no more so than now as we launch our new qualifications for 2013.

Our experienced assessors work to strict guidelines and clear grade boundaries, but if a student challenges a result that’s a lot worse than they’d expected, this can be referred for review. As well as checking individual exam results, after each exam series the Senior Assessors publish reports on candidates’ performance generally, which go into a lot of detailed analysis. We’ve recently issued new guidelines for the Senior Assessors as part of our continuous drive to emphasise quality and improve the usefulness of the reports for candidates. The reports cover a whole range of issues about how well the question paper was answered, including what higher-scoring answers needed to include, tips to improve exam technique, and common mistakes to avoid.

On the up?

It feels counter-intuitive to some extent, but the World Economic Forum has upgraded the UK from 10th to 8th in the league table of global competitiveness.  Against a background of three successive quarters of negative growth and most commentators revising their predictions for 2013 downwards, the WEF’s latest global competitiveness index seems to be taking an optimistic view.

So what’s behind it?  The WEF points in particular to the flexibility of the UK’s labour market. Compared to many other countries, it’s much easier for employers here to hire and fire workers when they need to and the labour market is more efficient generally. Workers are also well trained on the whole, meaning that human resources are both available and effective.  The UK has also been less damaged by the Eurozone crisis than some of our neighbours – France is ranked 21st while beleaguered Greece is down to 96th.  We can’t be complacent though, given the threat of industrial action over the coming months.

The Olympics and Paralympics have provided really compelling evidence of the power of volunteering. They’ve shown that the cumulative effect of a group of people giving their time and energy to doing something worthwhile can have massive benefits, for themselves as well as society in general.  As a professional body and charity, the contribution of our member volunteers is so important. From branch committees to members of the global board of trustees, each volunteer has an important part to play in delivering our mission.

One way volunteers can help is by talking to young people about procurement and attracting them into the profession. We’re currently trialling a pilot scheme in schools and colleges here in Lincolnshire in partnership with Young Enterprise, a national charity which works with young people to give them business experience, and we’re looking for local members to run the sessions. We’ve produced a resource pack so all that’s needed is your time and expertise. If you are interested in finding out more, please contact claire.brewis@cips.org  

Procurement's role in London 2012

Now that we are all coming back down to earth after the spectacular success of London 2012, and while we take a breather before gearing up for the start of the Paralympics, we can start to reflect on procurement’s contribution to the Games and what we need to do to hand on the baton to Rio 2016 (with no apologies for the sporting analogy).The UK proved the doom-mongers wrong. We delivered on time and within budget and predictions of security problems and travel chaos turned out to be groundless. Visitor satisfaction ratings have been very high and feedback from the athletes on the facilities and organisation has been very positive.

Throughout the lead-up to the Games, procurement has been at the operational heart. The sheer scale of the undertaking has been staggering:•Establishing a team from just four people in early 2009 up to 35 people in 2012•900 supplier contracts placed and managed, with total value in excess of £1 billion•1.8 million items of sports equipment, a catering operation to serve 14 million meals and 5,000 flower bouquets for the medal winners•2,000 buses and coaches to transport athletes and officials, 122 km of security fencing and more than 10,000 Olympic torches•Of the c650 suppliers awarded contracts, more than 70% are SMEs and 90% are based in the UK.

And while the talk of the legacy of the Games has been around the stadia and other facilities, procurement has its own legacy. CIPS is already talking to the IOC about how we can help to ensure that the professional procurement practices that have contributed so much to the success of London 2012 can be rolled forward to Rio 2016.Of course, even with the best organisation in the world, we wouldn’t have been left with such a warm glow if our athletes hadn’t performed in the way they did. At the closing ceremony Lord Coe reminded us of the theme of these Games, ‘inspiring a generation.’  

The success of Team GB and the individual stories of determination and dedication will no doubt inspire many people to take up sport.  Success breeds success and if the comparison isn’t too much of a stretch, in their own way the CIPS Supply Management Awards perform a similar function.

By celebrating outstanding achievement and showing what it takes to move from good to great at a national and international level, the awards give the CPOs of tomorrow something to aspire to. Let’s keep the feelgood factor of London 2012 going and celebrate the best of procurement.  The Awards Dinner on 12 September should be quite a night.

The Chinese way, August 2012

The link may not be immediately clear, but the economic boom in China in recent years has been good news for a number of UK chartered professional bodies. CIPS, alongside other bodies such as RICS and CIOB, has experienced a surge in demand for our UK-regulated professional qualifications. From the first expressions of interest a few years ago, there are now over 33,000 individuals studying CIPS qualifications in China. Not only that, they both study and take their exams in the local language – and it’s no coincidence that the first language that CIPS qualifications were translated into was Mandarin.

This activity was developed in close co-operation with the Chinese education authorities and I was delighted to welcome a delegation from NEEA (National Education Examinations Authority) to renew our tripartite agreement with NEEA and CCTA this month.

The agreement will run for five years to develop, deliver and promote procurement and supply management education in the region. If the last five years is anything to go by, where 110,000 students registered through ten exam series, it will continue to be an amazingly successful partnership.Around 60,000 of those students were also in full-time education, so this certainly supports our Generation Y plans to encourage new blood into the profession.

But, what will this mean as China’s dependency on the US and Europe export markets, makes it vulnerable to the economic downturn?  In the last quarter China’s economy grew at its slowest rate for three years as foreign demand has decreased, and this is having a dampening effect on investment.  In many ways this actually increases our opportunity to promote procurement and the value-add of a professional qualification to deliver sustainable supply management for times good and bad.

There is no doubt that the potential audience for CIPS in China is huge but there are also major risks in investing there, as many western organisations have found to their cost. Now that we are well established in the education field, the time is right to establish a presence on the ground and start to build CIPS’ profile. We have appointed a country manager to help the process of building a CIPS procurement community.  It will take time to earn recognition and gain traction but over time our thousands of students may turn out to be the tip of the iceberg.

Procurement - the welcoming profession, July 2012

It’s our annual Graduation Ceremony on 23 June – our 14th – and once again I know I’m going to be bowled over by the sheer enthusiasm of our graduates and their eagerness to grab hold of the career opportunities opening up to them in the world of procurement and supply.  Anyone who’s attended one of the ceremonies can’t fail to have been struck by the wide diversity of graduates from every background.

Not only do they come from many countries and nationalities, there’s a wide range of age and experience, from those entering procurement in their early twenties, to those juggling career and studies with young families, to mature students making a career change later in life.So when recently I read a report critical of some professions’ narrow approach to recruitment I felt I could honestly say that this doesn’t apply to procurement. 

The report, by the government’s social mobility advisor Alan Milburn, said that some professions were still perpetuating the old school tie stereotype and he urged them to open up the professions to talented people from different backgrounds, and particularly those from less wealthy backgrounds and minority groups.
Looking back in our profession’s history while gathering material for our 80th anniversary celebrations, it’s certainly true that when we started out, the profession was dominated by a particular social group: middle class, middle aged and male. Look around now and you’ll see how much has changed, and for the better.   Part of that is simply how society has changed, of course, with better access to education and training and the removal of unfair barriers due to gender, ethnicity or disability, but CIPS has always been a broad church and has actively recruited from every walk of life.

The work we are doing now to promote interest in the profession among Generation Y, and our plans to launch a CIPS Foundation next year to increase access to professional education for those who are economically or otherwise disadvantaged, are all part of that ethos. What we’re after is what Milburn’s report calls ‘those with ability and aptitude’, the people who will be the CPOs of the future. Where they come from doesn’t matter. Where they’re headed does.

What now for manufacturing in the UK?

Last month’s Purchasing Managers’ Index on Manufacturing showed that although the rate of growth has slowed, the sector is still expanding. It’s good news that the index is still positive for the fifth successive month, but pegging back the optimism to some extent is the reality of weaker exports and a slowdown in production, mostly in the area of consumer goods.  The Eurozone crisis appears to be coming to a head, and who knows what the long term impact will be on the market for 45% of the UK’s manufactured goods.

A recent survey of UK manufacturers by accountancy network BDO paints a similar picture. While confidence is increasing, the survey also reveals that only 26% of respondents thought that we have the right kind of policies in this country to stimulate and support growth in the manufacturing sector. So what kind of help are they asking for? Among the suggestions coming out of the research are increased focus on skills training, a clear policy to favour UK companies when awarding public sector contracts, and the creation of a bank for industry to provide the growth capital, particularly for SMEs.

The debate will go on, but if we want our manufacturing sector to help re-balance the economy we need to do all we can to create the right conditions for sustained growth.