Blog

From insights come answers.

A series of articles from the Insider Pro team, in which we examine relevant topics and examples of current challenges that we see in our work with a huge range of organisations, across many sectors.

The 7 Key Ingredients of Disruptive Procurement

Posted by Jeremy Bowley

Disruptive procurement is the process of creating real business value and competitive advantage by:

  • deconstructing what the business really needs,
  • challenging established business processes,
  • leveraging knowledge from outside the normal points of reference, and
  • designing, assembling and managing the supply chain in new and innovative ways.

“Disruptive procurement” uses knowledge of the entire supply chain to challenge requirements and drive out business benefits far in excess of any improvements in margin.

Read More

Topics: Disruptive Procurement

Top 5 considerations when hiring your next Procurement Consultant

Posted by Jeremy Bowley

Everyone knows that for a business or function to be successful they need to hire great people. Unfortunately, the vast majority of managers and executives will also know the pain and angst created from a bad hire. From having someone in the business who didn’t fit the culture, couldn’t deliver and/or negatively impacted on those around them.

Read More

Topics: Disruptive Procurement, Procurement People

11 ways to drive 20 percent more profit through procurement

Posted by Darin Crosby

When I tell people that my passion is procurement, most people move on to ask the person next to me what they do for a living. A few others ask questions about the biggest tender I have ever dealt with, or how I feel about supermarkets bullying tactics with food growers and the like.

The uninitiated think that as procurement professionals we spend our time creating tender documents and beating up suppliers on price.

In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.

Our approach is VERY different.

Read More

Topics: Procurement Consultancy, Innovation, Case Studies

3 barriers to business growth in the UK

Posted by Jeremy Bowley

Few businesses experience the joy of uninterrupted, problem-free growth; most hit bumps in their journey.

Why is it that any two businesses in the same industry facing the same challenges can have completely different outcomes?

Why do some overcome challenges and others fail to fulfil their potential?

And what is the key to unlocking business growth?

Read More

Topics: Enterprise Value

A 14 point checklist for choosing the best procurement consultant

Posted by Phil Denson

The best procurement consultancy firm for your business will be able to drive value in the shortest time period.  How do you test their ability?

Read More

Topics: Procurement Consultancy

The 7 habits of highly successful procurement teams

Posted by Jeremy Bowley

Over the years, I have observed many different procurement teams across a range of industries.  Whilst most do a good job, only a handful do a GREAT job.  The team at Insider have spent some time researching this and would like to share with you our take on what those top performing procurement teams have in common.

Read More

Topics: Disruptive Procurement, Procurement People

Case Study: reducing restaurant maintenance and repair costs

Posted by Phil Denson

Because all restaurant “products” are for human consumption, any maintenance issues that affect food storage and preparation can, at best, lead to wasted food and at worst, the possibility of illness and/or legal action.

These are unique features of the restaurant business.  If you then overlay the potential costs of restaurant downtime due to property issues, it is easy to see that having robust maintenance contracts, procedures and trusted contractors are critical elements for the profitable running of restaurants.

So how can companies reduce maintenance costs without increasing risk?

This case study illustrates the approach InsiderPro took with one of our customers, reducing both risks and costs to the tune of £850,000 per year.

We recently worked with a chain of restaurants in the UK casual dining sector who wanted to reduce the cost of maintenance across all properties and equipment used by the group. 

They thought we would be looking to negotiate new contracts. 

Our approach and the impact that we had took them by surprise...

Read More

Topics: Property Management, Facilities Management, Case Studies, Restaurant efficiency, Restaurant profitability

Why RevPASH is no longer a good restaurant KPI

Posted by Jeremy Bowley

RevPASH (Revenue Per Available Seat Hour) is a great KPI for comparing revenues between different restaurants in a chain and different time periods.

Read More

Topics: Restaurant efficiency, Restaurant profitability

The postitive BREXIT effect on restaurants November 2019

Posted by Jeremy Bowley

Writing anything about BREXIT without a crystal ball is quite a challenge!

Read More

Topics: Restaurant efficiency, Restaurant profitability

The UMAMI approach to setting restaurant KPIs

Posted by Jeremy Bowley

Managers of casual dining chains are challenged by tight margins, high staff turnover, and rising costs. Most will report progress to investors via their P&L and a number of Key Performance Indicators.

Cash flow, RevPASH (revenue per available seat hour), table turnover rate and others are great for comparing progress:

  • How did we do compared with last month?
  • How does this compare with the same time last year?, and even..
  • How are we doing against our competition?

But which restaurant KPIs actively drive business improvements?

Read More

Topics: Restaurant profitability