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The majority of us are at home with our families, trying to work whilst keeping safe and entertaining the children.  There is rightfully much in the news about the NHS and essential key workers who are doing such important jobs. 

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.

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?

Big names like Jamie Oliver, Byron, Strada and more have closed restaurants in the past couple of years, and others have responded to the market with discounts, budget menus and other price-cutting measures.

However, when combined with cost pressures such as rising business rates, increases in the National Living Wage and the rise of high street rents, the pressure on margin is a recipe for disaster. Added to that food prices have risen (largely due to the falling pound), and Brexit still provides some uncertainty here in the UK.

All of these things are out of our control, but all of them impact ALL restaurants. So why do some fail, when others are expanding?

"Enterprise Value" is a term that is used to value a business beyond it's market capitalisation.  The usual definition is market capitalisation (share price multiplied by the number of outstanding shares) plus net debt.

But we think that enterprise value can and should be looked at in an entirely different way....

"Best practice" is a phrase that can be over-used, but nonetheless sought-after by all concerned.  We like to talk about "Next practice" as a way of bringing about improvements as well as change.  This list combines suggestions from the top industry gurus - including our modest selves!

Recent surveys show that many UK businesses are already preparing themselves for BREXIT by redesigning their supply chains in favour of UK companies.

Procurement teams are generally assessed on their ability to meet budgets.  But if they hit their target every time, does that mean they are really good at their job, or that the spend target is too easy to achieve?

Should you be asking your procurement team to cut costs even more, or should their success be more closely aligned with company goals and driving shareholder value?

Clearly, when margins have been cut back several times there comes a point where simple cost cutting cannot be achieved.  As a consequence, the more astute procurement teams focus instead on ways to impact total cost of ownership, overall profitability, business competitiveness, risk reduction and other elements that drive enterprise value.

To test whether your team has made that leap and moved away from the traditional procurement role into the more dynamic, mission-critical role that your business needs, try this simple checklist:

Today's procurement teams are being challenged to reduce costs, but in many cases are finding that suppliers have no further room for negotiation.

After round upon round of cost reduction projects, the traditional approaches are running out of steam.

Procurement consultants aren't usually challenged with driving business innovation.

More likely, they are charged with reducing the bottom line financial figures.