Hey {{First name|there}},

I just want you to picture this scenario for one moment.

You’re new in a business.

You’ve been brough in to set up a team, implement a Procurement policy and deliver a Procurement strategy.

Procurement leaders get paid a fair bit to do this, and so we should.

It’s a top skill.

But then instead of directly doing that, you go to the Chief Financial Officer with a proposal.

  1. To spend £250k with a consultancy to delivery the Procurement policy.

  2. Part of your justification is you want them to validate your strategy too,

Seems ridiculous doesn’t it?

You wouldn’t do it. Why?

  • You’ve got too much self respect

  • You care about company money {{First name}}

  • You’re not a numbskull

ICYMI

My best Linkedin post of the past fortnight:

But this type of thing happens.

It’s how consultancies make huge amount of money.

When business competency is absent in house, instead of recruiting talent for half the cost

Organisations spend 100s of thousands on consultancies to do it for them.

The cycle continues too because inevitably without the capability being developed in house, the strategy never sticks.

Two years later more support is being sought, perhaps from a different big consultancy partner.

It’s madness.

As for the external ‘validation’ of strategy justification.

What is the point?

Really…are you that insecure about your capability that you need to spend thousands on a consultant to validate?

I don’t know {{First name}}, maybe I’m tired of seeing money being frittered away.

Or maybe I’m just tired.

Tom

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Bill Young2 years ago

That is often true.
However, here is a quote from 'The Unaccountability Machine' by Dan Davies: "It’s the problem identified by Niccolò Machiavelli – a prince who is not wise cannot be well advised, and a manager who doesn’t have access to excess analytical capacity won’t be able to tell when something has gone wrong with their subordinates. But maintaining that spare management capacity is expensive." 'Excess analytical capacity' means people who see beyond their prescribed responsibilities, who have time and resources to study the environment their company operates in, and who have the credibility to speak up on things outside their portfolio. Who, in this age of lean efficiency can honestly claim to have that 'spare management capacity'?