– “Hi, my name is Matts Rehnström and I work for Clean Stream,” I say to the man I called. – Aha, he says. – We support businesses to have happy employees, satisfied customers and healthy finances, I say further. – Hmmm and how do you do that, he says? – Well, we do it by helping businesses to see, develop and focus on their value-creating flows, because we know that if you keep track of and focus on them, so many other good things come in their wake. – Okay, that sounds interesting. But do you have a framework agreement with us? – No, we do not. We haven’t done any work for you before. – Well, that’s not possible. You’ll just have to look on our website when we come out with new requests,” says the man. – But how do you know what to ask for in a possible future request? You don’t know what possibilities there are if we haven’t had the meeting I’m wondering if you’re open to, I continue. Silence. I hear the man thinking. Then he takes the easy way out and says there’s no point in meeting, because we don’t have a framework agreement… I give up on this contact, because there’s no point in informing someone who doesn’t want to be informed. But the whole discussion sets off my thoughts and an overall question
What should you procure?
How do you know what to ask for in the next tender, if you are not informed about new opportunities for your business? If you keep doing the same thing, you will keep getting the same results. This is true personally, as well as in businesses. Another truth is that you cannot solve a problem with the same thoughts that created the problem in the first place. I know that the man I spoke to has great needs for improvement in his business. I know this from the industry his business is in and also from reading up on his business before the conversation. And I know that we at Clean Stream could help him and his business. It’s not at all uncommon for people in different businesses to have a clear idea of what they need and then to procure it. They think they have the best solution straight away. Often without having taken the time to talk to others. This happens in business development, questions about training, system support or other. It’s just that when I, and other suppliers, read the request for proposal, we are surprised. Because there we see many suggestions for improvement. If the procurement is within LOU or LUFF, well then there is not much to do. If you want to participate and bid, then all the questions need to be answered, whether they are the smartest questions or not. So, the conclusion is that it is impossible for you to know what you do not know. You don’t even know what to procure. To gain further knowledge, you need to talk to different suppliers. This will give you a better understanding of alternative ways of thinking. Now, the above probably doesn’t apply directly to you as a person, because you read my weekly newsletters and probably attend the occasional webinar that we at Clean Stream hold. But it might apply to your colleagues who are currently pushing for a procurement. They want a new system, a machine, a model, or whatever it might be. Help them to get it right. Take it upon yourself to inform them that maybe you should first “look around” a bit more and learn more, before you procure. And if they say that it is so urgent, remind them that it is far more expensive and takes longer overall, that you are choosing the wrong solution, just because you did not see the alternatives. It’s just a matter of course, I think.
What do you think?
