Successful Roundtable

- 15/01/2009

On 30 October, Blake Newport and IACCM hosted a Roundtable event with Supply Management Magazine at 30 St Marys Axe (better know as the Gherkin). This follows on from an event at the same location in June last year.

Greg Brownlee, Paul Cinnamond and Michael Porter of Blake Newport and Tim Cummins of IACCM were joined by representatives from Centrica, QinetiQ, Pfizer, and Siemens on the 38th floor of the Gherkin with impressive views over the Square Mile. Following a convivial lunch, a lively discussion between the attendees ensued on the best approach for managing contracts and supplier relationships in the current economic climate '.

Greg Brownlee, Managing Director of Blake Newport stated within the discussion. “There is a very real importance to maintaining your supply chain and particularly monitoring and mentoring your suppliers. I think we will all need to be proactive rather than reactive in the commercial and contract management of our suppliers in these times of uncertainty, in order to ensure that the organisations we work in don’t end up as front page headlines in the Financial Times. I think we all probably need to work harder to do things better and to make sure that the right systems, people and processes are in place to make sure that once the bad times are over we are all set for the good times.”

The event was covered by Supply Management with two articles appearing in November issues (Supplier – Friend or Foe? and Tackle aggression toward suppliers) the issues and solutions that came out of the Roundtable are also being covered by IACCM in their monthly newsletters.

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