October 2023

Awesome roundtable today and in fact an all-round ground-breaking meeting where Corporate representatives of the Council for Supplier Diversity and Inclusion and myself met with the heads of the different NGOs representing the diverse supplier groups at Goldman Sachs’ offices. The vibe was one of positivity, laser-focused on how better collaboration across the board would enable more diverse businesses to win a share of the corporate purse and in doing so help the UK economy prosper. Expect much more on Supplier Diversity moving forward.

In fact, much of my time at the moment is being spent on all things “Sustainable Sourcing” – and I use Sustainable in the broader sense of the word, building resilience whilst considering long-tern environmental and social factors. To this end many aspects of our work fall under the umbrella of “Sustainable Sourcing”, to include:

• Our Agile Sourcing Working Group is working on how we can harness agile to consistently deliver benefits back to businesses across the industry
• Our Contracting Workstream is continuing its quest to publish Industry Standard Terms for all to use
• As part of our promotion of the Standardisation Revolution we are soon to publish our industry questionnaire for assessing the ESG performance of service providers
• We have been working with the IAOP’s Centre for Social Impact on the Guiding Principles for Impact Sourcing. Next up we are looking to co-create a revised version of the Impact Sourcing Standard

As always, we want to embrace the talent and experience of our community, so if any of these subjects inspire you, please get in touch to find out more and perhaps you would consider becoming a council member? This is just the tip of the iceberg for what we are currently working on.

Happy Sustainable Sourcing everyone.

Best
Kerry

ESG Buyside Roundtable
14th November 2023
11:00 - 13:00
Waterloo

Agile Sourcing Working Group
15th November 2023
09:30-10:30
Virtual

ESG Service Provider Roundtable
21st November
09:30-11:00
Virtual

GSA Topical Event: The Truth on how AI affects our Profession.
22nd November 2023
15:00-17:00
 Westminster

17:00- 19:00
Westminster

GSA Professional Awards Ceremony

28th November 2023

18:00 - late

De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms, London 

Secure your place in our hall of fame and your seat at the table. The Professional Awards Ceremony is taking place on the 28th November 2023.

There is less than 1 week left to submit for the GSA Awards, but it’s not too late. 

Do you have a Rising Star in your midst?

Is your boss a legendary strategic leader?

Is your company making great in roads with the DEI agenda? View all the categories open to you here.

We will also be making this event our Xmas Extravaganza - join the festive celebration and book your tables now.

JOIN THE AGILE SOURCING WORKING GROUP

The interest in and adoption of agile sourcing is accelerating as companies increasingly recognise the significant business benefits it delivers. However, not only does “agile sourcing” mean different things to different people, but there are no guiding principles as to what good agile sourcing actually looks like.

The GSA has set up its Agile Sourcing Working Group to address exactly this issue. The immediate focus of this Working Group will be:

• To agree on the definition for agile sourcing to bring clarity on what it is and what it isn’t; where it starts and where it ends; and how it differs from agile procurement.
• To develop guiding principles for agile sourcing
• To develop a maturity framework to assess readiness/competences that both buyers and providers can measure against
• To measure and map the benefits of agile sourcing to better understand and better benchmark the benefits it delivers

There is no better way to demonstrate your company’s commitment to the industry and profession than by joining and contributing to the industry Association. If you would like to align your brand (personal or corporate) with any of the programs included in our manifesto for 2023 or have your own ideas on how we can drive our industry forward together in 2024, please do not hesitate to contact our CEO directly below.

We have a number of open roles – and new ones to boot – covering subjects from digital through Wellness to ESG. Be Part of It!

CALL FOR CONTENT

We have 3 big initiatives in our forthcoming calendar and we are seeking input from our community:

• GSA Annual Predictions event to close out 2023
• GSA Strategic Sourcing Yearbook will be published in January
• GSA Strategic Sourcing Symposium will take place on 16 January, hosted by DLA Piper

We are looking for articles and speaker synopses to help us fill each of these. So if you have a case study, a research report or a thought leadership angle across any of the below topics, please email a brief synopsis into admin@gsa-uk.com:

• Digital transformation
• Responsible automation
• Positive impact of AI
• Social Sourcing
• Impact Sourcing
• Supplier Diversity
• Cool new techs

Book Launch: The New Era of Global Services.

By Javier Peña Capobianco

The New Era of Global Services is the result of interviews with more than seventy international leaders. The results show that in the coming years, Global Services will tend to grow in business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C), peer-to-peer (P2P), an in particular peer-to-business (P2B) relationships. Deciding on locations will be a more flexible process that may include different countries, cities, and even the cloud (virtual sourcing). Therefore, an increase in delocalizing options (multi-sourcing) is expected. As a result, global labour arbitrage will create opportunities not only for secondary cities but also for cells and individuals with outstanding talents and appropriate telecommunication infrastructures. This, in turn, will foster the flourishing of companies with neither human resources of their own, nor a physical presence in a specific location.

See more on the latest book here.

Book Launch: Negotiating Technology Contracts 2nd Edition.

By Kit Burden, Mark O'Conor, Duncan Pithouse - DLA Piper

Technology underpins everything we do, and the contracts which underpin the delivery of technology-related services are important from both an economic and social perspective. Negotiating technology-related contracts can, however, be challenging: for the uninitiated or uninformed, the significance of the points under discussion may be unclear, confusing and often at odds with the outcomes one might expect in more traditional 'bricks and mortar'-style contracts.

See more on the latest book here.

Guest Blog: The Road to Reform - Procurement Act 2023

By Kuldip Dhanoya, TLT Solicitors

The GSA was delighted to see that many of the areas it submitted comments on in the initial draft of this bill were addressed. Here’s a great summary of the changes and remember what comes to pass in the public sector comes to fruition in the private sector.

Read the full article here.

THE NEWS ROUNDUP