There's been a lot in the media about minimising the disruption of the Olympics to your business by encouraging staff to work from home etc. There's even a 'planning information for businesses' document that helps identify some of the possible impacts to your business. The emphasis, however, has been on the disruption to transport impacting staff and deliveries. Unless I've missed it there's one potential impact that seems to have been missed:
Are your suppliers providing goods or services to the Olympics?
If they are then I would suggest you may be negatively impacted unless you've taken steps and been given assurances you won't be.
One supplier I was talking to has a significant number of their senior management involved in providing services to the Olympics. This means they won't be available to do the work they normally do - supporting customers, completing tenders, resolving staffing issues etc.
It won't, of course, just be the supplier I was speaking who's involved in the Olympics but a whole range of suppliers, that I can't even begin to understand the breadth of, but is likely to cover the supply of:
Catering, Transport, Security, Maintenance, Food and Drink, Printing, Uniforms, ATM's, Cleaning, Media, PR, Hospitality, FM, Temporary labour etc
And don't just think that because your suppliers aren't based in London you're off the hook - many who rely on temporary labour may find their supply significantly reduced across the country as labour is bused into the capital. In addition there are venues holding Olympic events from Weymouth to Glasgow.
It's important to understand what plans your suppliers have in place to minimise the disruption to your business and ensure your contingency plans are updated to include the higher risks over the coming months.
Here's to many records broken, anthems sung and tears shed and an event everyone in the UK can be proud of with minimal disruption to normal service.
Alison Smith
The Purchasing Coach
Sowing the seeds for an undisrupted business during the Olympics
As this week's announcement about G4S would support - their need for, and inability to find all, the 10k security staff needed for the Olympics can't but have negatively impacted their unsuspecting clients.
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