Are your suppliers servicing the Olympics

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

Olympic picture source: london2012.com via Alison on Pinterest

Are you suppliers without ego? Are you?

I wasn't able to get a ticket to see the Dalai Lama speak in Manchester this weekend but I did mange to watch the live webcast. I could blog about many aspects of what his Holiness had to say about non violence and dialogue in conflict situations. Yet it's the insights from watching his translator that I'd like to share with you today.

The Dalai Lama does have an excellent understanding of English but has a translator on hand on the stage. From observation it would seem this is done to assist with conveying the subtleties of what he's trying to say and checking understanding of questions asked.

As the translator stands only feet away, and at times interjects rephrasing something his holiness has just said, he's not invisible. Yet what I took away from him was his lack of EGO. I have no idea who he is, what his thoughts or beliefs are about what was being said. It seems clear to me that his intention is to simply be of service to help the Dalai Lama convey his message.

Without that ego he:

• already knew ahead of time the message being conveyed
• listened intently to what was being said
• only offered alternate words when he felt the underlying message might be missed otherwise
• faded into the background the rest of the time

With ego I'm sure we'd have had a much different experience.

Yes it's his job - but mine, yours and our suppliers jobs all require the same behaviours and yet often the ego and its need to be seen, heard and acknowledged gets in the way of service being delivered.

How will you aim to silence your ego today?

Alison Smith
The Purchasing Coach
Sowing the seeds of ego less service from suppliers  

Source of Dalai Lama Picture: dalailama.com via Alison on Pinterest