Prof. Colin Coulson-Thomas
A range of services are being promoted to help people adopt the approaches of commissioning superstars. They are based upon the findings of a research team led by Prof. Colin Coulson-Thomas which reveal organisations that excel at purchasing behave differently from their peers. According to the Professor “Those who want to raise their game can learn from those who secure the benefits of effective purchasing and identify areas for improvement by benchmarking against best practice.”
The research study examined 137 purchasing questions. The resulting 175 page A4 report ‘Effective Purchasing, the critical success factors’ can be used to review an organisation’
The Professor believes world class commissioning will be a priority for public as well as private organisations in 2009: “NHS Primary Care Trusts and other UK public bodies, and organisations in other parts of the world are adjusting to a new regime of commissioning. Instead of providing services themselves they are increasingly purchasing services from other organisations.”
According to Coulson-Thomas:
The resulting bespoke and confidential benchmarking report includes comparisons with the average for all organisations participating in the research and those that win most benefits from their purchasing functions, as well as a ‘top ten action checklist’.
Prof. Coulson-Thomas explains: “To help users pinpoint the issues which are really important for their firms, the benchmark reports contain a ‘top ten action checklist’ which highlights where the particular organisation falls furthest behind the most successful. This can enable those who are already successful to identify and address particular weaknesses.”
The ‘Effective Purchasing’ report contains 79 diagrams and checklists of key action points. Further information on the critical success factors report and the bespoke benchmarking service can be obtained from http://www.policypublications.com. Both the report and the benchmarking service can be ordered from this website.
Reviews of the approach adopted by a particular organisation and various presentations, courses and workshops on the critical success factors for effective purchasing are also available. Those who would like further information on the study led by Professor Coulson-Thomas and the resulting services, or would like to discuss the key findings can contact him via http://www.adaptation.ltd.uk.
Professor Colin Coulson-Thomas is an experienced consultant and author of ‘Winning Companies; Winning People, making it easy for average performers to adopt winning behaviours’. He has reviewed and improved the processes and practices of over 100 companies, helped over 100 boards to raise board and/or corporate performance, and spoken at over 200 national, international and corporate conferences in 35 countries. He can be contacted via http://www.coulson-
Over 2,000 organisations have participated in various investigations led by Prof. Coulson-Thomas into what high performers do differently. The critical success factors which have been identified are set out in a series of reports produced by Policy Publications. Further information, these reports and his book ‘Winning Companies; Winning People’ can be obtained from: http://www.policypublications.com
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