Within the Tour de France there are a number of competitions, such as the King of the Mountains (polka dot jersey), as well as the overall competition (the Yellow Jersey).
At the CIPS Supply Management Awards 2011, I was delighted to go up on stage with the rest of the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) team to receive procurement’s equivalent of both the King of the Mountains and Overall Leader jerseys, winning ‘Best Public Procurement’ and ‘Overall Winner’.
This was the first time that a public body has won the overall award and we all feel honoured to have been recognised in this way.
I use the Tour de France classifications as a metaphor as there are a number of similarities to our programme.
The Tour is a tremendous feat of endurance, with riders covering over 2,200 miles in three weeks, while at our peak effort we let over 130 major contracts in 15 months. A bad crash can be disastrous for whole teams on the Tour, preventing them winning or event finishing. For us, the equivalent would be legal challenges to our procurements that could delay the award of contracts, holding back the construction programme and completion. We avoided challenges and the procurement programme stayed on track.
The Tour and our programme involve great team work – the Tour with its mechanics, soigneurs and lead-out riders who sacrifice their own glory to get the team in the best position, while at the ODA we built an integrated procurement team with our delivery partner, as well as a range of consultants and interim staff who have supported our core team.
It is also pleasing to see that many of our procurement colleagues, who have now left the programme, picked up the news and sent messages of congratulation. Really, they need only congratulate themselves as they have all contributed to this successful delivery.
To find read about the ODA’s success at the CIPS Supply Management Awards 2011, including awards photographs and a video interview with John Fernau, click here.
