Social procurement is driving real change in New Zealand. Is your organisation ready to embrace this exciting opportunity?
by Fiona Nissen, Managing Consultant ArcBlue New Zealand
Since the government started on their journey to Well Being, which incorporates the Living Standards Framework, we have seen an increased focus on ‘doing the right thing’ within our communities. This focus also ensure that the delivery of benefits is outcome-focused, rather than being about the cheapest priced goods.
Value for money and risk management are still foundations of procurement activity, however the definition of ‘’value’’ has now been extended to include social and sustainable outcomes.
As a leader in Social & Sustainable Procurement across New Zealand and Australia, ArcBlue has helped to develop guidelines and good practice documents. We are working with a group of central government agencies to develop a Social Procurement Framework that will be rolled out to key agencies, which is also likely to be a requirement for other organisations including local government. We have recently undertaken similar work in Australia on the Victorian State Government Social Procurement Framework.
Why we care – At ArcBlue we believe procurement can be at the heart of creating opportunities and solving problems
Practical initiatives, not theory, need to be embedded to support social and sustainable procurement. Areas of focus will align to the broader outcomes prescribed by government.
- Here are some of the initial objectives we are seeing under development:
- Opportunities for Māori Enterprise
- Skills & workforce development
- Environment practices and outputs
- Sustainable, fair & equitable employment environments
- Prosperous & sustainable regions
Social and sustainable procurement is gaining significance and you need to ensure your organisation is ready. Here are some questions you need to ask about your own organisation:
- How well does your team understand and implement social and sustainable procurement?
- Are your projects delivering social and sustainable outcomes?
- How confident are you that the business case you see will actually deliver the expected outcomes?
- What are your measures and how do you report on benefits delivered?
- What’s the plan for doing more?
- What would help you to do more?
We’d love to hear your perspective! Drop me a line – fiona.nissen@arcblue.co.nz
Keep Reading!
-
Top 10 things that have changed in 10 Years
As ArcBlue celebrates it’s 10 Year anniversary operating across Asia Pacific in 2023, we took some time to reflect on the changes we’ve seen to the procurement function over the last decade. From our beginnings with a small team in Melbourne to now with offices across Asia Pacific, so much has changed for ArcBlue, in procurement & supply chain and the world as we know it!
-
Making the Business Case for Supplier Diversity
Supplier diversity’s potential social and economic impact is far-reaching and increased spending on diverse suppliers can generate life-changing access and possibilities for people within underrepresented groups. This whitepaper encourages organisations to take an ambitious approach to supplier diversity to maximise meaningful change.
-
The value of listening to your suppliers: Maximising supply chain resilience and managing risk
Effective SRM can enhance supply chain resilience and improve the organisation’s ability to respond to unexpected events. Our whitepaper explores how conducting a “voice of the suppliers” (VOS) online survey is a key step to set up or improve on an organisation’s SRM programme.
-
Building Resilient Procurement Teams: the skills needed to shape the future
This whitepaper explores the demand for talent, the appeal of a career in procurement, and the responsibility for organisations to build the right blend of capabilities and skills required to succeed in our changing and often volatile procurement landscape.
-
10 Traps & Tips: Digital Procurement Implementation
The digital transformation of your procurement will support improving the way that your entire organisation operates. Technology Implementation lead, Kerrie Anson offers her Top 10 Traps & Tips for Digital Procurement Implementation.
-
10 Traps & Tips – Challenges organisations face when implementing Sustainable Procurement
Increasing regulatory requirements around issues such as modern slavery and carbon emissions mean that companies can no longer afford to ignore what is happening in their supply chains. Chris Hampden offers his Top 10 Traps & Tips of the biggest challenges organisations face and what to do to address them.
-
Are win-win negotiations really possible?
Procurement teams with highly developed negotiation skills deliver savings and improvements in efficiency and value. Managing Director Dan Fielding explores the concept of 'win-win'.
-
The Case For Sustainable Procurement: Generating value for people, planet and the bottom line
Read our whitepaper, produced in partnership with Supply Management Insider: The Case For Sustainable Procurement: generating value for people, planet and the bottom line - the risks, opportunities and challenges relating to sustainability, and why a collaborative supply chain is vital for the future.
-
Understanding Social Procurement
Many organisations have implemented social statements into their vision & values and are asking procurement to align the sourcing process to meet the organisation’s objectives.
-
Spotlight on Modern Slavery
More than 40 million people worldwide are subject to modern slavery including 25 million victims hidden within global supply chains. Therefore, it is vital that businesses understand modern slavery risks and their procurers take action to combat this within their supply chains.
-
Top 10 Traps & Tips: Why Infrastructure Projects Fail
Time delays and millions of dollars can be wasted on infrastructure projects due to poor project planning, management and delivery practices. Infrastructure Lead, Shane Lamont offers his Top 10 Traps & Tips for why Infrastructure projects fail.
-
How can procurement support Australia’s growing infrastructure needs?
Infrastructure Lead, Shane Lamont explores 3 key ways we can rethink procurement to help deliver Australia’s growing infrastructure needs.
-
International Development Procurement: The Need for a Strategic Approach
Why is strategic procurement so important for International Development? Chris Gunn explores the current dynamics in this space.
-
Emerging Hiring Trends in the Singapore market
The COVID-19 'Circuit Breaker' in Singapore started in April 2020 and last for almost two months before it was lifted on 1st June. Here are our observations on the trends in the Singapore job market post the circuit breaker period...
-
The Cost of Time
Do you know what the cost of running out of time is for your procurement projects? Justin Sara & Fiona Nissen explain the cost of time in this article, and offer tips to avoiding the last minute procurement crunch.
-
Have you been swimming naked?
Times are unprecedented these last few months, especially for procurement and supply chain teams. Some organisations are coping better than others to ride the storm. What lessons can be learned?
-
How resilient is your supply chain to the COVID-19 crisis?
In this article, we share our Supply Chain Risk, Resilience and Recovery (Supply Chain RRR) roadmap to help guide procurement functions and supply chains through this catastrophic event.
-
Top 10: Tips for Preparing Modern Slavery Act Statements
The Commonwealth Modern Slavery Act 2018 came into force in Australia in 2019 to help organisations combat the serious issues relating to the 40 million victims of modern slavery around the world.
-
Top 10: Tips for Successful Procurement Digitalisation
Organisations are embarking on procurement digitalisation journeys to take processes and data online, providing their stakeholders with interactive tools and reports to support buying activities.
-
Top 10: Tips for unlocking the power of your procurement data
For great procurement outcomes, organisations need to understand large volumes of spend, financial & operational data. Read our Top 10 tips for unlocking the power of your procurement data.
-
Top 10: Questions to Ask When Developing A Category Strategy
Many organisations struggle to develop effective category strategies. Dan Fielding asks these 10 questions to help you ensure your strategy is robust, thorough and positioned for success.
-
Top 10: Tips for building procurement capability
Procurement leaders are increasingly asked to deliver more. Executive Manager Jacqui Priestly explains how you can develop your team's capability drive better procurement performance and achieve more.
-
Top 10: Tips for negotiating the best deals with your suppliers
Negotiation is a crucial skill for procurement professionals, and one that can be developed. Managing Director Dan Fielding offers his Top 10 tips for negotiating the best possible deals.
-
The Secret to Successful Change Strategies
Between 60% – 70% of change initiatives are reported to fail. Senior Consultant Kerrie Anson discusses how to develop a effective change management strategy and how to measure success.
-
Successful Procurement Solution Implementation
Many organisations struggle when it comes to initiating and implementing IT change. Read how you can develop an effective change strategy when implementing procurement tech solutions.
-
New Opportunities from the Waste Crisis
There is a waste crisis in Australia at the moment. This article explores what is happening, how you may be able to help, and insight into the potential for the country to benefit from the crisis.
-
Compete with competitors, not suppliers
Procurement is about providing value, providing a service and managing complex supply chains. This article discusses how you can benefit from working openly and collaboratively with suppliers.
-
Create Opportunities with Social Procurement
The definition of "value" in New Zealand has now been extended to include social and sustainable outcomes. Managing Consultant Fiona Nissen discusses how organisations can become social procurement ready.
-
Drive business benefits with analytics
We live in a data driven world, to the point where data-based decision making is now mainstream. Read how understanding how your business spends money using analytics can drive business change.
-
Enabling positive outcomes in council
Managing Consultant Fiona Nissen explains why having a robust procurement strategy that is aligned to your business strategy is key in enabling your council to deliver high quality community services.
-
Top 10: Reasons we love working in Procurement
If you are new to procurement or are looking to begin a career in this field, rest assured, you are stepping into a great profession! Read the ArcBlue Top 10 series list of the top reasons why we love working in procurement.
-
Top 10: Questions to Ask When Choosing A New eProcurement System
Often buyers don’t know where to start, there are myriad systems available and IT is not a common purchase for most. Read these tips to help you choose the right eProcurement system.
-
Procurement, the game is changing
Managing Director Dan Fielding explores how procurement needs to change to adapt to a new business environment. Do we need to shift the thinking about the way procurement is operating?
-
Changing the world one purchase at a time
Managing Director Chris Newman provides background and insight into the fast-emerging field of Social Procurement and outlines ways in which it can be implemented across organisations.
-
Top 10: Tips for effective procurement leadership
Leadership in procurement is something we can all aspire to and practice at every level of a procurement function. This article offers our Top 10 tips for developing your leadership skills to optimise productivity.
-
What is your blockchain strategy?
"Blockchain is a really interesting technical solution in search of a problem to solve." Senior Consultant Emerson Boyle explores if Procurement leaders need to have a blockchain strategy.
