Low Hanging Fruit

Yesterday, over on my Purchasing Coach Blog, I launched a letter. 

It was a letter that started

Dear Organisation

and concluded

With Love From Procurement xx 

It was a plea for organisations not to underestimate procurement's worth, nor make assumptions and judgements about who we are.

Whilst not directly related to the work I do here on Landscaping Your Life the letter did include a metaphor. It's a metaphor that many in organisations associate with procurement/purchasing activities, and so I share it today as another example of how we can get great insight from exploring the metaphors hidden within our language.

In this instance the words were low hanging fruit.

Here's what the letter had to say on the matter.

"Look, it’s easy to say. And we often get told to focus on low hanging fruit.

But low hanging fruit is picked quickly, and only once.

So, if you’ll let me expand the metaphor - to keep doing well together, we need to: 

• look for the harder-to-reach fruit;

• find ways to increase the yield;

• reduce waste;

• get more revenue for the fruit we pick;

• reduce costs, and risks;

• expand the amount of fruit we grow;

• change the variety we plant;

• buy fruit from others;

• elongate the harvest season;

• plan next year’s harvest better;

• move to better soil, or less climate-affected areas; or

• use fruit from other areas.

Growing and harvesting the fruit is a lot of work, and planning. And there are two ways of doing it: with, or without a full time gardener. That is, with or without a full time ‘me.’

If we think about the fruit, doing it yourself risks an overgrown garden, dead or dying plants, weeds that throttle the useful plants or trees that block the light, leaves everywhere, tree roots damaging neighbouring property, smelly compost, and invasions by plant-eating insects.

Having a full time gardener means the plants are laid out as you need them, you think carefully about growing your own plants from seed, plants that need it get time in the greenhouse, everything is weeded and trimmed in time, there aren’t any weeds or insects, the technology is current, and the tool shed has everything you need when you need it.

A gardener is useful when you’re growing and picking fruit. And I’m useful for you."

I've used gardening as a metaphor for supplier management in organisations for over 20 years. There's even a Pinterest board with lots of ideas of how to apply this metaphor.

I use the metaphor because managers and leaders in these organisations often know more about gardening than they do procurement (in the UK anyway). Which means it's much easier to talk about weeding, feeding, and pruning suppliers than it is contract, performance or relationship managing them!

As ever always happy to discuss how I may support you or your team to break out of their comfort zones, and really amaze themselves and the organisation about what's possible when we do that.

Alison Smith
Landscaping Your Life 
Using unconventional tools to support others to break out of their comfort zones

Don't cut corners unless its safe to do so

On the road if you cut corners you might get away with it. Sooner or later, however, there will be another vehicle on the same part of the road as you. In other words an accident is assured at some point.

I'm not saying I don't cut corners. There's a lovely bit of road between Grantown on spay and Forres near Inverness in Scotland that twists and turns. It's a gorgeous piece of flat moorland and there's complete visibility of the road ahead. Which means I can cut corners to smooth my journey, maintain my speed whilst being safe, and yet know with confidence that I won't meet other vehicles. Yet when driving the same road at night the ability to do that disappears. 

When training or coaching on category management I can hear myself 15 years ago when delegates say "it's too much" "I don't need a process" "that doesn't apply to my category" "I know that already". They're sitting there, as I did then, believing that cutting corners is the way to go every time.

What I've learnt in the intervening 15 years is that when I rigorously apply best practice tools and techniques to a category, in other words when I've not cut corners, I've delivered the most innovative value unlocking category strategy. 

I'm a control freak and hate being told what to do. I want the flexibility to go with the flow, be spontaneous and be able to react to what's happening. In the past I'd assumed that rigorous application of best practice tools and techniques would mean I'd have to give all this up. I now realise I don't. I can have my cake and eat it. 

What I realise is that the process, those tools and templates are guides only. A checklist if you will of what I need to be thinking about. A checklist I need to apply intelligently to the category, organisation, country, supply market and suppliers in hand. 

Of course I won't spend months gathering the data if spend, market complexity and risk is low. Of course I won't do something because it's in the process if it doesn't apply. Of course I won't complete that template in PowerPoint if the information is already conveyed elsewhere in Excel. 

What I will do is rigorously consider each part of the process. If I choose to cut a corner I'll have decided, as I do on the road near Forres, that it's safe to do so. I'll have decided that at this time, with these road conditions, in this weather, today, in this vehicle, with me driving, with the other road users, it's ok to cut the corner. Its okay to miss something out. The decision, however, may change the next time I need to make it. 

For me having a checklist ensures I don't cut corners without knowing it. It also means I deliver more value to the organisation - which can only be good? Even if once in a while I can hear the old Alison muttering about it.

Before you next cut any corners please make sure it's safe to do so.

Alison Smith

Landscaping Your Life

Inspiring change inside and out

What purchasing has in common with gardening

How much do you know about purchasing - and I don't just mean the banging your hand on the table shouting "Lower Lower". I mean the 90% of the work that was undertaken before that discussion with a supplier took place.

Unless you've had some purchasing training or read purchasing books I assume you may know more about gardening than you do about purchasing. Why - because whilst you may not be a professional gardener most of us at some point or other have had a garden, visited gardens, watched the multitude of gardening programmes, read gardening books, visited garden centres (if only for a cuppa) or simply sat in someone elses garden. That's a whole lot more exposure to effective gardening than purchasing. 

Here's why I think we can learn alot about purchasing from gardening:

Why do you want a garden?
Just as a garden might be low or high maintenance, for children or adults, for BBQ's, games or for lounging then purchasing has the same considerations. No use putting in place a garden that’s high maintenance if you’ve not got enough gardeners.

It’s nothing without design
Once you know why you want a garden you still need to consider the design and management of the garden. Will you have one gardener or a number and who’s in charge. Will you be needing a greenhouse and who will have keys for the tool shed? What type of plant will you be putting in that shaded area at the end of the garden under the trees unseen from the house - it had better be a plant that doesn't need much care and attention.

What’s in your tool shed?
It’s not only about the number and types of tools in the tool shed but maintenance and replacement of them too. In some smaller gardens it might be ok to use the spade for many different uses but once the garden gets bigger and certainly once the garden is open to the public then the maintenance of the garden will become more important and more specialised tools are needed. You don't have to look far to see all the multitude of new tools available and realise that whilst many might be more for show many can and do save time and your plants. 

Plant selection
Even for each type of plant there are different varieties each with their own unique characteristics – some needing direct sun, other partial shade, some needing nutritious soil and other being happy with their roots in clay! Matching the variety of plant to the characteristics of your garden is essential in ensuring the plants flourish and the time needed to care for them minimised. Of course once you know what variety you want and have decided whether you’ll grow them from seed or not you then need to decide where to source them from.

You’ve got to have a Greenhouse
If you live in the UK then there will be seeds and even plants that need some TLC first. Time in the greenhouse to get more hardy before they’re planted out into the garden. Sometimes when we unexpectedly end up with snow or frost in May, or the west winds threaten a gale force, we may need to bring plants in. When did you last review the performance of your suppliers and consider how your actions are contributing to how well they are flourishing?

Planting
You might be lucky and a plant might survive if you just dump it in a corner and forget about it. And whilst that might seem unthinkable in a garden it’s certainly what many businesses do to suppliers – no perfect position, no careful planting out, no watering, no feeding, no staking. Plants will certainly survive and flourish and even multiply if given the right care and attention - suppliers too. 

Garden Maintenance
We’ve all heard about jack’s bean stalk or the perils of Japanese knotweed - maintenance is certainly needed to ensure the plants stay within the area originally designed for them. Turn a blind eye and weeds can take hold and smoother or even kill other plants. It’s also useful to have someone with knowledge about plants doing this otherwise it’s easy to uproot a perfectly healthy plant and leave the real weeds behind.

In conclusion
Healthy supplier relationships are no different to healthy plants – next time you start thinking about introducing a new supplier just think about whether you have the skills and environment that will enable them to flourish in your organisation.

Alison Smith
Landscaping Your Life and The Purchasing Coach too

Grow Dammit

You really wouldn't expect the flowers in this picture to grow just because we told them to - words are completely useless without action - and appropriate action at that. 

To flourish we need to ensure that the plants have access to the right conditions for them - light, soil, warmth, nutrients, water etc. The last thing we'd do is buy a new plant and just pull it out of it's container and dump it in a corner and hope that it grows - so why expect suppliers to?  

Alison Smith

Landscaping Your Life and The Purchasing Coach too

A card of this picture taken by Susan Bergstrom can be purchased by following the link below Picture Source: redbubble.com via Alison on Pinterest

Are your suppliers running riot like Japanese Knotweed?

Every gardener understands that seeds need time in the greenhouse, lawns need mowing, weeds need to be pulled and to never plant Japanese Knotweed. Yet many business managers often forget to feed, weed and/or prune their suppliers. And yes most managers at some point in their career realise they've planted a Japanese Knotweed and realise, too late, the error of their ways.

So before you plant your next supplier just make sure you understand the nature of the plant and variety you've selected: How much care and attention will they need, in what conditions do they flourish, what will make them wither and die and will you be able to easily transplant them when they get too big!

Alison Smith

Landscaping Your Life and The Purchasing Coach too

Are your business tools just for show?

I love these tools and like the idea of having a go making some for myself but they wouldn't be very useful in the garden. 

I suspect those of you with gardens will have a number of more useful tools - unless of course someone else does it for you. How many of them you have, how many you use regularly and what they are will depend on a number of factors: 

• the size of the garden
• style/type of garden
• the function of your garden
• the number of plants
• soil type
• your short/medium and long term objectives
• budget available
• gardening expertise available
• enthusiasm and passion for gardening 
• significant other's views on gardening and use of the garden
• their support for your efforts
• current condition of the tools
• ease of access to the tools
• the weather

However many you have - the fact remains that you wouldn't:

• use a watering can to dig up a weed
• use a spade to prune your shrubs
• plant your seeds in the compost bin or even
• use a hose during a hosepipe ban 

Could you say the same for the business area you work in? What tools do you have available and how many of them are you using? Or are they just hanging on the wall next to the award the business won in 1997?

How much more productive could your teams be if they had access to and were using the right tools for the job?

Alison Smith

Landscaping Your Life and The Purchasing Coach too

How will your stakeholders grow?

The BBC's Springwatch just wouldn't be springwatch without Chris Packham and his charts - his delight at conveying data in a chart is contagious. I do have that trait myself - if I can put it in Excel I will and if I can then convey the data graphically all the better. 

Charts and tables aren't just for post activity data analysis they can also be used pre-activity. As you can see in this chart that shows you how to grow vegetables including: 

• what time of year you can plant them in and outside
• ideal soil temperature to enable the seeds to germinate
• their hardiness to weather changes (always needed here in Scotland)
• when to fertilise
• when to water 

Following the advice will optimise the likelihood of the vegetables making it to harvest and eventually the dinner table.

To optimise the likelihood of fruitful relationships with your stakeholders a similar table would be helpful - including information such as:

• likes
• dislikes
• what gets them up in a morning
• what keeps them awake at night
• support needed to enable them to flourish
• influence within the organisation
• support for purchasing/procurement

It's only by knowing this information that you can know how to flex your communication to suit them as an individual and increase the opportunity to influence and engage their support.

Alison Smith

Landscaping Your Life and The Purchasing Coach too

Is an integrated landscape possible?

Blog from the archives reprinted here

As I start to write this I'm not sure where I'm headed but thought I'd share the process of using metaphors contained within someone's language to try to solve the problem its describing.

The Spend Matters headline read "GPS and Cabinet Office procurement – more integration to come, says Crothers" and went on to quote Bill Crothers, Government CPO at the Cabinet Office, as saying "... different components of the commercial landscape that are not necessarily integrated."

So I got to wondering what an integrated landscape would be like in reality (ie in nature) and then we can explore together how these map (excuse the pun :-)) across into how to have an integrated commercial landscape Bill was referring to - because I'm not sure many people are liking the option he proposed.

The key when using the #landscapingyourlife process is to stick with the metaphor for as long as possible. In this case sticking with exploring the integrated natural landscape and not a commercial one. A bit like when we're conducting the research and analysis phase for a category. It's no use making assumptions and jumping to conclusions until all the data is in.

So stick with me, and notice what you notice as you read further, as I share the thoughts and insights that appear as I explore an 'integrated landscape' from my lounge and a road atlas of Britain!

As it's impossible to view the whole landscape at once I automatically thought of a map. Remembering of course that the map is not reality only a representation of it. The map I had to hand was a road atlas of Britain. It is however out of date and a little worn! 

So I'm already wondering if I can get a sense of integration when I don't even have an accurate and up to date picture of the whole? For example I know the new forth road bridge would be shown on a new map with completion date some date in the future.

The first page I turn to has a map that shows the bigger picture but not how all the component parts connect with each other. Each major city simply a blob!

The next size map has the Britain split in 2. It clearly shows the blue lines of motorways connecting major hubs and the linking A roads, but big gaps of blankness of unconnected space in between. So still a disconnect I suspect.

If I drill down I keep getting more detail but smaller areas covered. A greater sense of integration within that small area but greater loss of integration with the whole.

I'm currently not getting a sense of what an integrated landscape looks like and start to wonder if it's possible other than for specific areas within the whole as shown above.

This is where doing this alone has its weakness as I'm not sure where to go next and in groups it's easier to feed on each other's ideas...

I will give it a go none the less...initial thoughts I soon discounted included:

• Using Google earth and satellites to help see the bigger picture and zoom in and out as needed. I kept getting a sense that's no different than the problem I was having with the maps. You either get high level of the whole, or detail of a small bit. You can't have a detailed whole picture.
• I also thought about cutting up the map and pulling bits together. But that ignores so much and allows for a distorted view of reality because my values and judgements then decide what is and isn't included. 

Which brings me to the only solution from this exploration that I could see:

• I keep being drawn to the water that surrounds Britain as the defining integrator. Every part of Britain understanding how they relate to the water even if not to each other. Unlike the landscape, that is full of variety and complexity and needs the detail to make sense of it all, the sea that surrounds the landscape is fairly uniform. A little colder or warmer in places impacted by different currents but something that can be understood as a whole.   

So where does that quick trip into the landscaping process get us - for me the insights include:

• You need a map to make sense of the landscape - otherwise all you can do is view the landscape you're standing in at that moment in time.
• That's only relevant if the map is up to date. That is you can't integrate something that's not quantified and you certainly can't integrate it in order to quantify it!
• Beware of options that split the map in two as its easy to concentrate on the half you know better and forget about the bigger picture.
• A detailed map is only possible for small areas, and locals will still know the area better than any map ever will.
• You can't have detailed integration of the whole - you either have high level integration of the whole or detailed integration of a smaller area.
• Integration at a high level tells us very little.
• The only way to make sense of the bigger picture and how it all fits together is to understand the container in which it sits.

The next step would be to then understand what the sea represents on the 'commercial landscape' Bill was talking about.

I would love to read what you took from this slightly different way of looking at the situation. Not quite what I was expecting but then it would need to be Bill who makes the assessment of its value, as it was his metaphor I explored. 

Alison Smith

Landscaping Your Life

Inspiring change inside and out