SRS SkyAlyne Team
The Government of Canada (Canada) has determined that a collaborative contracting relationship will generate the highest probability of success for the Future Aircrew Training (FAcT) Program. The SkyAlyne —the only Canadian team—fully endorses this approach, and as a result, the FAcT Program represents a generational partnership opportunity between Canada and SkyAlyne. This partnership...
Read MoreBecome A Member of The ISO 44001 Mirror Committee
The Canadian ISO 44001 Mirror committee is looking to expand its current membership including a vice role. For those who are interested in participating, please send your CV to relationships@srscan.com and indicate for which stakeholder group below you either represent or...
Read MoreBreaking Through the Transactional Mindset Seminar
An Executive Training Program on how to Achieve Better Outcomes in Complex Procurements and Business Relationships It is no longer a secret that the majority of complex projects and business arrangements fall short of meeting stakeholder expectations. Research has shown that the fundamental issues are rooted in the fact that business arrangements are structured and managed as static...
Read MoreCOVID-19 Sourcing Assistance
Strategic Relationships Solutions Inc. (SRS) is proud to be of service to the community by helping source medical and safety devices for front line health care workers.
Read MoreBreaking Through The Great Wall Of China: Taking Business Relationships To The Next Level
Everywhere you look today there seems to be a great deal of discussion regarding the importance of managing relationships. The focus on how key stakeholders interact with one another and its impact on achieving improved outcomes in areas such as complex contracting is nothing new. At least not from the standpoint of recognizing the need to collaborate, communicate and cooperatively work together...
Read MoreBuilding High-Performance Business Relationships
Achieving sustainable performance on large-scale programs and projects requires that both existing and potential partners establish proactive, flexible, and collaborative relationships. The KPMG-SRS Centre for Strategic Relationships and Contract Management is pleased to offer: An Executive seminar on Relationship Management, Relational Contracting, and Collaborative Working in Ottawa on October...
Read MoreThe Defense spending problem and the need for finding the balance between contractual imperatives and relational execution
Whether in recent headlines or within the confines of inner circle discussions talking about Defense procurement and the challenges the Canadian government has been facing in getting it right is a hot topic. A series of recent articles including one by the CBC titled “After years of missteps, Canadian Military officials hope procurement now on track” provides just one of many examples...
Read MoreISO 44001: Creating The “New” Standard For Business Relationships
Over the past few months there has been, with increasing frequency, the publication of many articles written on the emergence or re-emergence of the relational approach to complex business relationships. Whether it is a true renaissance or not, remains to be seen. After all, the importance of relationships in business, and for that matter, in everyday life is not a “new”...
Read MoreGetting Beyond Crisis Triggers As the Foundation For Successful Relationships
Do not get me wrong, there are of course steps that can and must be taken to evolve the relationship between stakeholders, from the concept stage through to the execution and outcome stage. One example is the Staircase of Relationships presented by Malcolm Morley in his June 9th, 2016 blog post of the same name. But here is the thing . . . building successful relationships is not simply a matter...
Read MoreWhy scrap shipbuilding strategy? Improved outcomes starts with open communications and transparency
“That project was awarded to the Seaspan’s Vancouver Shipyard. The briefing assigned no blame but suggested there were improvements the B.C.-based shipbuilder could make . . . “Vancouver Shipyards needed to find skilled staff, establish capability to increase design work and learn how to use new facilities,” the briefing material said.” – CBC News, November...
Read MoreUnderstanding The (New) Role of Relationships In Achieving Business Success
A recent international conference brought together senior buying executives, vendors and lawyers from around the world, to discuss solutions to the high rate of initiative failures. According to one study, more than 70% of all business arrangements fail to deliver the expected results. What were the two key conclusions that came out of the conference in terms of reversing this trend? Building and...
Read MoreHow To Avoid The Tombstone Effect In Business Relationships by Andy Akrouche
Welcome To Tombstone Whenever there is instability and divisiveness in the buyer-side internal relationship framework, this dysfunction is ultimately extended to include external stakeholders such as vendors. Think of it as the wild west town of Tombstone and the famous battle at the OK Corral. What would it have felt like for an outsider to ride into Tombstone during the OK Corral gunfight?...
Read MoreCan you commission success? by Andy Akrouche
“The act of granting certain powers or the authority to carry out a particular task or duty.” – definition of commissioning There is – at least in the world of complex project contracting and management, a fine line between the delegation of a project’s lead to a more experienced third-party, and the abdication of responsibility for its success. With...
Read MoreThe Truth About Public-Private Partnerships
“The fact is that the majority of all long-term complex business arrangements underperform or fail because they are structured as a deal or a transaction as opposed to a strategic relationship between key stakeholders. Whatever name you give it, a transaction or a deal is still a deal.” – The (Real) Art of the Deal by Andy Akrouche, Relational Contracting Intelligence Blog,...
Read MoreTurning Good Relationships Into Great Relationships by Andy Akrouche
“Good is the enemy of great. And that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great. We don’t have great schools, principally because we have good schools. We don’t have great government, principally because we have good government. Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for a good life.” ― James C. Collins, Good...
Read MoreWhile familiarity purportedly breeds contempt, it certainly doesn’t lead to procurement fraud
I read with great interest Colin Cram’s recent post regarding both the prevalence and significant impact that fraud within the procurement process has beyond the original transaction itself. While the Cram article focuses on how fraud and corruption are badly damaging the economies of many African countries, there is no doubt that its overall effect from a global perspective are also...
Read MoreThe Myth Surrounding Executive Buy-In
I recently came across an article in IndustryWeek titled The Politics of Improvement: The Challenge of Getting Company Leaders’ Buy-In. While there are obviously certain degrees of politics in every facet of everyday living – I have never been a fan of the term “buy-in”. In fact I have a strong distaste for its implications, as it suggests that to get what you want, you...
Read MoreStrategic Sourcing And The Road To Transformational Leadership
In his recent post titled Who Are Procurement’s New Leaders, Jon Hansen referenced a reader comment that “business strategy and traditional procurement strategy are often misaligned.” As a result, “necessary leadership talent must synthesize the best . . . and discard the obsolete to create something new.” In my experience the “new” to which the reader...
Read MoreWhy 2015 is the year of the Relationships Management Officer
I recently listened to an interview involving Pete Wharton, IBM’s Commerce Solutions Product Marketing Leader. During the segment, Wharton indicated that IBM’s plan was to “create an ecosystem of technology partners to extend IBM’s service capabilities to its customers.” The interviewer then made the statement that it sounded as if IBM was “trying to corner or...
Read MoreAchieving certainty: How to create a culture for collaboration by Andy Akrouche
The sole purpose for creating a contract is to establish a path of certainty that will guarantee a successful outcome. In short, if I do “A” and you do “B” we should achieve “C”. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as absolute certainty in the real world. As a result, even a well crafted contract with clearly defined terms and conditions will fail if it...
Read More
Relationships First