First published in The Mandarin 9 February 2026 The Digital Transformation Agency has released the strategic review of the whole of Australian government single seller arrangements (SSAs). The review, by IT consultancy SolsticeIT, found the arrangements delivered the government “significant value for money” – more than $1.6 billion. $1.6bn is savings? No! To be fair,…
As published in The Mandarin December 3, 2024 by Kiah MD John Glenn If I had realised this when I first started out my life would have been much easier – everywhere! I would have got more of what I wanted to achieve with much less angst. At home, at school, at work – did…
As published in The Mandarin October 29, 2024 by Kiah MD John Glenn It’s de rigueur to run performance-based contracts. Deliver the agreed performance, get paid. Don’t meet the performance standard, get paid less. Should make sense, but does it? Do the job, get paid In a business-to-business (B2B) relationship, if a company delivers faster,…
As published in The Mandarin September 10, 2024 by Kiah MD John Glenn I know I’m a heretic. Surely, it’s obvious we need good contract management. The Department of Finance has a well-meaning 50+ page guide to managing contracts. ANAO has a web page providing advice on better procurement and contract management (ANAO Insights: Audit…
As published in The Mandarin November 7, 2023 by Kiah MD John Glenn I’m not against the ‘Big Four’ — they have things to offer. They just shouldn’t be offered everything. Setting aside the egregious behaviours of a few, the bigger problem is their extraordinary exclusionary access and influence. It has created an oligopoly across…
As published in The Mandarin September 5, 2023 by Kiah MD John Glenn Enough with the noise about the ‘Big’ 4, and the parallel Defence MSPs. Few would disagree that ‘Big’ has a stranglehold on the professional services government spend. Even with a greater in-house capability in our public service they can’t and shouldn’t replace…
Negotiation is the process of trading something of value for something you value more. Deadlock is where there is no movement. It happens when creating a contract, during delivery, around change proposals. It happens within organisations – particularly where groups must work together but have different agendas or outcomes. Sometimes deadlock is real – there…
*Warning, it’s unsafe Any conversations that suggest alternative contracting models can engage companies to deliver social outcomes, acting in the public interest over their own, are based on a false premise that industry will subjugate their own interest in favour of their clients’ interests. Businesses do not exist for the public good. They may do…
Some years ago I did a Harvard program called “strategic deal-making for business”. I followed on with a master’s unit in strategy at Edinburgh Business School that focused on strategic deals. I started to talk about it with our, mostly, public sector clients. Almost all of them said they “don’t do deals” because they are…
As published in the Mandarin 23 May, 2022 Talking about building strategic partnering relationships is the flavour of the month, especially in Defence where there always seems to be a search for a model that works better than what is happening now. I don’t think that is a bad goal, by the way, but we…
