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, 28 May 2024 by Kiah Managing Director John Glenn I ran a short course recently for a client on how to engage consultants and contractors. Feedback asked that I expand on how to better manage them once they had been engaged. A good question. Preparation is always key to success….
s published in The Mandarin, 21 March 2024 by Kiah MD John Glenn I have reproduced below a Facebook post by a good friend of mine, Kat Rae. The post was private, so sharing it was difficult. Kat is a private person, and she doesn’t seek to be the “face of a movement”. But her message…
As published in The Mandarin, 6 December 2023 by Kiah MD John Glenn Trust in consultants would seem to be at an all-time low, given the integrity breaches over inappropriate use of confidential information, conflicts of interest, and even the sharing of online assessments. Yet they remain among the most capable and trusted advisers across…
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…
As published in The Mandarin August 7, 2023 by Kiah MD John Glenn. Do you want another PowerPoint pack with more methodologies, another answer to someone else’s problem being squeezed into your space? Perhaps a dozen more hard-working and enthusiastic grads who just lack experience, sprinkled with revolving door contractors? Experts at what you do…
After decades as a military officer, followed by decades in industry, I have often pondered the incongruity of clearly physically brave individuals who always lean towards safe choices in business and bureaucracies, seemingly lacking the courage to make the tough decisions. Worthy of a read is “Cultivating Everyday Courage” (James R Detert, Harvard Business Review,…
*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…
