Showing posts with label procurement. Show all posts

Tuesday, 12 June 2012

Olympics 2012 – Entrepreneur Opportunities Now and in the Future

June 12, 2012

Olympics 2012 Business

The Olympic Games bring massive business and revenues to the home city staging the games. The 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London will be huge, with the backdrop in one of the most vibrant, recognized cities of the world.

A deep history and monarchy illuminates the scenes for Britain’s turn at one of the most famous sporting events.

Although piles of money are spent on infrastructure and the rights to the games, the country, corporations and surrounding businesses make significant revenue from the waves of global visitors. These games create economic legacies, acting as a catalyst for future revenue streams for years to come. Interesting facts on the business and procurement opportunities so far, according to London2012.com:

Over 10,200 opportunities to business
42,000 suppliers from London registered for procurement system
38% of contracts ($540 Million US) awarded to London-based businesses

Every Olympic Games provide procurement opportunities for products and services for the event. With only a few weeks left, these opportunities are still popping up and be found on the London Games business site, London 2012 business. If you are an existing business who can meet the pre-determined criteria for procurement opportunities, you may be well positioned to take advantage of these last-minute procurement opportunities.

Whistler – Vancouver Olympic Business Statistics

Just to demonstrate the magnitude of business generated by hosting an Olympic games, here are the statistics on the Whistler – Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games statistics (noting that there may be many differential factors between games):

$2.5 Billion – Gross Domestic Product as the result of hosting the Games
$1.22 Billion – added to the economy through Venue construction
45,000 jobs created
$463 Million additional revenue generated in the tourism industry
$1 Billion – Security costs, internal agencies and external firms

Although some of the procurement criteria may be looking for low-cost providers, the volume and exposure your company would experience may far outweigh the slim margins made on the opportunities.

Ensure you read through the procurement details to be eligible in any procurement system or process. Websites list the standard application procedures and the basic criteria to meet. Your team would have to jump on development of a package quickly to meet deadlines. If you are in the global procurement game, your team may already been prepared for this. In any case, adequate due diligence must be taken on the supplier side and the Games business contracting unit.

Relevant blogs and articles:

London Olympics – Statistics and Business Opportunities [infographic]
Green Businesses – Ideas for the Green Entrepreneur
Contract Proposal Can Lead to More Clients, More Revenue [infographic]
Tourism Industry – 2012 US Travel Outlook Favorable

London Olympics – Statistics Show Business Opportunities

At a quick glance at this London Olympics infographic from Timeout.com, you can see the plentiful business opportunities for the period of the games itself and the lead up to hosting the games. If you have the ability to supply major events, these opportunities may give your business massive global exposure.

Just some of the business opportunities you can see in this infographic:

Food services and catering (whopping 14 Million meals to be served)
Audio visual, technical services, broadcast center services
Information management
Infrastructure development, construction, landscaping, field maintenance
Maintenance, cleaning crews, security services
Sporting goods suppliers, sporting event officials
Tourism and accommodation booking companies
Even biological services (relocation of species)

If you are interested in last minute supplier or procurement opportunities, check out the business opportunities on the official page at London Games.

London Olympics - business opportunities

Infographic courtesy: Timeout.com

Monday, 19 March 2012

March Madness – How to Manage March Fiscal Year End Madness

Strategy Plan One

March 19, 2012

March Madness – Fiscal Year End

In countries such as the UK(April 5^th), Canada, India and Japan, many businesses are tied to their own Federal government fiscal year end of March 31^st. In the US, the fiscal year end is September 30^th (so you have some time to plan here). Whether you rely on government services and resources, or if you are a supplier or contractor to government, these fiscal boundaries can have significant impacts on your operations.

Most government agencies have financial mechanisms in place to only allow goods and services to be acquired and received in the fiscal year that the resources occur in. This means any delay in services or goods through the fiscal year must then be concentrated in the last quarter, and most likely the last month of the government fiscal – September or March in cases of the countries listed above. Marching madly into March madness would be an understatement.

March Madness – Relying on Government Services & Resources

The first suggestion if you rely on government services and resources, would be to avoid delays and proceed early on in the fiscal year… don’t wait until March or fiscal year end. Government programs such as business contribution and grant programs have money dedicated to fiscal years, and must provide these amounts to the recipients before fiscal year end. The trickle effect is that the end eligible recipient must also acquire the business goods and services within the fiscal year boundaries to be within the conditions of the grant and contribution agreement.

If you are a legal recipient of a government service or financial resource, work with your government agency early on in the fiscal year to activate agreements, to enable you to implement your project and spend the money in an adequate time frame. This will allow you to plan and manage your project around any wrinkles that may occur. Reporting back on fiscal year activities and spending is critically important to government agencies.

March Madness – Supplier or Contractor to Government

As we all know, government programs and procedures are ripe with problems, and public servants are left scrambling to implement poorly designed public programs. With poorly designed programs, weak procedures around the government procurement of good and services raise their ugly heads. These challenges in government agencies give way to significant deviation is budgetary spending. Some government departments are left scrambling to spend at fiscal year end instead of reporting back that less than the budgeted was spent.

Suppliers and contractors experience an extreme high volume of requests for goods and services at fiscal year end. In addition to this, the public service demands cost effective and timely services from lists of pre-approved suppliers and contractors. Those contractors who know the system have adapted to this March madness and will be geared up to adequately supply government with their needs.

March Madness Example

In one example, a small business supplier was asked to fulfill 400 office furniture requests to fully outfit 400 offices, within the last week of the fiscal, across many Federal government branches. This constituted 60% of the small firm’s annual business. You can imagine the logistics behind 400 purchase orders, the staff, transportation, etc… all to be delivered to and received by government by March 31^st at11:59pm at the latest.

Helpful hints to Alleviate March Madness Pressures

Work early on in the fiscal year and integrate operations around the fiscal year end boundaries
Be part of the solution and offer suggestions to improving government year end procedures
Be a specialist in procurement (firms actually train government agents on streamlined procurement procedures, as government has a higher turn-over rate of employees)

Fiscal year end deadlines are quickly approaching for some countries; US firms take note (you have half of a year to jump on it).

Strategy Plan One

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