No such thing as a free lunch
A former colleague and friend of many years recently took up a post in the prestigious management school of the local university. Like her colleagues they teach on the course but also offer a management consultancy service. Every member of staff is expected to generate sufficient income in consultancy work to at least cover the funding of their post. It is this secondary requirement that most concerned my friend when applying for the post. I also had a new job as head of a high profile project group. I had already been contacted by a specialist management consultancy who took me out for a sandwich to explain what they could offer to help the project succeed. No one has ever offered to take me out to lunch to discuss work before. I have of course met people at their office for a working lunch where sandwiches were provided. Interestingly my friend warned me to be careful! My friend was very interested in how the project had been set up and its remit. She knew some of those involved and this whole area of work was being covered on the course she lectured on. It would be very topical as a case example for her students. It was her suggestion not to appoint to one of the project officer posts and instead use the funds to buy in some action research. I liked the idea. The idea was to commission independent quarterly progress reports. The work would have to go out to tender. Who were the specialist management consultancies in this field? My friend knew 3 or 4 off the top of her head all excellent university management schools. These were contacted and asked to submit a costed bid for a two year contract. I received some phone calls asking for more info or clarifying what was required. In reply I said we would be interested in how they would undertake the action research and I stressed that we had a small budget for this. Someone asked me how much but I declined to answer. Tender bids were considered by a panel of three including me . The panel then made a recommendation to the board. There was not much between the bids in terms of methodology and relevant experience but a considerable difference in how much they proposed to charge. Some of this was justified by the number of people they intended to use to undertake the work and some due to their expenses claim for travelling and over night accommodation. The bid from the local university management school was successful coming in at considerably less than the other two bids. Not surprisingly since my former colleague and friend knew how the post was being funded and could therefore work out what we had in the budget.
The project was successfully delivered on time and within budget and the action research progress reports were considered helpful insetting priorities and identifying corrective action.
Other than the one free lunch and some exceptional learning experience I gained nothing personally from the way the contract was awarded. The organisations procedures for tendering work were followed. But it made me realise how easy it would be to influence the decision. And maybe on reading this you may think I was a little naive.
Blair McPherson former Director author and blogger www.blairmcpherson.co.uk
