This extended episode is an interview with Dr Mike Fenn, on Systems Thinking.

At nearly four times longer than a regular FORVM499 episode, it is packed with information.  I learned an enormous amount from Mike as we put this together and I hope that its insights are useful to many.  Please forgive the serious tone: I promise that future episodes of FORVM499 will return to the frivolous and tendentious.

The organisation referenced by Mike is The Waters Center for Systems Thinking.  Neither Mike nor I have any connections with it; and there is a wealth of free information from many sources for anyone who wants to take Systems Thinking a step further.

This extended episode is an interview with Dr Mike Fenn, on Systems Thinking.  

At nearly four times longer than a regular FORVM499 episode, it is packed with information.  I learned an enormous amount from Mike as we put this together and I hope that its insights are useful to many.  Please forgive the serious tone: I promise that future episodes of FORVM499 will return to the frivolous and tendentious.  

The organisation referenced by Mike is The Waters Center for Systems Thinking.  Neither Mike nor I have any connections with it; and there is a wealth of free information from many sources for anyone who wants to take Systems Thinking a step further.

When buying standard products from a catalogue or equivalent, it's fairly easy to communicate requirements.     

It is less easy when researching supply opportunities for uncommon or unique goods or services.  Early misunderstandings get locked in; weeks of critical time are wasted; and an important relationship is under train before it even starts.     

(And, yes; 'misunderstandings' are not always accidental...)

A talented lawyer told me once how to improve early communications and reduce the chances of this happening; and that is the subject of Episode Six.

Organisational HR models that focus on payroll staff are a century out of date.  In many companies, the proportion of staff not on the payroll is approaching 50% in many,   Important capabilities and corporate knowledge resides in external staff.  Whether consultants, interims, contractors or employees of suppliers, they report to a different set of shareholders.

After a frenetic era of digital change, put yourself inside the head of a CIO: consider how your services can now be bought from the cloud with a click; and think what this means for your future.

The subject of this story is entirely fictitious - unless you suspect otherwise...

After a frenetic era of digital change, put yourself inside the head of a CIO.  Consider how business operations, once reliant upon the IT function, can be bought from the cloud with a click.  And think what the future holds for your department.  

The subject of this story is entirely fictitious - unless you suspect otherwise.

The move from Product Management to Procurement went well; perhaps a little too well.   Beginner's luck can make you perilously over-confident.

Naive enthusiasm or a form of corruption: why do so many deals target the wrong thing?  

The call centre anecdote is a true story; the only wonder being that is that it is so utterly commonplace and unremarkable.          

Episode Two of FORVM499 is about seemingly good intentions and perverse incentives.  

If FORVM499 has a purpose, it is to entertain, inform and hopefully inspire (sometimes in a good way) a wonderful community of colleagues dedicated to value creation, supply chains and procurement.  That is a modest way of describing just about everybody in the world of business; those who are not only curious about, but often bemused and occasionally mystified by, the behaviours of all around them.

If that's you, then let's travel together down this road.  Wouldn't it be nice if FORVM499 could model itself on Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, a set of anecdotes illustrating the variety and strangeness of ordinary folks.

Why FORVM499, did you ask? 

FORVM is the Latinised spelling of 'forum' a place to meet and exchange - and easier to grab as a domain name 

499 is the number of seconds it takes light from the Sun to illuminate the Earth; long enough, don't you think, to respectively hold someone's attention ?