Asia Conference 2019

Bruce R. Everett Regional CEO Asia Pacific, IACCM

Sally Guyer Global CEO, IACCM

With the rise in awareness and action on social procurement/ethical sourcing and contract management, including anti-modern slavery and sustainability, you will hear from international speakers as we dig deeper into the strategies and implementation practicalities for dealing with new countries and the strategies implemented to satisfy all stakeholders including consumers, employees, global shareholders and NGOs.

Nearly everyone in our organisation has an idea. Our providers are full of ideas for us and our customers likewise.  That isn’t the problem. 

IACCM recently conducted research on Supplier-led Innovation and Continuous Improvement, noting that “a high proportion of contracts include provisions relating to these topics, yet there is a widespread sense that they are frequently ineffective.” Is it because they are poorly defined (as 50% of clients say and 72% of suppliers observe) or there is no formal structure to evaluate suppliers initiatives (as 22% of clients and 40% of suppliers say) or is it fundamentally a misalignment of money-saving/money-making goals between the client and supplier?

Our panel of customer and supplier-experts have read the research report and have lived with this challenge. In this session they will discuss

what did I learn, what surprised me, what more would I like to know and what will I be doing with the information

K.K. Lim Head Cybersecurity, Privacy and Data Protection, Eversheds Harry Elias

Moderator:

Bruce R. Everett Regional CEO Asia Pacific, IACCM

Governments and companies are increasingly experimenting with making their contracting processes more open and transparent to encourage competition, enable participation by small and medium enterprise, women owned businesses and other players, and to help communities and companies better understand what is happening and how they can contribute. This workshop will explore why and how to think about embedding transparency into contracting – from the perspectives of both sides of the contracting equation.

Moderator:

Sally Guyer Global CEO, IACCM

Long viewed as bureaucratic and unimaginative, the public sector has emerged in recent years as a front-runner in the need for commercial innovation and competence. High-profile, high-value shifts in the way that public services are delivered has resulted in a focus on contract and commercial competence and illustrated the challenges in building or acquiring appropriate resources. How can these demands be met? What role can the private sector play? To what extent is ‘bureaucracy’ an inevitable result of the need for probity and accountability in the use of public funds? Our industry leaders will share their experiences and views on the challenges and opportunities of public procurement.

We invite our audience to get to their feet, split into groups and journey through 3 fast paced 15 minute tech demo speed talks. This high-energy session will give you critical insights into some of the most innovative technologies out there and their real life use cases. Each group will have 5 minutes to fire questions at the speakers before they are moved on by our Technology Guides.

The Shanghai Daily newspaper recently reported that “Civilisations thrive with exchanges, learning” which stated that “Beijing’s message is loud and clear. It has chosen conversation over confrontation with the deep belief that boosting inter-civilisation dialogue can help nations around the world shrink trust deficits, promote mutual understanding and friendship, and thus bolster their cooperation.” The China stance was quoted as China and other Asian countries prepared for the inaugural Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilisations (CDAC).     

IACCM’s recent 2019 Academic Symposium also discussed “contract, conflict and co-operation: The views of professionals.” C Haward Soper described the results of a wide ranging, complex and detailed survey of around five-hundred commercial experts, contract managers operating at the sharp end on how to make symbiotic contracts work and the role that cooperation plays in this - the answer is a deep duty to cooperate through constructive engagement.

The Lowy Institute also recently notes that China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) “continues to attract much comment. To some, it is a threat – proof that China’s aim is to extend Chinese global influence. To others, it is a useful contribution to global capital flows. Where does the balance lie between these two views?

The motion: We hear that trust and cooperation is essential in contract & commercial management between organisations and nations.

But Groucho Marx famously said, “If you can fake that, then you’ve got it made.” In trusting more, all we are doing is opening ourselves up to being taken advantage of.

IACCM recently published a paper on the Direction and Role of C&CM, noting that Contract and Commercial Managers stand at a cross-roads.

Many traditional tasks will erode and disappear, outsourced or automated. That does not mean an inevitable route to nowhere; new technologies elevate these roles from largely operational to increasingly strategic, from jobs that have limited influence to jobs that drive substantial business value.   This interactive session will engage attendees in a discussion about the external forces impacting the role, purpose and contribution of CCM resources and how we prepare for the Future of Work through:

• Talent and Skills Development
• Training and Learning
• Mindset shifts (including agile, business relationship management and optimism)

Sally Guyer Global CEO, IACCM

Bruce R. Everett Regional CEO Asia Pacific, IACCM