Building on the foundation of the previous Equal Partners studies exploring private sector procurement, Business Vantage embarked on this project with the Construction Clients’ Group in early 2008. At that time, economic conditions were changing but the market was still buoyant – who could have anticipated what has happened since and during the process of this study?
We now face distinctly different market conditions as the UK enters its first recession for almost two decades. The speed and severity of this downturn exacerbated by extraordinary economic events that have taken place across the globe have combined to create an unprecedented economic environment that was still unfolding as we went to press with this report.
Whilst the industry is adapting to function in these difficult times, the concept of value and specifically procuring on value rather than lowest cost combined with the principles of integration and collaborative working have become common themes from the interviews and workshops that we have undertaken with both the supply and demand sides of the industry.
There is a realisation that both clients and the supply chain have a common purpose in collaborating to work their way through these uncharted waters, to deliver projects with changing parameters, whilst managing teams to maintain valuable resource and experience.
This report revisits the principles from the previous studies by pinpointing the key issues and gaps that lie between the expectations of senior decision makers and the delivery from the industry and starts to address the key issue of how we can collaborate together to manage our way through and out of the current recession. We hope that this report will inspire you do so.
Equal Partners Customer and supplier alignment in private sector construction
