Supply Wars: Spain v Gibraltar

I've decided to return to the theme of Supply Wars but from a different tack. It's now a fairly daily occurrence hearing news of the diplomatic abbess between Spain and Gibraltar. Today's news was slightly different in that we are now seeing public procurement becoming one of the chess pieces.

In a nutshell, Gibraltar had ordered 10,000 tonnes of sand from a Dutch company but less than 3,000 tonnes has been received. The Spanish have intervened and halted the supply in response to a claim from an environmental group that the sand being supplied is from a protected area.

Gibraltar claim they have taken every step to ensure that the sand has been legally extracted and that the Dutch provider says it has provided copies of the relevant licences. I have insufficient understanding of the specific procurement to comment on the efficacy of the procurement.

To me this has the hallmarks only of a first skirmish - an end of season shortage of wouldn't normally make the news. However, skirmishes generally fit within a bigger theatre and that's what should be the focus. Procurement has been demonstrated to be both political and tactical, my suggestion is that it also needs to be looked at more strategically.

I if were advising both countries I would suggest a mapping of the existing and anticipated trade using Kraljic's matrix. If I were advising Spain I would target, for supply chain disruption, those procurement's in the 'Bottleneck' quadrant. If I were the UK and Gibraltar, on the other hand, I would now start to put in place risk management strategies and alternative sources for those 'Bottleneck' categories. This isn;t protectionism, this is pragmatism.

Of course while I'm talking about strategic procurement at a state level, there is also a need for those in the UK and Gibraltar, who procurement from Spain and it's sympathisers, to also carry out a risk assessment and put in place mitigating plans. This could get very messy in the supply chain world.

Brazil's procurer of last resort & the UK's missed opportunity

I had an absolutely fantastic time with friends at the University of Ro de Janeiro during 2011. I couldn't help but be impressed with how the university was working hand-in-hand with industry and the public sector in providing procurement support. I remain convinced the UK could learn a lot from those partnerships and that learning from their experience would help the UK industrial strategy. You can read about my visit here and here.

However, I find the recent news that public procurement processes in Brazil are so unwieldy and cumbersome that a deal has been made with the UN to handle some of their procurement in the run up to the World Cup. Let's not forget that the World Cup is only one of international events Brazil will host over the next few years, including the Olympics. Some brief observations:

1. If your procurement process aren't fit for purpose, change the procurement processes;
2. Given that the UK have been forging stronger relationships with Brazil, with plenty of ministerial missions, and the general acknowledgement that the procurement for the London Olympics was well managed, why on earth did the UK not identify this potential opportunity - can we not turn procurement expertise into an internationally tradable service? 
3. Given the need for stronger political alliances with Latin American countries, could we not use procurement expertise as a diplomatic resource?

I cannot understand how Brazil have got themselves into this situation, but at least they had the good sense to get support. But equally I just cannot understand how the UK missed such a strategic opportunity.  

Wish I was there.