Synaptic Decisions’ CEO, Bob Endres, will be a featured speaker and panelist at the IACCM Americas 2008 “Collaborate to Innovate” Conference which will be held April 7-8, 2008, in Scottsdale, AZ. His presentation at the conference is titled “Getting the Right Balance…of Risk Management in Contracting.”
About the presentation
Contract risks and options appear in a myriad of forms and can translate into significant financial exposure for your company. Can contract risks and options be systematically identified and the exposures valued? How can valuing this exposure enable better decision making to drive increased profitability? And how can risk exposure be shaped and tailored to drive a more efficient and collaborative relationship? Savvy buyers and sellers are learning that identifying and valuing the risks inherent in their relationships is the first necessary step to creating and sustaining optimal contracts.
About the conference
IACCM Americas 2008 will focus on the role of our community in delivering competitive advantage through commercial leadership and innovation. "Collaborate to Innovate" is about using and expanding our skills, resources and methods to enable high-performance relationships - whether with co-workers, customers, competitors, suppliers or partners - in order to deliver against key corporate goals:
- Reputation
- Trust
- Profitability and growth
- Excellence in execution
Those charged with contracting and negotiation have a critical role in establishing the framework for successful business offerings and relationships. But most of us have learned our behaviours in a competitive culture of winners and losers, where trust often gives way to the need for protection. As a result, many of the terms and conditions we use, the way we approach negotiation, the methods for post-award contract management result in perceptions of bureaucracy, confrontation and risk aversion.
In this environment, collaboration is usually hard to achieve. Yet without collaboration, implementation will always suffer and 'innovation' becomes a source of risk. In the words of John Mahoney, CFO at Staples "A fear of failure is the surest way to stifle new ideas".
Today's complex, fast-moving, global economy demands new sources of commercial innovation and creates fresh horizons for those in Contract Management, Sourcing and Legal. As we rise to this challenge, we must collaborate to develop ideas and methods that raise our value and contribution. This includes creating better understanding of the economic impact of contract terms and structures; a greater focus on 'ease of doing business' (waste elimination); an appreciation that both buyers and sellers must make their company one that is 'attractive to do business with' - open, honest, committed to mutual success, and operating with competence and integrity.
While technology makes information sharing so much easier, collaboration and innovation still depend upon the intentions and attitudes of those who do the sharing. The new leadership challenge is to bring real collaboration to an increasingly virtual world.