As we come to the end of 2020, think about the process a caterpillar goes through before it becomes a butterfly. When it’s wrapped in its cocoon in the dark side of some tree, it doesn’t look like it has many options. But after it becomes a butterfly, it doesn’t just sit and wait for someone to come and drill a hole and let it out. No! That butterfly knows that it has to make a move if it’s going to be set free. In the same way, we have to do something to get out of the confining places we are in. We have to pray, set goals and move; we have to believe and keep pressing through to victory.
Truth be told we all go through seasons of difficulty that can sometimes feel overwhelming. But during these times, we have to remember that our God is greater than the struggle we face! In 2021 He’ll take our challenges and use them to strengthen us, all we have to do is get into agreement with Him.
Today, and throughout 2021 no matter what you may be facing, remember His grace is sufficient for you. His strength is made perfect in your weakness. Keep believing, keep praying, keep hoping, and keep pressing forward. Before long, you’ll break free and rise to the new levels of victory God has prepared for you. Hallelujah!
“And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’…” (2 Corinthians 12:9, NKJV)
Let’s Pray
Yahweh, thank You for the strength to make it through any challenge I face in 2021. Father, I will put my trust in You. Almighty God, I declare that You are good, and I thank You for working behind the scenes on my behalf, in Christ’s Name! Amen.
When that guy cat-calls you just to get a reaction, what do you do? You ignore him and keep walking.
When that bully pushes all of your buttons just to make you mad, what do you do? you tune them out and move on.
When somebody tries to convince you of something you know 100% isn’t true, you don’t even give it a second thought before you dismiss the argument.
So why don’t we use this tactic against the father of all lies, a.k.a the enemy that is out to destroy your life? Just don’t engage. As soon as you do, he wins. He is cunning, crafty, and manipulative, and he’s only after your heart. He wants to crush it and mutate it and trample it underfoot until there’s nothing left for God to use.
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy…” John 10:10a
I know this isn’t easy. Trust me, I’m a thinker. Overthinking is my second nature, if not my first nature. I have to think through everything, especially when faced with a conflict. If somebody challenges my opinion, my first reaction is to analyze the entire argument…
What are they saying?
Do I agree or disagree? Why?
What do I think?
How does that compare to what they think?
What is true?
What evidence affirms/denies my argument?
Is there any way there is truth in both arguments?
Why do they think what they think?
Why do I think what I think?
And it goes on …
and on …
and on.
I think you get the idea. By the way, all of that overthinking happens in about 2 seconds. It’s an intense self-interrogation until I think my way into a solution that makes sense to me, so I can feel at peace with what I believe and move on.
Sometimes this is a really useful skill, but the enemy knows exactly how to use it for my deepest undoing. The problem with using the “overthinking tactic” against Satan is that he doesn’t care about logic. His goal is not to convince me that his argument makes more sense. In fact, he doesn’t even care about what he says. He doesn’t even believe the lies himself.
“You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that — and shudder.”
James 2:19
Satan knows God. He knows scripture. He knows what the truth is, and his goal is to keep you as far away from it as possible. He knows the power that God’s word can have in your life and that terrifies him. He will say whatever it takes to get you to question God and doubt His goodness, and the moment you try to reason with him, you’ve fallen into his trap.
I say all of this because I fall into the trap far too often. The devil uses people near and dear to me to convince me of his lies because he knows it works with almost 100% accuracy. Because their opinion matters so much to me, I will over-analyze their every word and body language to my own demise. Something they say – or don’t say – pricks one of my insecurities (unbeknownst to that person), and the trap has been set. Suddenly, I’m hit with an avalanche of thoughts like these:
“They just don’t care enough about you to ask about your day.”
“You’re stupid for thinking ______ would happen.”
“You’re too dramatic, emotional, etc.”
“It’s your fault that you can’t handle this feeling.”
The first step is to recognize the lie. Now, to do this, you have to know the Truth. No, that’s not a typo. I meant Truth with a capital “T” because you have to know God’s Word, and His word is Truth. Once you start to bury His word in your heart, and begin to recognize his voice, you can more easily discern truth from lies.
“These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”
Deuteronomy 6:6-7
But it doesn’t stop there! That’s where I made my mistake. I thought, “If I recognize the lie, it will become invalid and it won’t sting anymore.”
False.
Satan is more crafty than that, and he was already one step ahead of me. See, he recognized how I use my interrogation process to reconcile a contradicting thought, so he used it against me. He used it to blur the lines between lie and Truth. So he takes me down this rabbit hole to confuse me and muddle the words of God until I feel so lost, confused, and heartbroken that I can’t even remember what lie got the whole thing started to begin with. He knows how I look for the middle ground to make sense of things, but there is no middle ground between what the devil says and what God says.
So no, it CANNOT end with recognizing the lie. You have to take the next step and make the choice not to engage with the lie. Now, if you’re a thinker like me, this will be hard. Like really, really hard. But you have to choose to look the other way. Change your posture to look toward your loving, protective, jealous, Heavenly Father. Tell the enemy you don’t have time for his games. Don’t try to argue with him and tell him why his lie is a lie and why God’s Truth wins, because he already knows it, and he doesn’t care. He’ll just twist everything around until you find yourself lost in a muddy mess of nothing that makes any sense whatsoever.
“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
2 Corinthians 4:18
To sum it up…
Study Truth, that is, the Word of God.
Recognize the lie, which is not the Word of God.
Don’t Engage. Choose to meditate on and dwell in the Word of God.
“Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”
Joshua 1:8
This is not something that my genius, overthinking brain came up with one day. This is something that the Holy Spirit whispered to me, and by God’s grace alone, I heard it. I was on the brink of yet another panic attack and fearful of going back down that dark road. I was on the brink of forming another unsuccessful argument for why the lie was a lie and trying to figure out a way to outsmart the devil this time, and the Holy Spirit simply said, “don’t engage with the lie.” Of course I tried to overthink and analyze again, but He didn’t relent. He just kept telling me, “Don’t engage with the lie. It’s not worth it. Just keep looking at Me. Lean on the love of your Father instead of your own knowledge for once.” Hey, that sounds familiar, right?
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways submit to him and he will make your paths straight.”
Proverbs 3:5-6
So go ahead. Give the enemy the cold shoulder. Hit him with the silent treatment. Then you will taste freedom. Remember the second half of John 10:10…
“…I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
John 10:10b
Go live in the abundant life Christ bought for you. The enemy’s lies are not worth your time, precious child of God.
Amazing! When we are born again, we become children of the Most High God! The scripture says we are “adopted” into His family. In the natural, by law, an adoptive parent can never disown their adopted child. In the same way, God will never disown you! When you receive Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, you become a permanent part of God’s family.
It’s a privilege it’s a free gift, and when you receive this gift it’s the beginning of a long life of blessings. Receiving Him means receiving all that He is and all of His promises for your life. It’s a process, but remember, God is the one working in your life, and He promises to complete what He’s started in you. Your part is to keep your heart open and receive by faith every gift, every promise, and every blessing in His Word.
Today, why don’t you become part of God’s family? He is waiting to adopt you. Receive His gift of adoption by saying thank You. Receive His gift by declaring His truth over your life and be born again. Receive His gift by obeying the Word of God. Put the Word of God into practice in your life and receive every blessing He has for you! Become part of God’s eternal family. Hallelujah!
“Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1:12, NIV)
Let’s Pray
Yahweh, thank You for the gift of eternal, abundant life. I accept Your free gift of adoption. Today, I open my heart and mind to You. Have Your way in my heart and help me to receive the wonderful blessings You have for me, in Christ’ name! Amen.
If you’ve never been in the habit of keeping a faith journal, you might think your meditative prayer and reading scripture has given you a strong spiritual life. But beginning your journaling journey can supplement your spiritual practices and make tangible much of the faith you’ve taken for granted. Staring a faith journal is a great way to track your daily prayers, the gratitude you feel for God’s gifts and offers new ways of exploring scripture. Take that leap of faith today.
1) Creative Prayer
A faith journal doesn’t have to be exclusively about writing. Color, shape and doodling – whatever takes your heart’s desire – can all have its place in your faith journal.
If your prayer is directed at someone special, it can feel exceptionally powerful to write their name and sketch a growing, colorful shape around it. Once their name appears on the page, glorified by color, you can write your prayer for them or simply think about it. But the prayer will have a physical manifestation that can strengthen it.
You can also sketch mandalas in a meditative way. These complex patterns of repeating shapes can be relaxing to sink into, and drawing and coloring them can become a form of prayer in itself. It’s your faith journal, so get creative!
2) Making Prayer Tangible
The time you spend in prayer each day forms a valuable foundation for your spiritual life and strengthens your connection with God. When this takes place in your mind it’s almost a meditative practice, and can often lead to a profound inner feeling.
Writing your prayers down can strengthen them further as the process of putting your thoughts into writing can make them more tangible. Through your faith journal you can pursue a closer connection to God, creating a concrete history of your prayers and devotion on any given day.
If you write in a stream-of-consciousness, letting the words flow out of you, you might be surprised at what you look down to read. New, deep ideas can turn up on the page without conscious effort. Alternatively, writing your prayers in bullet form can help you conceive of them more accurately and make them easier to review in the future.
3) Scripture Is Powerful On The Page
Strengthening your connection to scripture is a great way to explore your faith. We all have particular passages that speak to us, those that we come back to time and again to find peace in or contemplation amongst. Reading scripture is one thing, but journaling scripture can take your understanding of your favorite passages to another level.
Exploring the idea of a crossbook – a book that comes with printed scripture on one side of the page and a blank side opposite for your thoughts and notes – is a great way to begin your faith journal. You can underline and highlight the passages that speak to you on one side, while elaborating on how it deepens your devotion on the other. You’ll be on a path to wisdom and faith.
4) Track Your Holiest Behaviours
A faith journal can also function as a diary for all your holiest habits, letting you reflect on your past week or month and consider ways you can better manifest your faith in the future. You can record how many hours you spent volunteering, how your generosity manifested and how long you prayed for in your faith journal.
Having a record of these behaviours can make it easier to strengthen them as routine habits. All these practices have great spiritual value and your faith journal will encourage you to perform them more often.
5) Express Your Gratitude
There are many spiritual and psychological benefits to gratitude, yet if you don’t make an effort to express your gratitude it can often slip away without being recognized. Journaling gives you an example to record God’s gifts, ensuring that you value them for what they are.
Taking time out of each day to write down what God has brought you can make each day, no matter how hectic or stressful, seem a little brighter.
Amen
Keeping a faith journal has so many spiritual and psychological benefits and it’s sure to strengthen your relationship with God as well as developing a deeper understanding of his message. Get creative with your faith journal with colors, shapes and content. You’ll soon find out it’s a habit that’s hard to break.
Katherine Rundell is a spiritual writer at UKWritings.com and Academized.com services. She works with local church groups to inspire young people to explore their faith in new and creative ways. She is also a proofreader at Boomessays.com.
Partially paid for via crowdfunding website IndieGoGo, ‘The Golden Thread’ is Portland, Oregon singer-songwriter Andrew Serino’sfirst full-length album. An incredibly talented multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, Serino has been in bands for most of his life and made a name for himself on his local scene, as well as auditioning for American Idol. He plays every single instrument on the album, resulting in a time-consuming recording process that took many months to achieve. Now finalised and released, it’s an album that Serino has a right to be proud of, and will certainly get him some of the attention he deserves further afield from Portland.
‘Wake Up’ is essentially the opening track after the short ‘Introduction’ and it certainly sets us off with a bang. It’s a thumping, fist pumping post-hardcore/emo rocker that will sound familiar to fans of the likes of At The Drive-In, Fall Out Boy and Anberlin. “I know that feeling, believe me,” he admits in this catch and feel good song exploring the bad habits we can all easily find ourselves falling into, urging the listener to “wake up” and fight their way out of it, or even perhaps, to wake up and see the light!
Andrew Serino – The Golden Thread
Andrew Serino – The Golden Thread
‘Arrogance’ goes further down into the pop-punk style, as does ‘Broken Record’, which has the slick, modern feel of current Paramore and Panic! At The Disco, with yet another catchy chorus. Serino has said it’s “his version of a love song”, and it’s a track that could be taken at face value as an actual love song, or it could easily be a love song to God. It’s up to the listener to make up their mind and take from it what they will. Serino readily admits he’s like a broken record because of how often he talks about the subject of the song, declaring he “will try to find the tallest mountaintop just to prove what I’d do to show my love”.
Andrew Serino – The Golden Thread
‘Honestly’ is a stand out track, featuring an appearance from Justin Abel, who produced the record but has an excellent voice too! It’s got more of a metalcore/emo Pierce The Veil type feel, as does ‘Deal With It’, a fast-paced hard rocker.
“I’m not a perfect person, I’m not a perfect person man, I’m trying to stay humble and I do the best I can” Serino sings in the title track ‘The Golden Thread’ which finishes off the collection of twelve songs, before screaming, “don’t let me stay broken” in a desperate plea to God to help him. It’s heartening to see someone unafraid to expose their fears and imperfections in such a way, and readily admit that we can’t all be perfect Christians. Towards the end of the song, there’s a repetition of the chorus from ‘Wake Up’, which echoes the theme of the album perfectly. It feels like the whole thing is calling society to open their hearts to God and allow him to heal and help us.
Both ‘Unwavering’ and ‘Shadows’ show Serino’s softer side with beautiful soaring power ballads and swirling soundscapes, the latter of which features a duet with his wife Heidi. With lyrics such as “I question what is real but you fight for me still” and “I’ll always love you cause you have found me”, again, it’s ony of those that could work as a simple love song to his wife, or a love song to God, which makes it a perfect fit for believers and non-believers alike.
It seems to be a recurring theme in the style of his writing. Anyone could enjoy Andrew Serino’s music, and that’s the beauty of it. For those ‘in the know’, the lyrics have multiple meanings. They work on the surface as regular songs, but you can also easily see the spiritual nuances that are clearly important to Serino. Presumably the hope is that this way of writing will cause secular listeners to think on different levels and dig a little deeper, a subtle evangelising tactic which has merit and does actually work.
In short, it’s an excellent debut album with lots of potential for future growth. Andrew Serino is a vibrant, exciting songwriter with an important message delivered in an accessible and fresh style.
The outcome of a project largely depends on the behaviour of the manager as their actions will directly influence the behaviour of the team. Even with all the efforts, employees may put forth to salvage a once positive work environment, at the core of every toxic working environment is the bad manager. There are different types of managers, and each one has their own characteristics that determine how employees will react, the working environment and overall production. Five common types include:
1. Laissez-Faire
‘Laissez-Faire’, is French for leaving things to take their own course without interference. These types of managers tend to leave subordinates to get on with the work on their own and have little to no communication with them. They fail to provide regular feedback when supervising. Though this form of management may seem irresponsible, it requires a lot of trust. Highly experienced and capable employees need very little interference, as they are trusted to do the task to the best of their abilities. However, when it comes to employees with limited experience, this form of management means there will be low production value as these employees feel they do not have to do any work due to the lack of authority they have over them. It can also make these employees a lot harder to control and since work is not being done, resources, money and time are wasted, which in turn increases the costs of the project.
2. Autocratic
This form of management is most suitable for places such as the Army as it gives the manager complete power. These types of managers make all the decisions with very little or no input from the subordinates, and since they have total authority over them, employees find it hard to challenge the manager. This can create an atmosphere of fear and because of this quality of work and production may increase, however, retention rates might increase along with it, as employees may feel threatened and begin to resent their job. Nonetheless, this form of management might be suitable for employees who need close supervision as they need to be told what to do and when, but creative employees will find it hard to work in an autocratic environment.
3. Participative
This type of manager values every member of the team and listens to whatever input employees may have. However, the manager ultimately makes the final decision. This form of management will increase morale as employees make contributions towards the decision-making process and they feel that their opinions matter. With this management style, the employees easily accept changes in the company as they played a role in the process. As morale increases, production will increase along with it, making this a very effective management style.
4. Transactional
This management style is used to give out either rewards or punishments to employees depending on their performance. The manager along with the employees set goals together and agree on rewards or punishments depending on whether or not they reach their goal. The employees then follow direction and instructions set by the managers in order to achieve the goal. The manager has the power to analyze the results of the project and either give out rewards and praise the employees or train the employees depending on the outcome.
5. Transformational
This type of management is used to increase the morale of the employees and is normally used in situations where employees feel discouraged. There are high levels of communication between the manager and the subordinates to reach their goals. These leaders motivate the employees and enhance efficiency and production using communication. These types of managers delegate smaller tasks to smaller teams and focus on the big picture to achieve their overall goals.
Conclusion
There are many different types of managers, and some are used specifically to adapt to certain situations. Some management styles are more effective than others however it depends on the type of employees they are supervising, the task at hand, and the goals that are set.
Some senior members of staff see procurement expenses as a necessary evil and overlook any efficiency improvement methods for this sector. This is not an uncommon way of thinking, as procurement and the supply chain is a massive part of any company’s costs and can total up to 70% of an organisation’s total spend.
These managers are missing out on effective changes that can shift procurement to a significant supplier of growth and profit for any business.
Follow these 7 steps to improve your procurement team.
1. Embrace Change
It’s so important for procurement managers to embrace and invest in technology changes currently taking place in the industry.
Managers should hold a full assessment of deficiencies in their processors and search for technology that meets the needs of the business, rather than fitting the business around new technology. For example, if you are having trouble with historic and retrospective analysis, invest in predictive analytics.
2. Consider Outsourcing
Outsourcing may not be an avenue you have ever considered in regards to procurement, even though it happens all the time with HR and IT departments. Even so, many procurement managers are still apprehensive to apply it to their supply chain.
Outsourcing certain aspects of procurement can be a way of improving existing systems and processors rather than a cost reduction measure. It can also allow your business to access highly skilled procurement experts when it would be counter-productive to hire someone internally. These individuals are often very focused on delivering results, and if you plan outsourcing correctly, the increase in productivity will outweigh the costs of outsourcing.
If a procurement manager feels like there are areas in the business where costs can be cut, it might be worth bringing in a consultant. There are also outsourcing services that offer expert domain knowledge and vendor contact opportunities.
3. Ensure Your Supply Chain Is Properly Staffed
The efficiency of a supply chain is very much dependent on the quality of its staff. As a procurement manager, it’s important to ensure that the supply chain is staffed with highly skilled individuals, and that these staff have regular access to education and training.
Procurement professionals will be tasked with a wide variety of roles, including:
Planning delivery timetables
Ensuring stores have enough stock
Overseeing the arrival of shipments
When hiring employees, it’s important to ensure they have skills such as communication, attention to detail and teamwork. They must also be willing to learn and improve throughout their career.
4. Create Risk Management Policies
One of the key ways of making a procurement team more efficient is to prepare for the unexpected. Procurement managers should establish proper levels of control to manage risk and ensure that all these policies are periodically reviewed. These risk management fail safes should include:
The financial impact a risk might have
The likelihood to the risk occurring
A priority list for managing risks
All staff members should be aware of these risks, and the processes in place if the risks occur. For example, if a major supplier goes out of business, your staff should be aware that there is a process for contacting secondary suppliers so you are never left without stock.
5. Establish Relationships with Key Suppliers
Staff who deal with suppliers on a daily basis need to have brilliant relationship building skills. Procurement employees need to work closely with suppliers to try and keep communication consistent and amicable, even if issues arise at either end.
Suppliers can help procurement teams reach their performance goals, and they are often very knowledgeable, with expertise to share about their products. Procurement teams can learn a lot from them, like the audience, seasonality and key selling points of products; it’s worth working on these relationships.
6. Stick to Ambitious but Manageable Targets
If a team has a tough but not unattainable goal to work towards they can prioritise, measure and focus on their tasks with a clear end in mind. This helps staff members feel more motivated and gives meaning to their work.
There will also be a sense of achievement when the targets are met, bringing your team closer together and improving teamwork.
7. Efficiency Is Attainable
The creation of a brilliant supply chain depends on your company’s understanding of procurement, along with the procurement team’s estimation of the total costs associated with each supplier and their contacts.
With help from technology, outsourcing, a great team and strong relationship building skills, your procurement team should improve its efficiency and business impact.
If you want to make enemies, try to change something. Change, no matter what scale it is on, can be a source of stress and anxiety for many. However, it’s common for change management practitioners to view resistance to change as an irrational barrier to progress. Another school of thought is that resistance to change is a social process that can strengthen changes and help to eliminate undesirable change.
The fact remains that change is necessary in all organizations. But, it is the way change is initiated which can so greatly vary. It can be forced upon companies by outside forces or just come from a realization that the company may be falling behind the times. In this way, change management might be quite beneficial to an organization. Organizations that have learned how to transform themselves through effective leadership and strategic control are more likely to survive and prosper. The dilemma is that most people hate change and love it at the same time and what they really want is for things to remain the same but get better.
The good news is that God has a plan for your life to prosper. If we trust in God and allow the change to grow us to become more like Jesus Christ in how we respond and act, then we are promised that all things will work together for good for those who love Him and keep His commandments!
The following thought-provoking quotes relate to change management including resistance to change, acceptance and change strategy.
“One of the reasons so many celebrities keep going in and out of rehab is that they leave out the critical element to lasting change: God.” – Unknown
“There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.” — Niccolo Machiavelli
“Change has its enemies.” — Robert Kennedy
“He who rejects change is the architect of decay.” — Harold Wilson
“Change is not made without inconvenience, even from worse to better.” — Samuel Johnson
“The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress.” — Charles Kettering
“God supplies everything you need for successful change, and when you make changes with his help, it says changed.” – Unknown
“It is always easier to talk about change than to make it.” — Alvin Toffler
“It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out nor more doubtful of success nor more dangerous to handle than to initiate a new order of things.” — Machiavelli
“The path of least resistance is the path of the loser.” — H. G. Wells
“When you feel weak in the face of change, God is omnipotent, or all-powerful. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” the Bible says. (Romans 8:31, NIV) Knowing the invincible God is on your side gives you tremendous confidence.” – Unknown
“Paralyze resistance with persistence.” — Woody Hayes
“Culture does not change because we desire to change it. Culture changes when the organization is transformed – the culture reflects the realities of people working together every day.” — Frances Hesselbein
“The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence – it is to act with yesterday’s logic – Peter Drucker
“The rate of change is not going to slow down anytime soon. If anything, competition in most industries will probably speed up even more in the next few decades.” — John P. Kotter
“Your success in life isn’t based on your ability to simply change. It is based on your ability to change faster than your competition, customers, and business.” — Mark Sanborn
“If you want to make enemies, try to change something.” — Woodrow Wilson
Don’t make change harder than it has to be. Do it the right way. Ask God for help.
Over the past decade business procurement has experienced rapid technological upheaval that, in the main, has made life easier for everyone involved.
The first ever Global Procurement Technology Summit was held in March 2016. It shows the emphasis procurement is now putting on understanding and utilising new technologies, and that it’s clearly a huge talking point for professionals across the world.
Looking in greater detail: which technology has been responsible and what has the effect been on procurement and buying professionals?
1. More informed decisions are being made
The digitalisation of procurement processes and integration of data-sharing across buyer behaviour, ratings and history of purchases over extended periods of time, has made for smarter and more informed decisions.
Despite the greater insight into decision-making, a study of US procurement professionals still revealed accurate forecasting to be the biggest challenge, something that’s possibly down to the rise in budget responsibilities over the last ten years.
The Coupa ‘Top 5: Constants and Change in Cloud Procurement’ report revealed that in 2003, budgets were reported as an average of $31m, compared to $100m in 2013.
2. Response times have drastically reduced
Procurement solutions are now quicker and easier than ever thanks to new marketplace technologies.
Buyers can take advantage of online purchasing possibilities, using websites like Amazon to source, purchase and arrange delivery of items.
The speed of procurement reflects the new speed in which consumerism moves ’’ the integration of digital mediums with online shopping has made the process of deliberation through to transaction much easier, a trend which has been reflected in the world of procurement.
3. Integration has brought its own problems
Technological integration has created many positives for procurement, but it’s also created challenges.
Millennials will make up 40% of the workforce by 2020, which is great for improving current procurement solutions as younger generations have higher expectations for technology and are early adapters.
However, the average age of procurement professionals in the UK is currently 44 – much older than the next generation of workers, who fully understand the capabilities of technology, and who will be easier to train and able to work with increased speed and accuracy.
The gap will close in the coming years, but procurement faces a struggle as older workers need to ensure their skills are relevant to the changing world around them.
Additionally, Hays’ ‘Procurement Salary Guide’ revealed that demand for procurement professionals has increased at all levels within the public sector, pushing salaries up. This demand is the result of a squeeze on public finances and attempts to cut costs following the slowdown in the economy.
4, Technology and the future of procurement
To conclude, technology is clearly a powerful enabler that’s here to stay. Plenty of companies are now seeing the importance of procurement technology as a means to improve their bottom lines, which was reflected in the inaugural Global Procurement Technology Summit earlier this year.
Integration of contract management, risk management and supplier lifecycle systems through investment in improved systems with added capabilities, has ensured more accurate sourcing is possible and due to the skills involved in running these systems, has driven salaries up.
Sophia Chapman is a guest contributor from Portfolio Procurement, expert recruiters in the compensation, benefit and reward sector.
Everyone wants to be a success. I have never met anyone who purposely set out to be a failure. Undoubtedly, this is why so much has been written on the topic “How to be a Success” and why these books are so popular.
However, The New Day daily newspaper closed just nine weeks after launching, Trinity Mirror confirms.
The New Day was a British compact daily newspaper published by Trinity Mirror, launched on 29 February 2016. It was aimed at a middle-aged female audience and was politically neutral. The editor, Alison Phillips, intended readers to get through the newspaper in under 30 minutes.
The new paper was initially available for 25p for two weeks, then rising to 50p. Two million copies of the New Day was given away on the first day, as the turquoise-branded upstart attempted to spark a revival in readership and gain ground against the mid-market Mail and Express offline.
Arrogance about their own ability to rescue a situation can prevent leaders from changing course
The New Day had no leading articles, no website, and columnists and believed it could successfully drag readers back to print? The sad truth is that it did not attract enough attention and failed to create a daily newspaper that could co-exist in the digital age, especially as tabloids and broadsheets continue to suffer a significant circulation decline.
Shareholders at Trinity Mirror’s annual meeting called the failure “demoralising”. Analysts said it was “embarrassing”.
Assume for a moment that the leaders of The New Day had no idea about the changes swamping the print media as a result of the digital revolution, and carelessly decided to invest millions into the venture without undertaking a risk assessment and also decided to ignore every indication that the paper was failing. That would have been embarrassing and demoralising.
However, the leaders decided to fail quickly and shut down the project they started.
Abandonment is a rare, difficult and a valuable management skill. The natural instinct of most people is to persist, particularly when the project is a collective commitment, as most corporate ventures are, but then it becomes even harder to hit the red “stop” button.
The New Day’s editor, Alison Phillips, said in a statement posted on Facebook that the team “tried everything we could” but were unable to reach the figures needed to make it work financially.
We dread failure. We don’t like talking about it. Some of us will internalise and rethink our failures in our heads time and time again. Others will swipe them away, moving onto the next thing immediately. In the public, we prefer sweeping our failures under the rug, silently, while nobody is watching.
While this might save our feelings momentarily, this is not the way learn and innovate.
According to Albert Savoia – ex Googler and innovation expert, most project innovations will fail.
“Most New Things Will Fail – Even If They Are Flawlessly Executed.” – Albert Savoia – Ex Googler
Does this mean you should stay away from trying new things (and failing in the process)? Certainly not. It just means you need to accept failure will inevitably be a part of the process.
In most cases, however, a combination of arrogance about personal ability to rescue the situation and blindness to the lengthening odds of success stops leaders from changing course.
The natural lifespan of most projects is finite, and the rarities are companies that survive.
The Art of “strategic Quitting” Will Become More Important as Careers Fragment and Companies Exert More Discipline
So if an idea is doomed, organisations usually treat the person who pulled the plug early on as a hero right? Not exactly, it’s complicated.
Roy Greenslade, Professor of Journalism at City University London, wrote a report in The Guardian explaining how The New Day had failed. He pinpointed the error of marketing a newspaper to people who inherently despise newspapers, and the short period of time between the announcement and launch, leaving no time to advertise the product. It was also published early in the evening thus missing out on late-night breaking news such as Leicester City F.C.’s shock win of the Premier League.
“Nothing so powerfully concentrates a man’s mind on innovation as the knowledge that the present product or service will be abandoned in the foreseeable future.” – Peter Drucker
The first thing the Bible wants to say is that all of us have failed. None is without failure. If you think you haven’t failed, two things are true of you. One is you are blind to your failures and the other is you probably haven’t taken enough risks to try enough hard things so that you would be aware of your failures.
Peter Drucker’s influence on business management is legendary. Peter realised that “systematic abandonment” a regular, unsentimental spring-clean is critical to the fostering of new business ideas.
Conclusion, every organization needs to have a regular “rummage sale” to determine which products, services, and programs are worth keeping and which ones must be abandoned.
The Nigerian construction industry is mostly concerned with the development and provision of projects such as roads, bridges, railways, residential and commercial real estates, and the maintenance necessary for the socio-economic developments contributes immensely to the Nigerian economic growth (Bureau of Statistics, 2015). Butcher and demmers (2003) described projects as an idea which begins and ends by filling a need. However, a project fails when its idea ends without meeting the needs and expectations of its stakeholders.
Nigeria Has Become the World’s Junk – Yard of Abandoned and Failed Projects worth Billions of Naira!
Hanachor (2013), revealed that projects form part of the basis for assessing a country’s development. However, a damming report from the Abandoned Projects Audit Commission which was set up by the Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011 revealed that 11,886 federal government projects were abandoned in the past 40 years across Nigerian (Abimbola, 2012). This confirmed the assertion by Osemenan (1987) “that Nigeria has become the world’s junk –yard of abandoned and failed projects worth billions of naira”.
Abandoned projects including building and other civil engineering infrastructure development projects now litter the whole of Nigeria.
Physical projects do not only provide the means of making life more meaningful for members of the community where the projects are located, successful projects also result in empowerment and collective action towards self improvement (Hanachor, 2013).
This Issue of Abandonment Has Been Left Without Adequate Attention for Too Long, and Is Now Having a Multiplier Effect on the Construction Industry in Particular and the Nigeria’s National Economy as a Whole. (Kotngora, 1993)
PROJECT FAILURE
Project Failure might mean a different thing to different stakeholders. A project that seemed successful to one stakeholder may be a total failure to another (Toor and Ogunlana, 2008). Some stakeholders, more especially the project users and some private owners, think of failed projects as a situation where a completed building project collapsed, a situation where by a completed dam project stopped working after few days of completion, or a completed road project that broke down after few months of completion. Other experienced stakeholders, such as engineers and architects conform to the iron triangle by Atkinson (1999) which states that the most strategically important measures of project failure are “time overrun”, “cost overrun”, and “poor quality”.
Turner (1993) noted that a project fails when the project specifications are not delivered within budget and on time;the project fails to achieve its stated business purpose; the project did not meet the pre-stated objectives; the project fails to satisfy the needs of the project team and supporters; and the project fails to satisfy the need of the users and other stakeholders. Lim and Mohamed (1999) cited in Toor and Ogunlana (2009) clarified that there are two possible view points to project failure namely; the macro-level and the micro-level. They further explained that the macro view point reviews if the original objectives and concepts of the project was met. Usually the end users and the project beneficiaries are the ones looking at the project failure from the macro view point, where as the project design team, the consultants, contractors, and suppliers review projects from a micro view point focusing on time of delivery, budget, and poor quality.
In the early 1990s, the failure as well as the success of any project was determined by the project duration, monetary cost, and the performance of the project (Idrus, Sodangi, and Husin, 2011). Belout and Gauvrean (2004), also confirmed that the project management triangle based on schedule, cost, and technical performance is the most useful in determining the failure of a project. Moreover, a project is considered as an achievement of specific objectives, which involves series of activities and tasks which consume resources, are completed within specifications, and have a definite start and end time (Muns and Bjeirmi 1996, cited in Toor and Ogunlana, 2009). Reiss (1993) in his suggestion stated that a project is a human activity that achieves a clear objective against a time scale. Wright (1997) taking the view of clients, suggested that time and budget are the only two important parameters of a project which determines if a project is successful or failed. Nevertheless, many other writers such as Turner, Morris and Hough, wateridge, dewit, McCoy, Pinto and Slevin, saarinen and Ballantine all cited in Atkinson (1999), agreed that cost, time, and quality are all success as well as failure criteria of a project, and are not to be usedexclusively.
FACTORS OF PROJECT FAILURE
Cookie-Davies (2002) stated the difference between the success criteria and the failure factors. Hestated that failure factors are those which contributed towards the failure of a project while success criteria are the measures by which the failure of a project will be judged. The factors constituting the failure criteria are commonly referred to as the key performance indicators (KPIs).
Timeand Cost Overrun
The time factor of project failure cannot be discussed without mentioning cost. This is because the time spent on construction projects has a cost attached to it. Al-Khali and Al-Ghafly, (1999); Aibinu and Jagboro, (2002) confirmed that time overrun in construction projects do not only result in cost overrun and poor quality but also result in greater disputes, abandonment and protracted litigation by the project parties. Therefore, focus on reducing the Time overrun helps to reduce resource spent on heavy litigation processes in the construction industry (Phua and Rowlinson, 2003). Most times, the time overrun of a project does not allow resultant system and benefits of the project to be taking into consideration (Atkinson, 1999). Once a project exceeds the contract time, it does not matter anymore if the project was finally abandoned or completed at the same cost and quality specified on the original contract document, the project has failed. Furthermore, Assaf and Al-Hejji, (2006) noted that time overrun means loss of owner’s revenue due to unavailability of the commercial facilities on time, and contractors may also suffers from higher over heads, material and labour costs.
Poor quality/Technical Performance
The word “Performance” has a different meaning which depends on the context it is being used and it can also be referred to as quality. Performance can be generally defined as effectiveness (doing the right thing), and efficiency (doing it right) (Idrus and Sodangi, 2010). Based on this definition of performance, at the project level, it simply means that a completed project meets fulfilled the stakeholder requirements in the business case.
CAUSES OF PROJECT FAILURE
A lot of research studies have investigated the reasons for project failures, and why projects continue to be described as failing despite improved management. Odeh and Baltaineh, 2002; Arain andLaw, 2003; Abdul-Rahman et al., 2006; Sambasivan and Soon, 2007; all cited in Toor and Ogunlana, 2008, pointed out the major causes of project failures as Inadequate procurement method; poor funding and availability of resources; descripancies between design and construction; lack of project management practices; and communication lapses
The contract/procurement method
A result obtained from two construction projects which were done by the same contractor but using different procurement methods showed that rework, on the design part which occurs when the activities and materials order are different from those specified on the original contract document, makes it difficult for the project to finish on the expected time (Idrus, Sodangi, and Husin, 2011). This is as a result of non-collaboration and integration between the design team, contractor, and tier suppliers. The rework on the design portion has a huge impact on project failure leading to the time overrun. The traditional method of procurement has inadequate flexibility required to facilitate late changes to the project design once the design phase of the construction project has been concluded.
Nigerian most widely used procurement method is the traditional method of procurement (design-bid-construct) which has been confirmed to be less effective to successfully delivery of a construction project (Dim and Ezeabasili, 2015). And, the world bank country procurement assessment report (2000) cited in Anigbogu and Shwarka, (2011) reported that about 50% of projects in Nigeria are dead even before they commence because they were designed to fail.
The way the construction projects are contracted, in addition to the way the contracts are delivered, contributes to the causes of projects failure. Particularly, among the methods of project contracting is lump-sum or a fixed-price contracting method, in which the contractor agrees to deliver a construction project at a fixed price. The fixed-price contract can be low-bid or not however, once the contract cost has been agreed upon the contract award, it cannot be changed. And, contractors are expected to honor and deliver the contract agreement, failure to do so can result in a breach of contract which can result in the contractor being prosecuted.
Awarding a contract to an unqualified personnel also contributes to project failures. When a contractor places more emphasis on money and the mobilization fee after a construction project has been initiated instead of getting the right workforce and skilled professionals that will execute the project. Instead the workforce chosen will often not be base on competence and required skills rather it will be based on availability. Moreover, poor strategy and planning by contractors who have overloaded with work also contributed to one of the causes of project failure.
Poor funding/Budget Planning
A lot of public projects in the Nigerian construction industry failed as a result inadequate funding, and the difference between the national annual budget and the budget actual released. Most of the Nigerian public projects are signed even before the actual release of the national budget. The difference in budget of the contracted project and the actual budget release can get the contracted company stuck as a result of inflation of prices, scarcity of construction material at the time of the budget release and mobilization to site. Also un-planned scope of work which can be as a result of the contractor working on another contract when he is called back to mobilization to start work. Moreover, poor budget planning is a regular mistake made by some contractors by not undertaking feasibility assessments before starting the design. The construction project should be planned according to the available resources and not according to the unrealistic expectations a client has in mind.
Discrepancies Between the Design and Construction
Limited collaboration between the contractors, engineers, and the architect results in discrepancies between the project designs and construction on site, and further leads to rework. Changes on a project designs, and changing to the scope of work in the middle of construction processes on site can be dangerous, and can lead to time overrun, increase in cost, and most of all can lead to abandonment. Moreover, many cases have been seen where the designs from the architects are not buildable on site, whileIn some cases, most contractors are unable to adequately specify the scope of work for the construction processes on site. Therefore any default on the design by the architect can be an opportunity for the contractor to make more money which might cause the project duration to exceed the time specified on the contract document.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This research starts with a general reasoning or theory which says that the major cases of project failure in the Nigerian construction industry are defined based on time overrun and cost overrun. The findings from the data analysis will help on the decision to accept the theory or not. The research data was collected from the progress report for the month ending of October, 2015 published by the Nigeria of Federal Ministry of works on thirty-nine on-going highway construction projects at the South-South geopolitical zone. The table 1 below shows the information on the data collected which comprises of the project title, contract Number, project description, the contractor that was awarded the projects, the date of project commencement, date of completion and the extended date if any. The scheduled time for each project was specified as follows: project commencement date labeled as “a”,project completion date labeled as “b”, and the extended date labeled as “c”.
Table 1: The analyzed data on the highway project at the South-South zone in Nigeria.
DATA ANALYSIS
The data analysis was done with the use of Microsoft excel. The analysis started by obtaining the number of days between the date of commencement of each project and the date of completion to show the duration of each highway project. And, the number of days between the project completion date and the extension date showed the time-overrun. The project duration and the extended days were obtained with the use of NETWORKDAYS function in Microsoft Excel which calculates the number of working days between two dates excluding weekends and any dates identified as holidays.
The standard deviation between the specified project duration for each highway projects and the extended days was calculated to obtain the extent to which each highway project contract failed on its time of delivery. This was denoted as the degree of failure. The table 1 above showed the projects ranking which was done based on the degree of failure of all the highway projects. The highway projects that were ranked from one to sixteen have low degree of failure and are represented with green color, while the rest are those with high degree of failure and are represented with red color.
FINDINGS
The findings made showed that the successfully completed highway projects have no extended days or time overrun, and the successful on-going highway projects are still on schedule and have no extended days unlike the on-going highway projects that have already failed as a result of the extended dates. Other projects have been abandoned because they have exceeded the delivery date as specified on the contract document, and have no extended date of completion. Thus, no work is going on.
Figure 1: Abundance of failed highway projects at south-south zone, Nigeria.
Figure 2: On-going failed highway projects
Figure 2 above showed that 14% of highway projects are still on-going projects because they have not exceeded the original date of completion as specified on the contract document. However, they are heading towards failure because they have been given an extended date of completion which can be as a result of some critical activities running behind schedule, causing delay on the critical path network of the projects. Moreover, the other 86% completely failed because they have exceeded their completion date specified on the contract document.
Figure 3: Successful on-going highway projects
The figure 3 above showed that 63% of the successful highway projects are still on-going because they have not exceed their completion dates, and they are not yet completed. However, those on-going highway projects might end up as failed projects as a result of poor funding, discrepancy between the design and the construction on site, and conflict between the construction parties or stakeholders.
“Say what you will do, and do what you said” or “Say as you will do it, and do it as you said”
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
The idea of knowing what a failed project is, the factors and the causes is very important in project management. Success in project management can neither be achieved nor measured without the knowledge of project failure, its factors, and causes in the Nigerian construction industries. This work has shown that project failure is as a result of exceeded time of delivery, cost overrun, and poor quality. However, the analysis was only done based on exceeded time of project delivery because of the nature of the data collected.
This work suggested a few approaches to help reduce the number of failed projects in the Nigerian construction industry if properly implemented. Firstly, Having good collaboration between the project stakeholders involved in a construction project at the early stage of project conception is most important in order to accomplish the project objectives, and deliver the project on time, within budget, and quality specified on the original contract document (Othman, 2006).
Secondly, Adopting the ISO 9000 technique which is used for quality management will also help in achieving a successful project delivery. This technique states “ say what you will do, and do what you said” or “say as you will do it, and do it as you said”. This technique is not an indication of high quality but it promotes control and consistency which leads to specialization, and improved productivity and quality. Also, adopting the principles of lean construction will help to reduce waste within the construction and stream-line activities in order to improve the on-time delivery of projects.
Thirdly, Learning from the precedent failed projects, how those projects failed, and the reason for their failures. This will help the project manager to plan and mitigate the risks of project failures in the future. And, finally, more seminars and workshops will help to educate and enlighten clients (the federal government representatives), users, contractors, engineers, and architects on what is project failure, the factors that contributes to abundant failed projects, and their causes.
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Anigbogu, N. and Shwarka, M. (2011). Evaluation of Impact of the Public Procurement Reform Program on Combating Corruption Practices in Public Building Project Delivery in Nigeria. EnvirontechJournal, 1(2). 43-51.
Assaf, S. and Al-Hajji, S. (2006). Causes of Delays in large Construction Projects. International Journal of Project Management, 24, 349-357.
Atkinson , R. (1999). Project management: Cost, time, and quality, two best guesses and a Phenomenon, it’s time to accept other success criteria. International Journal of project Management, 17(6), 337-342.
Belout, A and Gauvrean, C. (2004). Factors Influencing the Project Success: The impact of human resource management. International Journal of project Management, 22, Pp. 1-11.
Butcher, N. and Demmers, L. (2003). Cost Estiumating Simplified. Retrieved from www.librisdesign.org.
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Hanachor, M. E. (2012). Community Development Projects Abandonment in Nigeria: Causes and Effects. Journal of Education and Practice, 3(6), 33-36.
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Professor Pavel Matousek, a Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Senior Fellow and Chief Scientific Officer of Cobalt Light Systems Ltd, has pioneered revolutionary techniques for analysing the chemical composition of materials and co-founded a highly successful spin-out company. He has helped develop and commercialize award-winning laser technologies that detect liquid explosives at airports, rapidly check the quality of pharmaceutical products, and that may one day non-invasively diagnose breast cancer. Pavel states:
“I Am Very Excited about What I Do and Driven to Answer Questions in Front of Me, Unravel Complex Problems and Deliver Something Useful to Society.”
STFC science writer James Doherty meets the Laser Man.
Pavel, what first got you interested in physics?
I became fascinated by the stars and Universe while growing up in the Czech Republic. I joined an astronomy society at secondary school and it became clear I wanted to study physics. I got very interested in laser physics during my MSc at the Czech Technical University in Prague. It is a very dynamic field.
When did you arrive at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL)?
I joined as a research associate in 1991, and went on to complete my PhD in ultra-fast Raman Spectroscopy at RAL, awarded by the Czech Technical University. I’ve been here almost 25 years to the day.
So what is Raman Spectroscopy?
It is a technique that involves shining a laser beam at the surface of a material, and then observing the colour of light scattered from the point of illumination. This typically provides information about the chemical composition of the material’s surface. C.V. Raman observed the effect in 1928 and subsequently won a Nobel Prize.
You pioneered a technique called Spatially Offset Raman Spectroscopy (SORS): What is it and how does it differ from normal Raman Spectroscopy?
“We couldn’t have developed the SORS technique without the instrumentation and long term research continuity available at the Central Laser Facility at RAL”
SORS is a technique that we stumbled across in the Ultrafast Spectroscopy Laboratory (ULTRA) by chance. We had assumed that photons could only be detected at the illumination point but we were wrong. Some photons migrate sideways through the material then emerge adjacent to the illumination point. As these photons have interacted with molecules deeper inside the medium, they provide information about internal chemical make-up: SORS probes deeper into the material. And the further you move from the illumination point, the deeper you see into the medium. The process
involves large photon migration distances, often extending to several centimetres or more. This came as a big surprise.
“SORS involves probing at one location and detecting at another. Our minds, and those of others, were constrained by our perception of how the Raman Spectroscopy process worked but once we made this serendipitous discovery, we quickly realised it had potential major applications.”
What kind of applications?
“The Range of Potential Applications for Sors Is Staggering.”
Insight100 (Cobalt Lights Systems Ltd) scanner for noninvasive analysis of bottles at airports.
Using micro-SORS for non-destructive analysis of painted layers in Art
We immediately realised SORS could determine the chemical make-up of substances by non-destructive means. This could have applications in bio-medicine, chemistry, security, forensics, heritage, and beyond. But we first focused on pharmaceuticals, and developed novel ways for analysing the chemical make-up of manufactured drugs.
We swiftly filed 8 patents, which became the basis of our company Cobalt Light Systems.
Cobalt Light Systems is perhaps best known for its airport security scanners. Can you describe how these work and their impact to passenger travel?
Security scanners represent the second generation of technology developed by Cobalt. To date there are around 400 operational units in 70 airports across Europe and Asia. They are used to scan traveller essentials, such as medicines or baby milk, and compare their chemical make-up to a database of potentially explosive substances. Suspicious substances are automatically identified and flagged. For example, the technology avoids passengers having to drink liquids (e.g. baby milk) in front security officer to prove they are not dangerous, which is clearly safer and more hygienic. It has also contributed to new legislation, and is expected to lead to a relaxation of the complete ban of taking liquids on board a plane in the future.
The scanners are currently the size of a microwave oven but right now we are launching a SORS handheld device. This should have further applications for first responder teams called to spillages of unknown substances and fire fighters attending chemical fires.
First off, we used instrumentation at STFC’s Central Laser Facility to demonstrate the basic capability to detect the SORS subsurface signal. Once we made the discovery in 2004, we worked closely with STFC’s Technology Transfer Office SIL (formerly CLIK) and Business and Innovations (BID) to develop, optimise and protect our ideas. There was a complex path to navigate from discovery, to optimising SORS, building a prototype, and ultimately to securing investment in 2008. BID/SIL coordinated the company at all levels and provided the support necessary to achieve this goal.
“My story illustrates the national and international importance of STFC. If its determination to deliver impact on science was absent, the chain from a fundamental discovery to Cobalt Light Systems’ product would have been broken. STFC responded appropriately at every stage. And this is just one example of how STFC contributes to the UK’s know-how economy.”
What are you working on currently?
I’m focused on developing novel non-invasive medical screening techniques, including diagnosing bone disease such as osteoporosis (jointly with STFC’s Prof Tony Parker and University College London’s Prof Allen Goodship), and I’m working with Professor Nicolas Stone of Exeter University on non-invasive breast cancer screening.
In addition, I’m collaborating with Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche in Italy to apply the SORS technology to objects of art on microscales. For example, we can scan different layers of paint to determine compositional information essential in restoration and preservation of artefacts.
How will the medical applications benefit patients?
Patient benefit could be enormous. Current diagnosis techniques for osteoporosis are around 60-70% accurate as they sense only mineral content. SORS on the other hand has a high specificity for mineral and collagen content – both of which determine bone strength – and so holds considerable promise for providing improved diagnostic accuracy. SORS could also be used to classify breast or prostate tumours as malignant or benign without needle biopsy. This would reduce patient stress and save medical provider costs.
However, medical problems are challenging as the human body is complex and variable. These applications are probably still 7-10 years away.
Why do you do this research?
This is where my passion and interest lies – I’m very excited about what I do.
“As You Push the Boundaries of Technology and Make New Discoveries, the End Goal Always Changes. This Is the Nice Thing about Science.”
