Getting On The Map

As we start 2010, there are many encouraging signs that contract and commercial management are on the ascendancy. I have always been hesitant about claims that the function / profession / process has ‘made it’ onto the executive agenda. I have observed the regular assertions by the Procurement media – as well as functions like Project Management or the CIO community – that they have now ‘reached the top table’, when quite evidently they have not.

Whether those in contracts or commercial make that top table will depend a lot on future organizational design and decisions. And to be honest, a Board position is not necessarily the accolade we should be seeking. It is far more important that we drive understanding of the role and contribution of contracting and commercial policy to business and organizational success.

My optimism is not simply because at last there is widespread academic acknowledgement that contracts and the selection of terms and conditions matter (though certainly that helps). Nor is it because we are starting to have tangible measures of the value that comes from superior contracting (though that will be key in gaining management attention). My optimism is because I am observing a community that is at last ready for professionalism and the demands that places on us as individuals.

For 10 years, since the inception of IACCM, I have observed many talented individuals, yet few believed in the possibility of becoming a true profession. They were not ready to work together to agree a core and consistent ‘body of knowledge’ or establish the professional standards and practices that are fundamental to status and recognition. Without these commitments, it was not possible to create  the hallmarks of a profession – training programs that would support a career path from graduate entry onward; recruitment specialists that would promote excellence; substantive peer review bodies that would define the ethics and standards of practice for our community.

Steadily, the situation has changed. IACCM itself has grown to a membership of almost 15,000 and is adding more than 100 new members a week. It has off-shoots in countries around the world, all subscribing to the central standards of certification and training set forth at the global level. And last month, when I went to a group of experts from the field of contracting and commercial management, more than 80 immediately volunteered their time to work on confirming the worldwide ‘body of knowledge’ for this community, to support publication of a book series later this year.

This week, I will meet with two European business schools to finalize the development of university and business school programs in contracts and commercial. These will build from IACCM training programs and enable practitioners to achieve externally recognized qualifications at diploma, MSc and MBA level. Similar developments will follow in other world regions.

IACCM’s research is also another bedrock of the change that has been happening. No practitioner is a professional unless they can point to robust and on-going research that both validates and improves their work. Now, with so many studies undertaken on a regular basis and many more commissioned by our Corporate Members, we can point to the fact that contracts and commercial management are no longer areas of personal opinion and judgment, but have a solid basis in global research, both by the Association and by a growing academic community.

So the year begins with real confidence that we are indeed ‘getting on the map’ – and the reason, quite simply, is because we now have an enthusiastic and excited group of practitioners who want to get there, who want to achieve, and who are united under the worldwide banner of IACCM.