Modern Contracting: It’s Time to Get Strategic

Let’s face it – for most people, contracts are an unfortunate necessity. They create delay, they are hard to understand and rarely offer practical support. As a result, they are in many cases an afterthought.

The true misfortune is the cost that comes from this attitude. By relegating the role of contracts, we also tend to lose the discipline of good contracting – we fail to frame our products or services with the best commercial model and terms and we do not effectively engage key stakeholders in developing practical solutions to risk and opportunities. This may have limited consequences when the transaction involves low value commodities, but it is bad news when we are talking high value, long term programs and relationships. Delays, disputes, cost overruns – expensive and often avoidable situations which high quality contracting could remedy,

World Commerce & Contracting has spent years investigating the mistakes and identifying frameworks and behaviors that lead to better results. It has packaged all that knowledge into a new, highly practical program – Modern Contracting. This immersive, action-oriented program aims to transform contracting from a routine task into a strategic advantage. And it goes beyond the traditional specialists from contracts or legal to embrace key stakeholders and influencers and generate a collective approach.

Key Features of the Modern Contracting Workshop:

• Self-Paced Learning (20%): Participants begin with foundational knowledge through online modules, case studies, and resources, allowing flexibility in learning.
• Interactive Group Workshops (60%): Engaging sessions facilitate discussions and application of concepts to real-world scenarios, fostering a deeper understanding of modern contracting principles.
• Targeted Team Exercises (20%): Smaller teams work on current projects to identify areas for improvement and develop actionable plans, ensuring practical application of learned strategies.

The program spans five weeks, with a commitment of 3 hours per week, making it manageable alongside professional responsibilities. There are also two follow-on sessions to assess and assist with implementation and use. It is very much focused on application.

And the results?

It is, after all, results that matter! What we are seeing is true collaboration. Key stakeholders are grasping the importance of ‘positivity’, rather than ‘preventism’. They are embracing the ideas behind uncertainty and friction-point analysis, and applying the relational principles that underlie effective governance. With adaptability at its core, the program casts a new light on risk, focusing team efforts on how best to succeed, rather than the traditional approach to limit the consequence of failure.