2015 - The Year of Procurement

Steve Kennedy , 3 February 2015

Steve Kennedy announces the ACA Year of Procurement, and argues for the value of enjoying what we do.

Welcome to 2015. Our best wishes for a successful, profitable and enjoyable year to you all.

Roland Hanekroot, in his book The Ten Truths for Making Business Fun, puts forward the simple, obvious, but consistently overlooked premise that, if we are to be truly successful at this thing we do ­– owning and operating businesses – we need to enjoy what we do.

This sense of enjoyment should permeate and percolate throughout our businesses. It should be shared by everyone in the organisation if that organisation is to be truly successful.

Given the extraordinary hardship and misery so many people are subjected to in this world, we – who live such a privileged and safe existence ­– have an even greater obligation to acknowledge, respect and implement that privilege through the way we conduct our lives and manage our businesses.

The ACA is working to provide our industry with the tools and capacity to deliver best practice in all areas of how we conduct our businesses – to make architecture in Australia the very best it can be.

In 2014 we delivered a quality of information and discourse through our communications, website, surveys and twitter account not seen before.  We began a national webinar program that delivers quality business development to all members across Australia simultaneously and cost effectively. We engaged with governments around the country to address many, many issues and represented the industry on several important committees and peak organisations.

In doing so, we delivered our members the resources and information they need, while also substantially raising the profile and awareness of the importance of the architectural industry within the Australia in many important ways.

In 2015 we intend to ramp things up further. We will consolidate our achievements to date, and release a number of very important tools that will assist everyone in the industry to run their businesses efficiently, profitably and enjoyably.

We are calling 2015 ‘The Year of Procurement’.

Our intention is to take the work already being done by the ACA across all branches and, in collaboration with our friends in other organisations, to improve procurement processes in both the government and private sectors. We aim to develop a consistent and coherent approach to the issue, which will address the problems we all face in this arena. Then we will work with our clients to help them to understand the issues, to recognise the benefits of a more coherent, equitable and efficient system and then convince them to implement the required changes.

It will take more than 12 months to achieve, but we intend that 2015 will be looked back on as the year things began to improve.

As always, thank you for your support of the ACA. In particular my personal thanks to all my many, many colleagues who give their time to be part of this organisation through our committees, working groups and webinars.

And finally a thank you to our dedicated staff. The ACA operates on a very tight budget and our staff punch above their weight in their commitment to, and enthusiasm for, who we are and what we are doing.

They help make doing this fun.

I wish you all a great 2015.

Steve

Steve Kennedy announces the ACA Year of Procurement, and argues for the value of enjoying what we do.

Welcome to 2015. Our best wishes for a successful, profitable and enjoyable year to you all.

Roland Hanekroot, in his book The Ten Truths for Making Business Fun, puts forward the simple, obvious, but consistently overlooked premise that, if we are to be truly successful at this thing we do ­– owning and operating businesses – we need to enjoy what we do.

This sense of enjoyment should permeate and percolate throughout our businesses. It should be shared by everyone in the organisation if that organisation is to be truly successful.

Given the extraordinary hardship and misery so many people are subjected to in this world, we – who live such a privileged and safe existence ­– have an even greater obligation to acknowledge, respect and implement that privilege through the way we conduct our lives and manage our businesses.

The ACA is working to provide our industry with the tools and capacity to deliver best practice in all areas of how we conduct our businesses – to make architecture in Australia the very best it can be.

In 2014 we delivered a quality of information and discourse through our communications, website, surveys and twitter account not seen before.  We began a national webinar program that delivers quality business development to all members across Australia simultaneously and cost effectively. We engaged with governments around the country to address many, many issues and represented the industry on several important committees and peak organisations.

In doing so, we delivered our members the resources and information they need, while also substantially raising the profile and awareness of the importance of the architectural industry within the Australia in many important ways.

In 2015 we intend to ramp things up further. We will consolidate our achievements to date, and release a number of very important tools that will assist everyone in the industry to run their businesses efficiently, profitably and enjoyably.

We are calling 2015 ‘The Year of Procurement’.

Our intention is to take the work already being done by the ACA across all branches and, in collaboration with our friends in other organisations, to improve procurement processes in both the government and private sectors. We aim to develop a consistent and coherent approach to the issue, which will address the problems we all face in this arena. Then we will work with our clients to help them to understand the issues, to recognise the benefits of a more coherent, equitable and efficient system and then convince them to implement the required changes.

It will take more than 12 months to achieve, but we intend that 2015 will be looked back on as the year things began to improve.

As always, thank you for your support of the ACA. In particular my personal thanks to all my many, many colleagues who give their time to be part of this organisation through our committees, working groups and webinars.

And finally a thank you to our dedicated staff. The ACA operates on a very tight budget and our staff punch above their weight in their commitment to, and enthusiasm for, who we are and what we are doing.

They help make doing this fun.

I wish you all a great 2015.

Steve