“Nice job!”–How teamwork delivers a partnership

Over the last 6 months, HBS have been working on a project to develop a partnership with the Healthcare Supply Association (HCSA) in the UK. This is the professional body for National Health Service (NHS) procurement and supply chain personnel; similar to how a surgical society or college of nursing would be a professional body for our clinical customers. I’m happy to announce that this partnership has come to fruition and went live on April 1, 2015.

Our partnership will support the HCSA in providing professional development to their members through training and education on best practice procurement. Wait! I hear you say, “Why are we educating procurement people who just want low prices?” That thought is exactly why we want to help HCSA develop their members. Apart from isolated best practice examples focusing on total value, the norm in the UK is old-fashioned tactical procurement that achieves very little apart from poor supplier/customer relationships. HCSA, with our support, are endeavoring to change that. We need to work with our purchasing customers, and it’s far better to work with forward thinking professionals who base the conversation on partnership and value rather than price.

When the agreement was finalised, a colleague came back and said “Nice job”, and that started me thinking. As a leader, I was just an enabler for this to happen and really my role was fairly small–mainly getting internal buy in, arranging funding, acting as a figurehead for meetings and discussions. The credit really goes to the team that stepped up, saw the opportunity, and delivered when given the chance. When I mention team, I’m not just talking about the HBS team; it’s much bigger than that. The HCSA council members visited the Cook Ireland plant and the European Shared Service Centre and met or engaged with 12 different departments. This visit really made a huge difference to the HCSA relationship.

My reason for writing this blog is to show appreciation to everyone who had some involvement with this project. Some of you personally took them through your working day, while others had an administration function. Whatever role you played, your professionalism and teamwork played a part in making this happen. Please don’t underestimate the impact our organisation, our culture, and our staff have on visitors to our facilities.

HCSA were extremely impressed with Cook Medical and our people, and decided we are the type of supplier they want as a key partner. My thanks go out to that entire team for achieving their goal.

So to all involved, I want to pass on the comment that came to me….. NICE JOB!