The Guardian reports David Cameron as declaring war on "The public sector procurement managers who think that the answer to everything is a big contract with a big business and who shut out millions of Britain's small- and medium-sized companies from a massive potential market."

Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

David Cameron's speech follows on the heels of the announcement of the creation of 10 enterprise zones and he goes on to say:

"We're throwing open the bidding process to every single business in our country - a massive boost for small businesses, because we want them to win at least a quarter of these deals."

In practical terms one of the best ways small businesses can access these contracts is not by themselves but in collaboration with other complimentary businesses. Such collaborations are often referred to as Virtual Enterprise Networks due to their ability to provide small businesses with pay-as-you-need virtual resources. Such collaborations are described in detail in my book The Networked Enterprise.

Historically, however, these collaborative groups have found it difficult to win government contracts due to risk adverse procurement regulations and procurement managers who favour large vertically integrated suppliers.

These are the issues (liability, insurance, trading history, networked supply chains etc) which must be addressed if this initiative is to really deliver for small businesses.

To read David Cameron calls civil servants 'enemies of enterprise'

About Ken Thompson

Ken Thompson delivers keynote conference speeches, workshop facilitation and in-house consultancy in four key business areas:

1. Creating High Performing Teams in enterprises including Virtual and Mobile Teams (based on the Bioteams Book)
2. Establishing effective Collaborative Business Networks enabling companies to co-operate effectively in areas such as sales and product development (based on the book - The Networked Enterprise)
3. How to use the latest social media technologies including blogging and online communities to promote enterprises, brand, organisation or event
4. Development of graphical on-line interactive Business Dashboards and What-if Simulators for organisations to support Performance Improvement, Strategy Development and Executive Team Development.

   
   Tags: The Networked Enterprise, virtual enterprise networks

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