Water and Effluent Treatment Magazine
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/411323
at the motivations and the type of alliances would need to deliver in deciding out its capital investment ALLIANCES 2015 21 at the motivations and the type of alliances would need to deliver in deciding out its capital investment capitalised on everything that we could have done. "Long-term alliances were definitely what we needed to establish, hence the reason we've gone for the five plus five plus five, to give us and our supply chain the opportunity to co-invest in the future." He says ten years "seems hell of a long time" but the longer Anglian can discuss mutual joint investment with its supply chain, the better. "Whilst we happen to be governed within five-year business plan and regulatory financial cycles, we're conscious that a lot of the decisions we're making in investment not only in assets, which certainly on the M&E side have a 15-year timeline, but in terms of our IT systems in how we train, develop and maintain a compe- tent and skilled workforce over a longer period, five years just isn't really enough. Even in ten years there's still some limitations so we wanted to go for the 15." Ethos In selecting its alliance partners, Angli- an's evaluation process took into account alignment of values, ability to demonstrate behaviours, and the qual- ity of the people that were being put forward. "When it actually comes down to form- ing alliance partnerships, the last ten years have told us it's as much about the values and the ethos, and ways of doing business with a supplier and the people who would be working alongside us and with us, as it is about the technical capability," explains Tucker. To help develop and implement the AMP6 procurement process, Anglian worked with collaborative working spe- cialist JCP. This ensured the selection process focused on the behaviour of staff. Tucker says: "Whilst we had dealings with people like JCP and to some extent used them in the periphery of sourcing activities, we never really put them cen- tre stage and put so much weight behind a real behavioural assessment pro- gramme. We put the whole thing centre stage, and that's something we've never really done before. He says that in terms of gelling the teams, Anglian will continue working with companies like JCP and others to ensure the right principles are in place, and that all four alliances are under- pinned by challenging and innovative commercial models. "We're not leaving this to chance. We are looking to give these a flying start," says Tucker.