CI Energy Group's Supply Chain Contracts

Registration Opens and Coffee is Served

Opening Remarks by Conference Co-Chairs

1. PANEL – PRECONTRACT PLANNING AND STRATEGY

Roundtable Discussion: Identifying the Goals, Objectives and Challenges of your Supply Chain Contract to Set the Stage for Success

• What are the critical success factors for a supply chain contract?
• Assess the major challenges during the supply chain lifecycle
• In what areas does the supply chain contract process need the most improvement?
• How are supplier relationships changing?
• Examine how to leverage your firms resources and consolidate spending
• Identifying your potential supplier base; Should you use a local or global sourcing strategy?
• When should you outsource? What are your contractual risks?
• How will the business, market and economic outlook affect your contracting strategy?
• Explore how technology is aiding the supply chain contract management process?
• How is the supply chain contract process changing
  Is the vendor/supplier base becoming more global?
  How is this affecting supplier relationships?

Networking Coffee Break

2. REQUESTS FOR PROPOSALS AND CALLS FOR TENDER

Best Practices for Designing a Request for Proposal (RFP) and Call for Tender to Ensure You Select the Right Vendor

• Developing prequalification requirements; who do you include?
  • Examining prequalification questionnaires that have been put into practice
• How to assess and appraise potential suppliers
• Identify the biggest risks during the RFP process
• Understand when to use an RFP and when to use an RFQ
  • How does this differ from a call for tender? What are the legal implications?
  • What are the main factors distinguishing a call for tender from a RFP/RFQ?
• What should you include in your document language?
  • Submission information
  • Detailed specifications
  • Terms and conditions
  • Selection criteria
• Potential pitfalls and practical tips during for the RFP and call to tender
• Realize the importance of transparency and accountability in government procurement
  • Are there lessons we can learn from stringent government procurement practices?
• Notifying winning and losing parties
  

Interactive Activity: Preparing an Effective RFP and Call for Tender

Participants will learn how to prepare and properly put together both a Request for Proposal and a Call for Tender. This includes the following critical sections: introductory remarks, requirements and specifications, selection criteria and the selection process. Participants will also gain valuable tips on how to properly respond to an RFP/Tender, how a response is likely to be scored and how to convince a potential client that you’re the best vendor for the job.

Networking Luncheon for Delegates and Speakers

3. FORMULATING THE CONTRACT

How to Draft a Winning Contract to Ensure a Successful Relationship with Your Contract Partner

• Internal accountability and objective alignment
• Understanding and upholding your key needs in the contract
• Whose contract to use – Battle of the Templates
  • ‘Balance of Power’ Theory
  • Scope/commercial integration
• ‘Vulcan’ Drafting – critical drafting tips for both parties to ‘Live Long and Prosper’
• Essential contract clauses – determining risk management or risk exposure?
  • Liability, Indemnity, Warranties, Termination, Dispute Resolution, Governing Law and Jurisdiction
• How much IP? – a sensitive question
• To Boil the Perfect Two Minute Contract: Boilerplate Miscues
  • Time is of the essence
  • Assignment and novation
  • Further assurances
  • Entire Agreement
  • Severability
  • Contra Preferendum
• ‘We Are the Borg’; Ensuring the contracts terms and conditions are assimilated into subcontracts
• Calling an Audible; How do you control for changes during the contract?
  • Amending agreements
  • Change orders
  • Annual schedules
  • Material change clause
  • Termination rights
• International contract risks
  • UN Convention and other international regime applications
  • Negotiating your capture into a jurisdictional web
• Particular issues depending on service or supply agreement
  • Service – Insurance, taxation
  • Supply – Title and risk, delivery and inspection

Networking Coffee Break

Interactive Activity: Tips and Techniques for Drafting Successful Supply Chain Contracts

Participants will learn how to draft robust and effective remedies as part of a supply chain contract. Using a case-study approach, participants will gain an understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of contract structures, and how to compose key terms and conditions to invest the supplier in the success of the purchaser. They will also learn how to avoid the typical traps encountered when crafting remedial clauses in contracts.

Co-Chairs Closing Remarks and Conference Adjourns

Coffee Served

Opening Remarks by Conference Co-Chairs

4. NEGOTIATION STRATEGIES

Positional Based vs. Interest Based Negotiations: Strategies and Tactics for Achieving Successful Negotiations with Your Supply Chain Contract Partner

• Identifying who will participate in the negotiating team;
  • Determining when outside legal counsel may be required
• Understanding the objectives of a negotiating strategy:
  • Clearly defining terms and conditions for each party
  • Establish timelines and compensation
  • Identify constraints and risks; establish alternatives
  • Tips for developing and strengthening the relationship and partnership
• Establishing trust as the foundation to a successful contract relationship
• Understanding the key differences between interest-based and positional-based negotiations
  • What are the strengths and weaknesses of each?
• Ranking your negotiating priorities; What are the key objectives for your organization?
• Identifying you counter party’s objectives.
  What are their strengths and weaknesses?
• Realizing the role of communication indicators, body language and cultural traits in the negotiating process
• Learning the importance of location when conducting negotiations;
  • Choosing the right location? How could this affect your strategy?
• When should you walk away?
• Negotiating strategies and tips
  

Networking Coffee Break

Interactive Activity: Mock Negotiations for Successful Relationships

Participants will engage in mock negotiation simulations and exercises to build effective communication skills and strengthen their negotiation capabilities. They will learn valuable tools, techniques and strategies that are critical during the negotiation process including proper preparation, building confidence and trust, honing interpersonal skills, dealing with resistance and getting counter-party buy in.

5. CONTRACT MANAGEMENT

Proactively Managing your Contract from Start to Finish

Developing a governance model and ensuring that you have an understanding of your arrangement is key to being able to proactively stay on top of your contract. This requires the right disciplines, the right skill sets, an understanding of your own organization’s as well as the supplier’s requirements. The key is to deliver value throughout the process, and have an effective way to measure value to the organization. This session will highlight the following:

• The importance of identifying key personnel for managing the contract
• Establishing the right model to manage the contract obligations and changes
• Identify the skills you need to source to execute on the model
• Ensuring you have effective communication for noncompliance issues
• How to provide effective transparency of the state of the relationship within your organization
• Examine terms for flexibility to exit or introduce competition with other suppliers
• Identify key drivers of value-add in the process
  

Networking Luncheon for Delegates and Speakers

Interactive Activity: Role Playing Exercises to Keep Your Contract on Track and Avoid Disputes

Participants will engage in proactive role playing scenarios that can assist in lowering contract risk, help minimize disputes and strengthen a business relationship. They will be supplied with critical methods and tools to help guide a relationship throughout the contract lifespan to allow them to engage effectively before problems develop and disputes escalate.

 6. DISPUTE RESOLUTION AND ADR STRATEGIES

Resolving Contract Disputes: What are Your Options?

• What are common methods for resolving disputes?
  • Assess the advantages and disadvantages of each
• Understand the importance of arbitration and dispute resolution clauses
  • Examples of model contracts clauses
• What are the different types of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) available?
  • When is each option appropriate?
• When should you attempt to resolve a supplier dispute?
• How should you handle international disputes?
• When to escalate and when not to escalate
• Pros and cons of arbitration and litigation
• Real life examples of successful dispute resolution

Networking Coffee Break

Interactive Activity: Best Practices for Understanding and Maneuvering Through the ADR Process

Participants will engage in hands-on activities to better appreciate and understand the advantages of ADR over traditional methods of resolving contract disputes. The session will include establishing and understanding situations where ADR can be most successfully applied, the critical steps in ADR and how to use ADR strategically as part of your contract. Participants will also involve themselves in arbitration and consultation scenarios to develop practical skills for resolving disputes effectively.

Conference Concludes