Success

Tenders and Contract Terms - Glossaries

nobody@vox.com(european-businessman) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 07:57:55 -0800

Often it can seem as if the entire speech mechanism of the tendering process is based upon abbreviations. For all but the most experienced procurement managers this can make applying for tenders an even more difficult task than it already is.

Fortunately, there are a number of excellent online resources that we can refer to which can help us out. Instead of us copying directly from these pages (like some blogs are guilty of), we thought that we would link to some of our favourites:

Tenders Direct Blog - One of the leading tendering websites has a blog, this post has a great glossary
Tendermatch Glossary - A comprehensive list of tendering terminology from the Tracker website
Defence Contracts International - A useful glossary as it contains a number of abbreviations related directly Defence procurement
Tony Zemaitis Glossary, includes a handy PDF file

These are a few pages that we refer to often when we are struggling with terminology.

If there are any other concise tendering glossaries that you fell would be of use then please point us in the right direction!, Thanks for your input.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

£129.5M of Fines for Tendering Scammers

nobody@vox.com(european-businessman) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:45:05 -0800

Building companies fined £129.5M for Tender cheating the Tax Payers.

The Office of Fair Trading fined 103 Building companies for cheating customers and local authorities by rigging contracts. Among them where some of Britain’s largest building companies. A staggering amount of fines where handed out totaling £129.5 million.

OFT

The firms in question colluded among themselves when going through tendering process, ultimately price fixing jobs. The largest fine handed out was £17.9m more, than any other to the Kier Group while some of the other fines dished out where slashed as some companies admitted to doing so before or during the five year investigation.

The practice known as cover pricing is when companies put in astronomical bids in to win the contract, knowing fine well they will not win by submitting such an offer.

What happens next is another company will submit a bid well below the rest making it look like a good deal but in fact the deal is still over exaggerated.

The winning company then slips a previous agreed amount of money to the losing bidders and I quote “as agreed before”.

The largest fine’s where handed too

Kier Group

Interserve

Galliford Try

Ballast Nedam

Bowmer & Kirkland

ISG Pierce

Crest Nicholson

John Sisk & Son

Connaught

Carillion JM

Concentra and Durkan Holdings

Balfour Beatty.

Its a Tender Shame for us Tax Payers that large money making companies resort to this kind of gread.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Pink models her hubby’s kitsch collection

nobody@vox.com(North) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 03:57:09 -0700

They don’t think it’s plagiarism, do they?

Carey-hart-pnk-hard-huntington-collection-3

Pop rocker P!nk and her on/off racer husband teamed up to present his latest fashion venture – a collection of tattoo printed tees and hoodies.

Hart & Huntington clothing collection looks so much like Ed Hardy’s trademark prints and styles, don’t you agree?

Know more about collection here >>

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Nicole Richi to launch clothing label

nobody@vox.com(North) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 03:50:36 -0700

Just a month has passed since Nicole Richie had her second baby but she is already planning a new contemporary woman and baby clothing label called Winter Kate.

The label will be started in spring 2010.

Nicole isn’t new to fashion. She has launched her own jewelry line, House of Harlow 1960, this year and a maternity range, Nicole for a Pea in the Pod.

More >>

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Great Books on the European Union

nobody@vox.com(european-businessman) — Tue, 05 May 2009 06:13:20 -0700

Its hard to beat curling up with a good book. We thought that we would point you in the direction of a few of our favourite books on the European Union. There are some weighty tomes in here . Our book choices cover a wide spectrum of subject matter, including how the European Union operates as an entity, the history of the EU, the politics behind many of the key decisions made by the EU, European Union policies and much more.

There are no doubt a number of great books that we have not included in this selection - if you are aware of any that we should include please let us know.

Happy reading!

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Business opportunities post-recession

nobody@vox.com(european-businessman) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 07:25:21 -0700

There is little doubt that the current difficult and unprecedented economic situation is testing the resources of every business out there in the EU. There seem to be a great deal of uncertainty around, and even experienced economic experts seem reluctant to predict when the current recession will end and what the business landscape will be afterwards. Whatever happens, it is highly unlikely that the situation will ever get back to what we would define as 'normality'.

However, leaving negativity aside for the moment, this recession will one day end and there is little doubt that business tenders and contracting opportunities will still exist. It is the intelligence to uncover the opportunities within individual niches which is going to determine the success or otherwise of a business.

What form will these opportunities take, and in what sectors are they most likely to materialise?

Surely, businesses within the EU public sector are going to have to become smarter. For example, there seems little point in trying to compete with China when it comes to large scale manufacturing or individual product markets - instead focus wil be more likely to shift into niches within these sectors. This could also act as a wake-up-call to the long-belegaured manufacturing sector, albeit on a smaller scale.

We are obviously speculating wildly here, and we need the help of the Vox community to unravel everything.

Which sectors do you think the post-recession business opportunities will arise?

What will be the major post-recession growth sectors?

Agricultre
Food and Drink
Health Services
Information Technology
Construction and Property
Education
Consultancy/Professional Services
Materials and Products
Legal Services
Mining
Printing and Publishing
R&D
Technolgy and Equipment
Transport Services
Other

Thanks for your input - we look forward to more feedback.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Derek Hatton, the militant capitalist

nobody@vox.com(North) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 21:37:27 -0700

Derek Hatton, 60, is best remembered as a radical socialist when he was deputy leader of Liverpool City Council in the 1980s, and Neil Kinnock expelled him from the Labour party for being a member of Militant.
Now he runs a property company selling villas and apartments in Cyprus

Derek Hatton

How did your childhood experience influence your attitude to money?

I was a post-war baby and I grew up in a council house with two bedrooms. I was an only child and I learned later one of the reasons was that mum didn't work and my dad, who was a fireman, was concerned about how much it would cost to have another baby.

The post-war period was a time of austerity and my mum was particularly careful. She used to go berserk if ever I left food on my plate. I always say that kind of an upbringing will affect you in one of two ways: either you become frugal yourself or you react and go the other way. My attitude has always been that you don't know how long you've got in this world, so spend what you have while it's there.

What has your change in financial circumstances meant to you?

I now have the freedom to do things my parents could never do. I run my own business and, although there are some strains and stresses associated with that, if I need something I always find a way of getting the money. My parents had a fixed wage and had to stay within it, but I haven't had to live like that for the last 25 years.

Does talking about money embarrass you?

Not at all and I don't mind telling people how much I earn. It is public knowledge that my son and I sold our website business for a lot of money and I'm now involved in property in Cyprus, but it's hard to put an exact figure on my annual income because it goes up and down. It's certainly in the comfortable six figure bracket though.

Would you say you're good with money or irresponsible with it?

I don't think I'm irresponsible, but I'm definitely not good at saving. If I look at my bank accounts and see money in there I tend to think it's not doing much and I want to get it out and invest it in a business or in property. I want it earning money for me and not other people.

Isn't money earning for you when it's in a high interest account?

Not enough – if I get 6 per cent interest I have to pay 40 per cent tax on it through my tax return, so in reality it's only 3.6 per cent. At that rate I'm just about equal with inflation at, say, 3.5 per cent, so in future my pound will be worth a pound. What's the point of that?

Have you ever invested in shares?

Yes, I owned shares in a variety of companies in the 1980s. I invested a few thousand here and there, but I found it frustrating because unless you were monitoring it constantly you couldn't make the decision to sell at the right time. All of a sudden I'd look and see my investment going down. I remember I put £1,000 into Millwall football club in the 1980s because I heard from an influential friend that Chris Evans and Danny Baker were thinking of buying it and I passed the tip on to a couple of friends who've never forgiven me.

Read full article >>

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Katherine Jenkins as she signs $5.8m U.S. record deal

nobody@vox.com(North) — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 22:21:34 -0700

There's good news for British fans of buxom singer Katherine Jenkins.

Katherine Jenkins

The Welsh-born mezzo-soprano, who has just signed a record $5.8million deal with American label Warner Music, says that - contrary to reports - she will not be moving to Los Angeles.

'I'm not going to live there permanently, like everyone has been saying. I'll only be there for a few months while I promote my album,' says Katherine, 28, at the Harrods launch of her record Sacred Arias.

'I'm keeping my house here and I wouldn't want to make a big change like that at the moment.'

The Forces sweetheart, who is dating former Blue Peter presenter Gethin Jones, also revealed her plans eventually to retire from performing.

'When I get older I would like to go back to teaching,' she says.

'I used to be a singing teacher and I loved it, so I see myself teaching master classes and that kind of thing.'

dailymail.co.uk

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Celebrity Clothing Lines.

nobody@vox.com(North) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 22:17:11 -0700

Gwen Stefani

Gwen-stefani-red-lips

With baby number two in tow, the musician is onto the next project — designing uniforms for Rande Gerber’s Living Rooms at the W hotels. Her Harajuku Lovers young contemporary apparel and accessories are also going strong, according to retailers, as is her new Harajuku Lovers fragrance.

The L.A.M.B. fragrance has an estimated $30 million in annual sales and Harajuku Lovers has already tripled that.

Pete Wentz

Pete_wentz

In his hometown of Chicago, his first store, Clandestine Industries, is reeling in customers eager to copy his onstage looks. Wentz has DKNY Jeans to thank for jump-starting his fashion career.

Nordstrom has the exclusive this fall for the label’s wholesale.

Lauren Conrad

Lauren_conrad

She may be a big star on “The Hills,” but Conrad is even more serious about fashion, claiming she’ll always be a designer even once the reality show ends. The year-old line is already a $4 million business.

“The sell-throughs have been fantastic,” said Frank Doroff, vice chairman at Bloomingdale’s.

“We got it in and sold out immediately. We can’t get the merchandise on the floor fast enough. It is, by far, the best-selling celebrity line we have. It’s so much better than I thought it would be.”

Sienna Miller

Sienna_miller

Besides selling in Saks Fifth Avenue, Intermix and Henri Bendel, the Twenty8Twelve by S.Miller label has its own store in the sister's native London.

“We’re constantly learning, not only aesthetically, but from the point of view of being a new business,” Savannah Miller said.
The beggining of article >>

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Mel B works up a sweat in new fitness DVD

nobody@vox.com(North) — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 03:13:59 -0700

After unveiling her amazing post-baby figure in Ultimo lingerie advertisements, it's no surprise Mel B was bombarded with letters asking how she did it.

The former Spice Girl has decided to reveal the secret behind her honed and toned bodies in a fitness DVD.

The 33-year-old singer is releasing Totally Fit: Mel B, a three-disc workout, which includes a 23-day plan to slim down, in December.

After piling on the pounds during her pregnancy with second child Angel Iris, Mel B signed up to appear on Dancing With The Stars - the U.S. version of Strictly Come Dancing.

After beginning to slim down on Dancing, Mel carried on her active new lifestyle with regular workouts at the gym and a healthy eating plan.

Mel B

People were so impressed with her new body, she was offered a contract as a lingerie model for Scottish underwear firm Ultimo.

In Totally Fit: Mel, the former Scary Spice demonstrates the 'very simple and easy' plan, which includes a 60 minute do-at-home fitness class and four 10 minute workouts.

Mel also divulges a nutritional plan to follow in tandem with the workouts.

She promised:

For anyone with jubbily bits, I'm going to tighten you up, make you laugh and enjoy your workout no matter what level of fitness you are.'

Dressed in a flattering ensemble of black leggings and fitness tops, Mel works up a sweat as she performs her routine against a stunning backdrop of the Pacific Ocean.

Mel is having a busy year, balancing her numerous career paths with bringing up her daughter Phoenix Chi, nine; and 18-month-old daughter Angel Iris - whose father is Hollywood star Eddie Murphy.

Mel B sport

As well as becoming a fitness guru, Mel also has a fashion range Catty Couture, is working on a solo album and has several TV projects in the works, including The Singing Office and an upcoming fashion reality show.

The Leeds-born star was unveiled as the new face of Ultimo in April, replacing Girls Aloud singer Sarah Harding.

Totally Fit: Mel B will be released in the U.K. on Boxing Day.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk

Read and post comments | Send to a friend