The Commercial Manager

Overview

This complete handbook for commercial management practitioners across all sectors of commerce and industry, covers every aspect of this multi-faceted role.

Written by authors with wide practical, hands-on experience, this one-stop guide covers a large range of different and crucial functions including contract negotiation, procurement, financial management, risk management and project management – all vital components of the commercial managers business day.

Full of expert, accessible and practical guidance on all the legal, commercial and project planning aspects managers and directors need to know, the book is split into three parts.

• Part One covers commercial awareness and relationships, the contract and negotiation techniques.

• Part Two explores techniques of risk management

• Part Three provides expert advice on planning and project management.

It will serve as an indispensable handbook for managers in both the private and public sectors.

Who will benefit from this expert publication?

• Commercial directors and managers
• Contract directors and managers
• Business development directors and managers
• Sales and marketing directors and managers
• Commercial engineers
• Procurement and purchasing managers

Content

PART 1 – THE COMMERCIAL MANAGER

1 Commercial awareness

• Profit
• Cash
• Order book
• Intellectual property
• Contracts
• Business analyses
  Checklist

2 The contract

• Law
• What is a contract?
• Contract types
• Contract formation
• Types and formation of contracts – why worry?
• Early lessons
• The terms of a contract
• If things go awry
• Legal remedies
• Breach and damages – who cares?
• The Sale of Goods Act
• Product liability
• Contract negotiation
• The content of the contract
• Layout of a contract
• Contract requirements
• Bringing the contract into effect
• Intentions to purchase and instructions to proceed
• Changing the contract
  Checklist

3 Contract performance

• ‘Boiler plate’ terms
• Seller and buyer obligations
• Price
• Payment
• Delivery and the passing of property and risk
• Acceptance and rejection
• Inspection
  Checklist

4 Commercial relationships

• Competition law
• Confidentiality
• Suppliers and subcontractors
• Purchasing, procurement, buying and outsourcing
• Procurement – benefits and risks
• Prime contractors and subcontractors
• Partnerships and partnering
• Consortia and joint venture companies
• Preliminary agreements
• Full agreement
• Ancillary agreements
• Multi-party agreements
• Licences
• It’s a ‘people thing’!
  Checklist

5 Negotiation

• Who are the negotiators?
• What is negotiation?
• Prior events
• Purpose and importance
• Serious matters
• Preparation
• The negotiation plan
• Follow the leader
• Questions and information
• Rough and tumble
• Win/win
• That ‘people thing’
• Examples
  Checklist

PART 2 – COMMERCIAL RISK MANAGEMENT

6 Principles of commercial risk management

• Taking a risk
• Commercial risk management
• The risk pendulum
• Risk bearing, risk sharing
• Partnership sourcing and partnership contracting
• Approaches to partnership contracting
• Exclusion clauses
• Insurance
• Customer characteristics
• Company culture

7 Post-delivery risk

• Is there life after delivery?
• Key contractual milestones
• Residual obligations and risks
• Pricing
• Account management
• The do’s and don’ts of post-delivery risk

PART 3 – PROJECT MANAGEMENT

8 Planning a project

• Dependencies
• Flowcharts
• Work breakdown structure
• Networks
• Gantt charts
• Choosing your software
• Schedules and milestones
• Budgets for projects
• Preparing estimates
• The project plan

9 Building a team

• What makes a team?
• Team roles
• Team dynamics
• Communicating with your team
• Working within the organization

10 Project in progress

• Monitoring a project
• Progress reports
• Building in quality
• Working with stakeholders
• Leading people through change
• Dealing with problems

Reviews

‘Tim Boyce has the highest command of the commercial domain.’

John Craen, variously MD of ITT Defence, Thorn EMI Defence and Plessey Military Communications

Authors

Tim Boyce

Tim Boyce has been involved in contract management for over 20 years. He began his career in the Ministry of Defence holding executive positions in contracts, contracts policy and finance. His industrial career began at Plessey in 1980 after which he enjoyed appointments with Siemens, British Aerospace and as commercial director at BAE Systems. His functional responsibilities have included contracts, commercial, procurement, estimating, legal, project accounting and the implementation of the European Business Excellence Model.

He is a former member of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS). His committee work included the CIPS National Contracts Management Committee, the CBI Contracts panel, the CBI Defence Procurement Panel and the CBI/MoD working groups on partnering and incentive contracting. He was the CBI observer at the HM Treasury Central Unit on the Purchasing Working Group on incentivising industry. In 1997 he was invited by the Director General of the CBI to join the CBI Public Private Partnership Forum. He has lectured widely in the UK and the US.

Cathy Lake

After leaving Oxford University Cathy Lake MA (Oxon) worked for the educational publishers Thomas Nelson & Sons Ltd. Since 1976, she has worked as a freelance editor, writer and project manager. During the past two decades, she has taken part in, and also managed, almost every aspect of the publishing process. She has worked for most of the major national publishers and has written about 40 training manuals and textbooks, mainly on management and health-related topics. As well as writing for commercial publishers in the UK and abroad she has also written management development workbooks for corporate clients.