Dear Members of the IFPSM, dear Colleagues, dear Friends,
The period of the year 2020 was full of challenges.
Already in December last year, and then more and more frequently, information’s about new Coronavirus spreading to all continents of the globe was coming. The outbreak and spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus have surprised the whole world. The outbreak of COVID-19 is a milestone, that will change the mindset and force many companies, industries and associations to rethink and transform supply chain models and their way of working. Over the night we have experienced a dramatic change in our private and professional lives. All of us took care of ourselves, our families, co-workers and others. As we passed the first crisis phase, we began to think in parallel about how to proceed. How IFPSM will work, how all of us will work in the current circumstances and in the future?
During this time, we have made impressive achievements despite extremely adverse conditions and have become even closer as a team than before. It is not least thanks to the excellent cooperation within and between the council and board members that we have mastered the crisis comparatively well so far.
Covid-19 completely changed our way of working. Importantly, most countries and companies of our member countries did not close their operations. We all had to adjust to a new situation. We shared our experiences with each other, we shared best practices, new ways of working and new ways, how to manage our associations in “new normal”. And we have done it well! All the work done, brought our performance to the expected level in most areas. But it did not come without additional effort – which most of you gave, and what I would like to say THANK YOU and WELL DONE!
Unfortunately, the pandemic isn’t finished yet and on most of the continents we are facing the 2nd wave of the virus. The challenges are still in front of us, to get used to “the new normal”!
From Council to Council
When I took over the presidency of IFPSM, we were entirely focused on the support to our members, on new strategy preparation for the next 3 years and on renewal of the Constitution and Regulations. We adjusted our Mission and Vision to suit better to our members. We managed to get organized in the teams to make it happen; we activated most of the board members. I am very happy that we managed to reactivate back America region. We are strengthening regions and activities in the regions: Africa, Asia Pacific and Europe. This is our greatest strength!
Since the last face-to-face council meeting, which we had together with World Summit 2019 in Mombasa (Kenia), our good collaboration continued, and I hope it will increase in the future. I would like to thank KISM – Kenia for the excellent execution of the world summit, council, and board meeting! We performed an extraordinary council meeting in November 2019.
Due to Covid-19, we needed to switch all our meetings to completely virtual meetings. We had 6 board meetings in this period, 4 regional meetings in regions Europe and the Asia Pacific, 2 in Africa, and 1 in America. Big Thanks to Markku, our CEO and office for organizing all of them.
Unfortunately, we needed to move Bali World Summit 2020, due to Covid 19 into October 2021. World summit 2021 will take place for sure; it is just a question, if it will be possible to be executed face to face or will be virtually or in a Hybrid version. In the same week also Council and Board meeting will take place.
In the period from Mombasa Council until now we finished the following activities:
• Membership: We kept all members and we got 2 new members (TÜSMOD- Turkey, and ACOPC –Colombia; we have currently 45 full members; 3 affiliates, and 1 associate member). Good news – due to the current difficult situation, the Board accepted that Member fees for 2021 will remain the same as in 2020
• We launched a new Information Sheet; we would really appreciate it if you all could fill it in each year in order to help IFPSM to gather minimum information’s needed for our promotion and sponsors
• Global standards (GS):
- New model of profit share between associations was launched.
- Office prepared new promotional materials.
- New global Verification System for IFPSM certificates via a web site has been launched
• 3 years IFPSM strategy, together with renewed Mission and Vision was prepared and accepted by the board and is now is in the phase of execution
• Proposal for amendments of Constitution and Regulations in on today’s Council agenda for your review and acceptance
• We shared the best practices during regional meetings:
- On strategies and activities in non-for-profit organizations-> Regional round table discussions about the impacts of the Covid-19’s to the associations.
- Involving Young Professional in the profession and in the activities of the association.
• The self-assessment tool is available to the members
• The Board decided to build IFPSM e- services sales on a web platform, to deliver the different services (including self-assessment tools) to the member association (with profit share with associations) is in progress and is planned to be finished with Pilot association already in the first half of 2021. It is planned to be created together Global IFPSM News webpage: with www.ifpsmnews.com
• Board election process to fill in open vacancies is ongoing
The effects of the economic crisis, caused by the lockdown, will affect us it seems for still quite some time. But let us continue to use the crisis as an opportunity to develop IFPSM and our member Associations even faster and to make it fit for the future. We count on you to help us grow, to help us find new members in your regions. We all in the IFPSM family, we are all fighters and together we are stronger! What I am so proud of, is that, on top of the operational challenges, we continued to improve IFPSM in many areas in this period. We will continue with the strategy process and achieving planned actions to make it happen! Quite some activities we already finished and in some are close to that.
After the new board election, which is taking place currently, we will prepare teams to work on the execution of the strategic points, which we have defined and accepted on the board, as our key areas of activity. This strategy was already presented at all the regional meetings and will be also today on this council.
I would like to express my gratitude and I would like to warmly thank all Board members for their fruitful collaboration and your big contribution during the first year of my presidency.
I am extremely happy and proud to be part of this community and I count on all of you and your contribution to making out IFPSM greater, bigger, and better!
Special thank goes to board members, which are finishing their mandate in the board end of this year to:
• Akanit Smitabindu from Thailand as Asia Pacific Regional chair,
• Lalbhai Patel from India and
• And last but not least Steve Lai from Taiwan
I would like to thank you all for your contribution to IFPSM, your dedicated work, and collaboration in all those years! I wish you a successful future path and hope we will still meet each other at our council meetings and World summits.
IFPSM Awards 2020
Garner Thémoin Award will go to Regional Chair Mr. Akanit Smitabindu to for his modest, unselfish, sincere and persistent efforts for the advancement of Purchasing, Supply management and Logistic and whose able assistance and guidance to purchasing agents and their endeavours have eminently qualified him for one of the highest IFPSM awards.
IFPSM President’s Award will go to Mr. He Liming for his outstanding contribution to the reform and his commitment to develop of the Procurement and Supply Chain Management profession over the many years. Mr. He Liming dedicated a lot of his knowledge, experiences, and energy to make IFPSM as is today!
Stay healthy!
Marina Lindič
President of IFPSM