Bill Crothers
Chief Commercial Officer
How did you tackle the biggest challenges facing your organisation in 2014?
By dealing with important day-to-day issues whilst saving enough time and energy to implement the changes required to achieve deep and lasting commercial reforms.
2014 has been another fascinating year. In addition to the unplanned contract problems, complex procurements, helping departments drive material efficiency and savings, we also launched a programme to improve commercial capability across government, department by department. John Kingman and I have been leading this, working very closely with departmental leaders.
Of course, we also launched the Crown Commercial Service as an executive agency to help us achieve even more savings by directly buying common goods and services across the whole public sector, as well as offering an advisory service for the most complex commercial situations. We finalised the negotiation of new procurement regulations in Europe and are now bringing them into law at speed. We launched the commercial stream to the Civil Service Fast Stream programme.
The commercial function is a truly exciting, challenging, and thoroughly rewarding place to work: we need to continue to build and develop even deeper professional commercial skills, and we will keep working ‘in service of’ departments and ultimately the taxpayer.
What are your department’s top priorities in the last months before the general election?
As government chief commercial officer, my top priority is to continue to help drive commercial common sense across Whitehall; indeed, this is the goal of all of our commercial specialists. I will keep trying to improve our commercial capability, try to ensure that we are doing the right things and doing things right, and get involved personally in those situations where my long business experience is relevant and can help achieve a better outcome. I plan to do this by continuing to build an even better commercial function, including by attracting, retaining, and developing the best professional commercial specialists. This will be as relevant after the election as it is today.
What’s your favourite Christmas treat? And what makes you say: ‘Bah, humbug!’?
I love it all: family, friends, drinks, good food, chocolates, carols, ‘Christmas TV’ (!) – all-round festive cheer! I am a sucker for it all. My favourite treat is going to Borough market with my wife a day or so before Christmas, last-minute shopping for award-winning cheeses, freshly-cut serrano ham, wine etc, and then to the restaurant Roast for a long and wine-filled lunch. It’s become our little tradition.
Bah, humbug? None, though I will be watching out for a good result against Newcastle on Boxing Day at Old Trafford!