Meet the Buyer: Reflections from a Commercial Director

In this blog, Helen Linklater, Commercial Director at London Metropolitan Police Service and Chair of LAIN’s Procurement Working Group shares her reflections on the recent Meet the Buyer event hosted by LAIN which brought LAIN members face-to-face with London’s SMEs.

After weeks of preparation, on 29 June 2023, members of the LAIN (London Anchor Institutions’ Network) procurement working group including the NHS, University of London, Greater London Authority, London Fire Brigade, Westminster City Council, and my own organisation, the Metropolitan Police Service, made our way to the RSA for LAIN’s ‘Meet the Buyer’ event.

Joined by partners such as the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Federation of Small Businesses, Supply Change and others, one of our ambitions was to showcase the range of goods and services that we large organisations regularly buy. We also wanted to clarify how small businesses can find opportunities to work with us, and become comfortable with our tendering processes.

The event was part of our action plan to deliver on our goal to buy a greater share of our goods and services from diverse-owned micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, spending up to 30% of our annual procurement budgets with these businesses. This is all about supporting inclusive economic growth in London, as well as increasing the diversity and resilience of our own supply chains.

Reaching smaller and diverse-owned businesses was a key focus and I’m pleased to report that 75% of our attendees were micro businesses (which means having less than 10 employees) half were ethnic minority owned, and over 60% had never worked with large public organisations like us previously.  

The day opened with ‘bite-sized’ talks on ‘Navigating Public Procurement’ and ‘Writing a Successful Bid’ before breaking for a marketplace element, where each Anchor Institution hosted a stall and talked directly to businesses in IT, Facilities Management and other Professional Services about how to work with us.

While I can’t speak for everyone, from the conversations I held, it was clear that for many, gaining an overview of the portals we advertise through was hugely beneficial, along with discovering initiatives like the Mayor’s Good Work Standard, and how engaging with such a tool might present opportunities not only to find new collaborators, but to boost their social value offer.

And whilst the small business attendees indicated how much they benefitted from the event, colleagues across the Anchor Institutions gained a lot too, coming up with new ideas about how to make our supply chain opportunities more accessible.

Events are hard – they take time and commitment - but done right, they can be energising and transformative. I want to extend a huge thank you to everyone involved in organising the event and those that took time out of their busy schedules to attend.

We look forward to updating you later this year on how these events and conversations have translated into tangible impacts.