Running with confidence
If you take nothing else away from this feature then ensure it is this – go to the website www.competefor.com. Now. It’s your opportunity to access billions of pounds on offer and go for Olympic gold in the summer of 2012.
The website is the main portal for most of the contracts and subcontracts being awarded for the 2012 Olympics and Paralympic Games, everything from the building of mega structures to the provision of tea and biscuits.
It is estimated that £11.3bn, and rising, is being spent on the games. Of that £6bn will provide 75,000 “business opportunities” for contractors and subcontactors.
Yet many Midlands business seem either blasé or cynical about the opportunities. The attitudes vary between “it’s still years away” to “it’s already been stitched up by the big contractors” and “it’s all being kept in London”.
A survey by the Tenon Forum indicated just one per cent of Midlands businesses were actively looking for opportunities related to the Olympics. Ninety-four per cent of respondents said the Games would have no impact or a negative impact on their business.
Why? Well, 70 per cent of entrepreneurs told the forum that the event would only benefit large corporations with lucrative sponsorship deals, and more than half thought it would benefit London alone. All of which can send those tasked with promoting the benefits in the Midlands into a state of apoplexy.
Jim Johnson, 2010 Games business manager at Advantage West Midlands, says: “It’s hard to put an exact figure on it but we’re looking to get £200m of business for the West Midlands directly from the Games, and another £200m indirectly. It’s a huge sum.
“What’s really annoying is that the opportunities really are open to everyone. We’ve already had businesses in the region winning work, from providing fencing to coach tours, but it is time to get moving. It may sound a long way off but the construction work will be done and handed over by 2011.”
Tracy Croft, Johnson’s counterpart at Emda, adds: “I don’t subscribe to this attitude of ‘there’s nothing in this for me because mine is not the right sort of business’. The opportunities are huge – the Games need electric fences, corporate ties, nine million tickets need selling. An event of this scale has already started.”
The structure of the 2012 Olympics
As with all things in which sport and the government gets involved, a plethora of organisations have emerged, but in terms of winning business there are two main bodies involved.
The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) is a public body responsible for building the structures – stadia, velodrome, Olympic village and the like – and infrastructure. Its budget is £9.3bn and its work will be complete by summer 2011.
The London Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Locog) is a private-sector organisation whose job it is to run the Olympics and Paralympics with a £2bn budget. Its role will begin when the ODA hands over its projects and will include the wind-down after the last gold has been awarded.
Compete For
The 2012 Business Network is the portal used by companies to compete for contracts. It has three components: information on upcoming opportunities, business events and the Compete For service – the dating agency that matches companies to contractors. This is the way most businesses looking to tender for work will be considered. It matches companies’ products and services with contracts for the preparation and delivery of the Games.
Companies that have registered will be alerted by email to relevant projects so businesses can express their interest in submitting a pitch. Johnson recommends business owners tick as many relevant boxes as possible so opportunities are not lost by obscure headings.
Andy Connors, Lloyds TSB’s Midlands corporate markets director, says: “All businesses thinking of bidding need to demonstrate reliability, stability, efficiency and relevant experience.
“Companies will also need to comply with the organiser’s sustainable procurement policies, which include health and safety, quality and diversity standards. Being able to prove your financial stability, technical competence and ability to meet the quality standards will stand you in good stead. Combine this with a solid supply chain and slick processes and you’re already in the running.”
Businesses that are unable to provide polices such as health and safety will be redirected to a Business Link website to help them begin the compliance process.
Subcontracts
One of the unique elements of the 2012 tendering process is the trickle-down effect. Between 20 and 25 per cent of work subcontracted out has to be put up for tender on Compete For.
David Lowe, partner at law firm Wragge & Co, says the ODA is set to follow the trickle-down rule closely and follow standard rules on public procurement. However, Locog, as a private sector organisation, may not follow the trickle down as assiduously, particularly when it comes to the huge sponsorship packages involved in the games.
Beyond London
Although the games are unashamedly branded London 2012, many opportunities will exist outside the capital. The government, aware of the political backlash of having so much investment going to London, has been keen to hype up the show as an event for the whole nation.
There will be events held outside London – Aston Villa has already been named as an Olympic football venue with plans to increase seating there from 43,000 to nearly 51,000.
Meanwhile, Derbyshire County Cricket Club and Shropshire’s Harper Adams University College have been shortlisted as venues for archery.
There is also huge potential for the region in playing host to international teams as their training bases, all of whom will need feeding, entertaining, housing and moving.
The US track and field team is “95 per cent certain” to use Birmingham as its base, while a big announcement at Loughborough University was rumoured to be pending as Insider went to press. The university, with a strong sports science bias, has been shortlisted as a training ground for athletics, swimming, triathlon, gymnastics, water polo and wrestling.
Other venues that have been shortlisted as potential training centres are: Braunstone Leisure Centre for badminton and taekwondo; Northampton’s Moulton College for equestrian and fencing; and Cannock Cricket and Hockey Club for hockey. But Croft thinks the spin-offs of the Olympics for the Midlands could be even greater.
She says: “Think of the direct tourism implications: London is slightly more than an hour away from the Games by the East Coast Mainline, less time than a Tube ride across London, so it’s a viable base for people visiting for the Olympics.
“There will probably be an overall downturn in tourism in 2012 as overseas visitors don’t tend to visit a host nation unless it’s to see the games. But there’s potential to leverage tourism in the years leading up to the event and after.”
The legal bit
If some Midlands businesses have been so successful at winning business from the Olympics why haven’t they told the world?
Simply because they’re not allowed to. The legislation brought in to prevent non-sponsoring businesses from cashing in on the Olympics has been described as draconian, aggressive, all-embracing and stifling. It has stopped Midlands companies parading their business wins.
Johnson says the phone has been slammed down on him by worried directors – and hampered bodies such as AWM and Emda from spreading the “you too” message.
When London was awarded the status of host nation, Locog was given powers to challenge the unauthorised use of words associated with the Games, in addition to the earlier Olympic Symbol Act, which also protected key words.
The Acts were brought in to stop “ambush marketing” by non-sponsors. If a non-sponsor uses phrases such as ‘London’ and ‘2012’ in advertising, Locog considers it a criminal offence and fines of up to £20,000 can be issued. Locog has made it clear it wants early scalps to set examples.
Frances Anderson, IP specialist at law firm Cobbetts, says: “Locog is likely to make examples of those that stick their neck out to stop further cases and protect the official sponsors. But as we get closer to 2012 I think there will be widespread infringement of the law. Wholesale enforcement may become difficult.”
Declan Cushley, of law firm Browne Jacobson, adds: “You can say you’re a contractor but not leverage it in any way that develops any association between you and the games.
Anyone who breaks this will have to be careful because Locog will come down pretty heavily.”
