Issue - meetings

STRATEGIC BUSINESS CASE - COMMERCIALISATION INITIATIVES

 

 

Meeting: 02/09/2014 - Cabinet (Item 47)

47 STRATEGIC BUSINESS CASE - COMMERCIALISATION INITIATIVES pdf icon PDF 2 MB

Anthony Payne (Strategic Director for Place) will submit a report on the strategic business case for implementing a co-ordinated commercialisation project across the Council.

 

The report will seek delegated authority for the Strategic Director for Place to approve the Commercial Strategy, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Finance.

 

Background papers to this report can be accessed at the Council’s website Council and Democracy/Councillors and Committees/Library/Cabinet background papers or using the following hyperlink –

http://tinyurl.com/q3d6bmh

 

The outcome of the consideration by members of the Working and Your Plymouth Scrutiny Panels on 28 August 2014 will also be submitted. Please see the recommendations attached to item 7 above.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Anthony Payne (Strategic Director for Place) submitted a report on the strategic business case, including an options appraisal, for implementing a co-ordinated commercialisation project across the Council.

 

The report indicated that a specific breakdown of exactly how and from where the net additional income target would be achieved, would be developed from the detailed work which would follow across a diverse range of activities as part of the project.

 

Cabinet Members were advised that the proposed project would enable the Council to operate more commercially by - 

 

(a)

developing a commercial strategy with principles, guidelines, controls and protocols including how benefits would be captured and used;

(b)

increasing the commercial capability of the Council;

(c)

increasing commercial awareness throughout the Council thereby increasing opportunities;

(d) 

instilling commercial principles in management;

(e) 

considering and deciding the optimum method of delivery, for example an alternative service delivery vehicle and/or delivery within a service area;

(f)

ensuring services were able to compete commercially by considering and understanding the market and costs;

(g)

identifying commercial opportunities through the use of consultants and staff;

(h)

implementing the commercial opportunities at a strategic, tactical or operational level.

 

The report indicated that the project aimed to increase financial benefit by £3.744m in 2016/17, and £6.666m in total over the three year period with an initial investment of £180k to £200k for additional specialist staff to be funded from the transformation budget, prior to these costs subsequently being funded from the commercialisation income generated.

 

Councillor Lowry (Cabinet Member for Finance) introduced the proposals and Simon Dale (Interim Assistant Director for Street Services) attended the meeting for this item.    

 

Councillor Evans (Council Leader) referred to the draft minute following the joint scrutiny review that had been held by the Working and Your Plymouth Panels on 28 August 2014 which supported the recommendations within the proposed business case subject to Cabinet reconsidering the delegation of decisions to officers and asking Cabinet to consider the commercialisation strategy at Cabinet, in the interests of openness and transparency.     

 

Alternative options considered and reasons for the decision –

 

As set out in the report.

 

Agreed -

 

(1)

the strategic business case for commercialisation with the option 3 coordinated commercialisation project as the preferred option to be taken forward for implementation, subject to the amendment agreed in (2) below);

 

(2)

that the Council’s Commercial Strategy is developed and approved in accordance with the Leader’s scheme of delegation;

 

(3)

the initial work streams and areas for commercialisation investigation as set out in the Commercialisation Work Stream Summary at section 9.3 of the strategic business case;

 

(4)

that the project will aim to develop further work streams throughout the period of transformation in order to bridge the budget deficit;

 

(5) 

the key principles for capturing financial benefits from commercialisation and the scope of their coverage as set out in the Financial Commercialisation Paper at section 9.1 of the strategic business case, these being in summary that:

 

?

commercialisation covers both expenditure (for example contract renewals and demand management)  ...  view the full minutes text for item 47

Meeting: 28/08/2014 - Scrutiny - Cooperative Scrutiny Reviews (Item 10)

10 STRATEGIC BUSINESS CASE FOR COMMERCIALISATION - TO FOLLOW pdf icon PDF 2 MB

Members will be provided with a copy of the Strategic Business Case for Commercialisation for scrutiny.

 

Minutes:

Simon Dale, Lee Pundsack and Councillor Vincent provided Members with a brief overview of the Strategic Business Case for Commercialisation.

 

Members were informed that –

 

(a)

the report presented the proposed scope of what would be considered for commercialisation and did not provide a specific breakdown as to how and where the net additional income target of £3.744m in 2016/17 would be achieved as this would be developed from the detailed work as part of the project;

 

(b)

the project aimed to increase financial benefit by £6.666 in total over the three year period;

 

(c)

the project would mainly focus around improved income generation from all income streams, better marketing and sales, generation of additional income from new commercial initiatives and providing a framework for future income generation;

 

(d)

option 3, to implement a coordinated commercialisation project, was the preferred option.

 

In response to questions raised it was reported that –

 

(e)

smaller Councils were considered to be better at commercialisation than larger Councils;

 

(f)

officers were aware of the importance of advertising and would ensure that any adverts linked to the Council would be ethical and reasonable and not bring the Council into disrepute;

 

(g)

the Council’s catering services were currently very piecemeal and needed rationalisation;

 

(h)

there were several opportunities within the project for the Council to broaden its offer to residents and businesses within the city; Officers were working with colleagues in Economic Development and the Chamber of Commerce to ensure that the Council didn’t pose a threat to smaller Independent businesses;

 

(i)

the ‘bundling of services’ would be encouraged so that customers could benefit from a variety of services provided by the Council;

 

(j)

officers would look into the services available at libraries, specifically the commons licence related to electronic subscriptions.

 

Members noted the Category Management Fleet Services project Business Case and reserved the right for including recommendations until minute 11.