Pitch bureaucracy stifles creativity

We’re still a relatively new agency, but thought it was time we started putting in some tenders for the big boys in government.

Today, we saw a carrot being dangled by the Carbon Trust. Nice one, we’ll have a go. But to have a go, we had to go to a website to follow a link to download a .pdf to find the instructions to submit a questionnaire to get a questionnaire to get a document to complete to get a chance of tendering for some work. Still with me?

We’re a small agency producing good work for our clients. People like the Environment Agency, SNIFFER, Yamaha music⦠Size, in this context, is little bar to creativity or effectiveness. What is a bar is having to wade through pages of complex instructions and processes.

We simply don’t have time to fill in a questionnaire to be sent a questionnaire to get into the process to get a chance of being awarded a tender. This is a real problem for smaller agencies that don’t have the staff to get through the bureaucracy and busywork necessary.

By using procedures like this, organisations miss the chance to get good work at relatively low cost. That’s a shame. It would make a massive difference both to them and smaller agencies if they could simplify the process of tendering.

Mark McArthur-Christie

Partner

Freeman Christie

Oxford