LA FUNCIÓN DEL DEPARTAMENTO DE COMPRAS

Representatives from other stakeholder

Assistant Vice Chancellor (Support Services) Manager Student Support Services Disability Disability Co-ordinator Co-ordinator (PN) (Aibany)

The university has large numbers of internal and extramural students (over 32,000

consequence of the institution' s size is that disabled students are a normal part of the student body. In addition to this, the relatively modern construction of most campus buildings, and its comparatively flat site have contributed to Massey University's Turitea site becoming regarded as a suitable place of study for a particular group of disabled students - those with mobility constraints. The demand on university services generated by these students has meant that a disability support service has been provided for some years.

In August of 1 997, the Ministry of Education announced additional funding for universities wishing to establish or extend services for disabled students. This allocation had been made in the 1 997 Budget and to receive the funding the institutions were required to submit an expression of interest by the end of October 1 997 and a full plan to the Ministry by January 1 998. Under the direction of the Assistant Vice Chancellor (Support Services), Massey University was already working on a re-organisation of its service for disabled students, and a decision was taken to apply for the funding. The practical implication of the decision was that the planning process that was under way had to be rapidly advanced. With an approaching deadline and the disruption of the Christmas holidays, the Assistant Vice Chancellor (AVC) contacted a consultant and asked her to suggest a way of completing a plan for Disability Support Services that would meet the deadline.

THE PROJECT

The project started with an initial meeting between the consultant and the AVC in September 1 997 . Following this meeting the A VC provided the consultant with a written brief. This required the consultant to work with a team of appropriate people to develop a plan for Disability Support Services which would meet the university' s needs, whilst also providing the basis for a formal application for funds to the Ministry of Education. The consultant responded with a proposal that provided two options; a "comprehensive" or a "concise" approach. While both of these focused on the client' s needs, the former made greater use of the consultant as a facilitator, working with the stakeholders to develop a plan that was based on their detailed understanding of the services needed by their student clients.

Despite the fact that the comprehensive approach had significant implications for the university in terms of cost and the allocation of time, this was the option chosen by the A VC. This was confirmed in a letter to the consultant that asked her to proceed with the project.

The first step taken by the consultant was the identification of the key stakeholders in the provision of disability services at Massey. These included staff already working with disabled students (on all three university campuses), representatives of the Massey University Disability Action Group (MUDAG) and the Massey University Disability Advisory Committee. From this group of stakeholders a number were invited to become part of the project team. This team, which consisted of seven people (in addition to the consultant and the A VC in her role as project sponsor), was involved in identifying the scope of the project, using the proposal as the basis of their discussion. The outcome of this meeting was agreement about a number of aspects of the project, including the key tasks in the process and appropriate deadlines and milestones. At this point a project schedule was also produced, and this detailed the individual information-gathering meetings that had been planned by the consultant and the planning sessions that were to follow. This schedule was followed throughout the project, with the consultant first coordinating the various elements of the data collection, and then facilitating the group through a series of meetings as they analysed the data and developed the plan.

While the project was chiefly driven by the consultant and the project team, the other stakeholders were consulted during the process, as planned in the proposal and the project scoping document. These key groups were identified as students with disabilities, those responsible for providing funds to this group, and university management. While members of these groups were not necessarily included in the meetings themselves, they were included on the circulation lists for project documentation.

The overall process was reasonably complex due to a number of factors that needed to be considered. There were a large number of interested stakeholders, the university vacation had begun and it was not easy to schedule meetings to suit students as well as staff members, representatives from three university campuses were involved, and it was important to accommodate the needs of the disabled members of the group. In addition, the lead consultant was assisted by two others who contributed specific expertise.

as scheduled. The agendas set for each meeting were achieved, and as the planning process went on, agreement did emerge within the group about the priorities for action. By the end of end of November the group had developed a draft business plan for disability support at Massey, and had arranged a meeting where members of the project team presented the draft to stakeholders. Following this meeting the plan was amended, and a final version was delivered to the sponsor in early February 1 998.

OUTCOMES ACHIEVED

The scoping exercise identified two sets of success criteria: one for the project overall and one for the plan itself. These lists of criteria were detailed, and included items such as "the plan is feasible, realistic, and acceptable to key groups" and "the project is completed on time, and to budget". However, although the consultant planned to use these criteria as the basis for a formal evaluation of the project's success, this did not occur to any great extent. This was because by the time the plan was delivered some of the actions suggested in the plan were already under way, and the implementation process had begun. As a result, the first "concluding" meeting that was scheduled between the consultant and the sponsor was spent discussing issues that had arisen as a consequence of the planning process being merged with the implementation process. There was also a considerable amount of discussion on the plan's structure, and the consultant was asked to make further changes before the document w as fmalised. The shift from planning to implementation and the need to revise the plan meant that there were limited opportunities to formally acknowledge the completion of the project or discuss its outcomes. This was despite the consultant's plan to undertake a "service evaluation" .

A S S I G NM E N T 6 : HEA L TH A ND FER TI L I TY FO UNDA T/ O N

The consultant in this assignment was Dave Gaynor, who approached the researcher in June 1 998 to discuss a further client project. An initial meeting with the client confirmed his willingness to participate, and the researcher became involved in the assignment soon after.

The case narrative that follows is primarily based on data collected from the researcher' s participation in meetings. While the consultant provided the researcher with copies of

key documents relating to the project, the commercial sensitivity of the project and the highly technical nature of some of the documentation meant that observation became the chief method of data collection. For the same reasons the technology is not described in detail.

ORGANISATIONAL BACKGROUND

The Health and Fertility Foundation was formed specifically to generate funding for a team of researchers working at Massey University. This team had developed a technique that appeared to have commercial potential, however, an external funding source was needed to ensure that the team was not disbanded and the research discontinued. This was the role of the Foundation, which had the initial task of securing sufficient funding for the team to complete their work, with the expectation that once the product was fully developed, a long term investor could be found. It was clear from the outset that the research staff would continue to be employed by Massey University, and that their arrangement with the Foundation had the full support of the institution, which was used to dealing with arrangements of this nature through the Massey University Research Office.

As well as being employed by the university, the team' s members had an informal relationship with an Australian company that had been formed to capitalise on the work of a team of scientists working in the same area. While the two teams of scientists had shared their results, the fact that the Australians had been working on the technology for longer meant that the New Zealand researchers felt themselves to be significantly in their debt.

Figure 4. 7: Organisational structure of the Health and Fertility Foundation

Director Director Director

THE PROJECT

The consultant was initially contacted by one of the members of the Health and Fertility Foundation who asked if he would meet with the group and assess whether he could help them in their plans to raise funds and attract an investor. This meeting was successful,

and the consultant responded to their two-phase brief with the suggestion that they should focus primarily on attracting an investor. His recommendation was that this would then enable the Foundation to attract the necessary short term funding. His strategy was based upon his knowledge of the Technology New Zealand funding programme available from the Foundation of Research, Science and Technology (FRST). The requirements of this programme are for all funding proposals to have joint applicants: from a research institution and from a private company.

The Health and Fertility Foundation members agreed, and the consultant moved quickly into information gathering, using the industry knowledge of the Foundation members to help him identify potential investors. He also began meeting with the key scientist, first to gain an understanding of the technical side of the project. This was essential as it quickly became clear that there were several potential applications for the technology, and that the consultant was needed to help the Foundation members clarify which direction they should prioritise.

As the consultant and the scientist worked together their initial focus was on developing a summary of the situation that in the consultant's terms would "make our case". This document needed to summarise all of the important issues in sufficient detail for the potential investors to understand both the risks and the rewards involved in the investment. From the consultant' s perspective the summary also had to function as the essence of the Foundation' s business plan.

The importance of the document meant that the consultant expended a considerable amount of effort in its development. He held several meetings with the scientist to work through the details and provided several drafts of the result. The fmal result was approved by the Foundation and the consultant was asked to use it as the basis for his approach to the five companies that had been identified as potentially hav

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g the interest to invest in further development of the product' s applications.

At this point the Massey University Research Office contacted the scientist to tell him they had sent out a letter to prospective investors. This came as a surprise to the consultant, who although he was aware that the Research Office had been approached by the Foundation, had understood that it had decided to take no action. Several of the companies that had been contacted by the Research Office were also on the consultant' s

list, and so a meeting of all parties was held to decide what should occur next. This meeting concluded with agreement that the consultant should continue with his plans to approach the two companies that were on his list that had not already been contacted by the Research Office, and that he and the scientist should be responsible for carrying out

all the company visits.

The scientist and the consultant visited four companies, and it was quickly apparent that one company met the requirements of a potential investor exactly. After a meeting with representatives from the company, the consultant was asked to develop a proposal for them. This was done, and after further discussions the company agreed to make a joint application to Technology New Zealand with Massey University.

OUTCOMES ACHIEVED

The consultant' s brief had been to successfully attract an investor for the Health and Fertility Foundation that would enable the Foundation to complete the development of the technology and plan for its commercialisation. This was achieved, within the time

frame set by the Foundation (six months). From the consultant' s perspective the application to Technology New Zealand marked the successful conclusion of the project, and the start of a new project; to advise the Foundation on options for structuring the new venture .

T H E F I R S T P R O P O S I T I O N

The cases as narrated in this chapter were written at the conclusion of the research, that is, after the completion of the three research cycles that are described in Chapters 5-7.

However, they are included at this point to provide the reader with an understanding of the order in which the projects occurred and a sense of the range of projects undertaken over the two years of data collection. Each case is dealt with in more detail in the appropriate chapter, with assignments 1 -3 (OSA, McKenna's and the S tudent Finance Section) providing the basis for Chapter 5, and assignments 4-6 (TeamTalk, Disability Support and the Health and Fertility Foundation) described in Chapter 6.

These two chapters focus on different aspects of the cases, as the research partners developed their thinking on the starting proposition that was introduced at the end of

Chapter 3 . This was the statement "that it is possible to identify the factors that influence consultancy outcomes by engaging in participatory research with individual consultants". This statement w as first addressed in the first research cycle, which is described in Chapter 5 .

In document Diseño de un modelo de control interno para la administración de inventarios, en los graneros de Santander de Quilichao, Cauca [recurso electrónico] (página 72-77)