The target audiences for this guide are the management teams and advisers of existing or new professional and trade support institutions or associations with a special focus on purchasing & supply chain management.
Institutions or associations mostly rely on the free and voluntary commitment of a team of people that share a philosophy or mission and agree to work together to manage and administer an institution's activities. Although professional support organisations are often based on memberships and operate on a non-profit basis, there exist many different legal and organisational forms for such institutions, e.g. Group purchasing associations and small for-profit institutions that must demonstrate profitability to survive.
Professional support institutions or associations generally focus on the following missions:
· Developing and bringing together people
· Enhancing and maintaining professional standards regarding know-how, working practices and ethics
· Advising, training people, counselling or consulting on professional topics
· Representation and promotion of interests in the public domain or with government
The purpose of the Guide is to provide pragmatic and focused advice to an institution’s management team in all relevant business processes. We begin with concept development and planning for start-up through the establishment of an institution, the management and administration of its day-to-day activities and operations and growth to self-sustainability and maturity. At each stage users will find a variety of downloadable support tools, checklists, tips, examples and links.
The Guide is available directly on the ITC Web site, on CD-ROM and in hard copy. Due to the extensive resources attached to the Guide, the hard copy will be issued with a reduced list of attached templates and samples. Users in countries with slow or expensive Internet connections may wish to order from ITC the paper or CD-ROM version of the Guide and then refer to the web site for downloadable files and updates. There will be a small charge for the paper version to cover printing and dispatch.
This is the first edition of this Guide. Readers are invited to contribute their own preferred examples, resource links and comments on the Guide to the authors at ITC at the e-mail address below. If these contributions are found to be of value to the wider audience will be incorporated into the next update of the Guide with full acknowledgement and citation for the contributor and author. This will serve to enrich the experiences of others and ensure the relevance and usefulness of this Guide. Contributors are reminded that they must ensure the examples they send are able to be used in the public domain, that they are their own work or if not that the contributor has written permission for the examples to be used in this Guide. A standard author's copyright clearance statement can be found by clicking on this link:
Contact for contributions and comments:
Mr. Ian Sayers mailto: Sayers@intracen.org
Ms. Beate Leitgeb mailto: Leitgeb@intracen.org
Division of Trade Support Services
International Trade Centre (UNCTAD/WTO)
Palais des Nations, CH 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
There are four ways to quickly access the information and knowledge that you are looking for in this Guide, by:
1. Institution life cycle phase to find information organised by its relevance to a particular phase in an institution's evolution.
2. Management topic or subject title
3. Quick links to: templates, downloadable support tools, checklists and examples
4. Full text search function
Comprehensive, structured and pragmatic support at your finger-tips is provided in the form of:
· Know-how abstracts explaining the management tasks and processes that are most important for professional support institutions to know about and follow. The abstracts integrate ITC’s experience in assisting professional, trade and purchasing & supply chain support institutions as well as other valuable sources.
· Notes, Checklists and Tips summarising best practice, critical issues or mile-stones
· Examples, sample documents and case studies especially tailored to professional and purchasing and supply chain support institutions allowing the reader to better understand, apply and adopt the know-how contained in the Guide.
· Templates and Tools that can be readily used and/or adapted by professional support institutions. An overview of all templates, tools, checklists and samples is available see List of Templates and Samples
· Links to further resources for professional support institutions on the Internet. More and more organisations and bodies dealing with the development of non-profit and/or professional support organisations put their resources freely available on the Internet. For this guide we have reviewed many of these sites. We provide you with our reviewed list of the most useful sites to give you a good overview of the different kind of support you will find on the Web.
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The first Chapter gives an overview of the typical life cycle phases of professional support institutions and the most important development and management tasks related to:
· Strategy (including Business Planning) and Start-up
· Establishment & Growth
· Maturity
The second Chapter explains how to define and set-up a professional support institution, beginning with the definition of the business idea, the conduct of market research and feasibility studies and going on to the creation of a professional business plan. Furthermore, the guide summarises the necessary preparatory steps for setting-up an institution, e.g: understanding legal statutes, official registration, obligatory insurance requirements and determining the correct legal framework for the future development plans of the institution.
The third chapter deals with management and administrative structures and processes that must be in-place for a professional support institution to become credible, respected and to grow in a sustainable way. The guide advises on how to design organisation & management structures, implement helpful financial management, develop and maintain a pool of precious human resources, ensure legal compliance and efficient administration and how to establish high quality standards in management and institutional activities.
Chapter four concentrates on the activities and projects of the institutions or associations. It demonstrates how to plan, programme, budget, organise and evaluate your activities and projects. Furthermore, it explains how to market your institution and its activities, how to manage your clients and members and sell your services. Finally, the guide summarises important topics in fundraising and work with international agencies and donors.
ITC encourages users to reproduce and translate information contained in the Guide. Prior permission is not required, unless information is clearly labeled as copyright of a source other than ITC. ITC cannot be held liable for the accuracy or reliability of any information contained in sites accessed through links given in the Guide. Reproduction of information and materials contained in non-ITC sources linked to this Guide are governed by the copyright and reproduction agreements displayed on those sources.
Citation, acknowledgement or credit for information and materials used or reproduced from this Guide should read "Reprinted from the Guide to starting and developing professional support and training institutions, published by the International Trade Centre (UNCTAD/WTO)". The Internet URL of this site and the postal address of ITC should be included to allow readers to access and benefit from the full Guide.
The URL is: http://www.intracen.org/ipsms
ITC's Postal Address is: Ms. M. Renault-Horvat,
International Purchasing and Supply Chain Management Section, Division of Trade Support Services,
International Trade Centre (UNCTAD/WTO),
Palais des Nations, CH 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland.
Fax address: +41 22 730 0328
E-mail: horvat@intracen.org
