California has a history of empire builders. Railroad barons Leland Stanford, Collis P. Huntington, Mark Hopkins and Charles Crocker built a railroad empire that opened the West for settlement. Levi Strauss is an international icon thanks to the special pants he stitched from canvas for the 49crs prospecting for gold. Louis R. Mayer, the Warner Brothers and Harry Cohn created an entertainment empire known world-wide as Hollywood. The same is true in the sports world. Even though the Dodgers won one World Series in Brooklyn, they did not become a baseball dynasty until the O’Mallcys moved them to Los Angeles where Walter Alston and Tommy Lasorda skippered teams that set attendance records and won five World Series. The San Francisco 4gers were never quite good enough until Bill Walsh and his West Coast offense turned them into a dynasty. The University of Southern California has built a football tradition second to none, The Inland Empire is now host to a new kind of Empire Builder, With the phenomenal population growth and a larger pool of talented athletes, local high school football coaches have taken advantage and built programs that can compete and defeat tradition al powerhouses ti:om all corners of the state. Over the past few years, local high schools like Corona Centennial, Rancho Verde in Moreno Valley and Redlands East Valley have created a pipeline of talent to Division 1 colleges and the NFL. Each of these three high school teams has one thing in common in their quest for gridiron success; and it begins at the top, Consistency in the head coaching position is a must. Moreno Valley Rancho Verde’s Pete Duffy has been there six years. He also was the head coach at Fremont High School in Los Angeles for seven years with a history of success. Redlands East Valley’s Kurt Bruich has guided the Wildcats for 10 years after four years at Cerritos. Corona Centennial’s Matt Logan has led the Huskies tor the past 15 years. The next ingredient is a strong coaching staff. “Our coaching staff is very important. We like coaches that stay with the program. When we look at a coach we want stability, we want to know how their family life is, We want continuity in our program from year to year. That’s why we want coaches loyal to the program:’ says Duffy, Bruich agrees. “I couldn’t run a program of this magnitude without them. With the opening of a third high school it has been interesting. We have had to downsize some teaching staff which has caused me to lose some guys; however, most of the staff stays the same annually. The coaches must want to be here for the kids first. That is our priority at REV. I have hired some of my ex-players, because they understand.”   Coach Logan had to learn how important assistant coaches are. “After the first couple ofycars I discovered that they are hugely important. I have vel)’ little turnover, The consistency of our coaching staff is one of the reasons for our success. When I hire an assistant, I look for a good person who cares about the players:’ All three coaches agree that it takes more than knowing XS and Os to be a good head coach; the coach must also be well organized. “Both are crucial,” says Bruich. “I think that is what separates good programs from great ones.”   Considering the turnover in a high school football roster each year, the coaches cue faced with the question whether to change their system to fit the new players or shape players to fit their system. “We always design our system around the strengths of our players, unless you want to be good one year and average the next:’ says Coach Bruich. Duffy has a different point of view. “If we teach our players the correct way to play football, then they should be able to play in any system they are a part of. Vve keep it simple. We run a simple defense and a spread offense. If our players execute properly, we will be successful,” Logan offers a little of both. “We definitely have a system here, but we do adjust it to fit the talents of om’ current players.” Coaches Duffy and Bruich both touched on the same point when asked how they sustained their success-it all starts in the weight room. “We have an excellent workout program and our kids thrive off of it …. 1\5 they grow bigger and stronger, they become more confident. They also believe in what you say because you have showed them individual results:’ says Bruich. Duffy adds, “Then we teach the fundamentals of blocking, tackling, nIDning, throwing, catching. Former NF’L head coach Kevin Gilbride was a coach of mine in college and said it quite simply, ‘We have to block and tackle better that the other teams,” For Coach Logan’s Centennial Huskies, their sustained success has led to statewide recognition, but it wasn’t an easy road. At first it was difficult to set up games against state and nationwide powerhouses Mater Dei and Concord De La Salle. “Inland Empire football was considered second class. That has changed. The problem now is to get those teams to travel here to play. It’s difficult to come from so far away for a game On a Friday nlgbt,” says logan. Rancho Verde’s Duffy thinks Centennial’s success has been a benefit for the Inland Empire. “What Matt Logan has done at Centennial has opened the door for Inland Empire football on the state level. We were in the running for a state bowl game last year, but we had to win our CIF Championship game and didn’t. All the coaches agree that their success has resulted in more attention from Division 1 recruiters. “W’e have recruiters from major universities here every year. We are proud to say that 23 Rancho Verde players have received full scholarships since I have been here; says Coach Duffy. “This year Blair Brown) our middle linebacker, and Kelvin Shelton, one of our offensive linemen, are both being recruited.” Coach Bruich agrees that success has helped recruiting, but knows some recruiters personally. “They come by whether we have players or not,” Bruich says. “Brandon Greene, Austin Decoud, Dominique Robertson are all receiving attention.” Logan says, “Our two defensive ends, Milo Jordan and Ngata ‘Iuihalamaka, and offensive lineman Lio Lafaele are being recruited by Division 1.” Even though recruiting could become a distraction, all three coaches feel it is not for their teams, Coach Logan uses hard work to keep his players’ minds on the goal, «They have to take care of business or they will not succeed. Some of our players (in the past] didn’t keep up their grades or were not good citizens and failed. We use them as examples,” For REV’S Bruich, installing a sense of loyalty and tradition towards the program works. “The motivation is, do they want to be the first team in 10 years not to reach the playoffs and the first team in five years not to beat Redlands?” Duffy doesn’t see recruiting as a. distraction but more of a motivation for players. “When they see coaches from DCr A, Florida or USC stem ding on the sidelines during practice, they work harder in hopes of getting noticed.” Even though all the coaches stress ‘winning, they all have secondary goals. “99% of players will not play college football,” says Coach Duffy, “‘We try to teach them life lessons: Be on time, meaning 10 minutes early. We try to teach them the value of hard work and how to achieve their goals. If they Iearn this it will help them succeed in the world,” Coach Bruich says he doesn’t really talk about winning. “We teach and enforce winning characteristics. We talk about being champions in life. Everything football is about parallels real life. Essentially, this is our purpose as coaches, to help boys grow into responsible young men:’ Coach Logan stresses the academics. “There are two sets of academic requirements for our players. The one to stay eligible for high school play, that should be a no brainer, and the other f01′ NCAA eligibility. We meet with the players and make them aware of what is required of them. We also have a great set of counselors at Centennial that help.” Inland Empire players are making their mark on the NFL. Three years ago I interviewed Duffy about some of his players who had a chance for college and of one particular player who was on his way to USC. Coach Duffy was animated in demonstrating how well left tackle ‘Iyron Smith executed the fundamentals and how dedicated he was in improving his craft, Duffy finished our discussion by saying, “Iyron is going to have his name caned on the first day of the NFL draft one day.” And be did, going to the Dallas Cowboys with the ninth pick in this past April’s draft.

I was invited to participate in a round table discussion along with senior colleagues from the largest procurement organisations in Europe. The moderator of the forum asked a question to all the attendees:” what are your views on the latest thinking in procurement organisations – Cheap Sourcing”. People started answering while highlighting their experiences and the advances they have made into this new trend in Procurement.

I felt a bit strange at the question and being a Chief Procurement Officer myself, I felt a bit embarrassed that I have never really given this “new” the importance it deserves or even though about it much. I must be totally incompetent as a procurement officer since in such an important forum a question like this is being put forward to the participants, or am I outdated and not keeping up with the latest trends and technologies in procurement?

While the others were answering the question each in his own way, I scratched my head thinking to myself, well I do make good deals for my company, and in fact our deals are one of the best deals in the industry. We do search the globe for the best price and quality while focusing on continuity of supply to secure the company. The problem I have is that I never thought I was doing something extra ordinary or even implementing the latest “buzz” in the procurement industry.

I didn’t think either that this was modesty on my behalf. As my turn was nearing and my confusion at the question was increasing. It suddenly occurred to me that there is something missing here and being from an Egyptian origin myself I though to myself, hang on, the ancient Egyptian have been trading all over the globe for seven thousands years, the mummies of the pharaohs still preserved today are all encased in Tobacco leaves that could only have been “cheaply” sourced from the Americas thousands of years ago.

The roman empire invaded and occupied Egypt for only one thing, cheap and high quality Wheat to feed its army so that they could march further, occupying other territories and obtaining more goods and services from other cheaper sources.

The British Empire was built on trade and the desire to obtain goods, services and labour cheaply from all over the world. The British Empire gone even further and outsourced armies using other countries in Asia and Africa to fight the British wars up until to the Second World War. Cheap silk and spices from India, Cotton from Egypt and Tobacco from America and so on.
Most wars in history were about obtaining goods and services from cheap sources in reality.

This is why I didn’t understand the question in the first place.
At this stage I collected my courage and let it all out to my colleagues and the moderator, they all enjoyed the remarks and laughed at it.
I don’t think my remarks were funny at all. Sarcastic, may be but not funny.

Cheap sourcing is not a new game in town for procurement departments to brag about, it is in fact the oldest game in town since all empires in history were built and motivated by finding new cheaper source for labour, goods and services to please their citizens.

Put another way, all wars and empires were build and motivated by controlling these “cheaper” sources in the first place for the advancement of their own nations. These days the only difference is the fact that the acquirers of these goods and services have to pay the price which is usually still cheaper than obtaining it in their own country.

Author Bio
Osama El-Kadi is chief procurement officer at Centrica Plc http://www.aason.com
Born 1955 in Manchester England, Osama graduated in 1978 with a BSC in Economics followed by an MA in International Business from Alexandria University.