Why you should Google your suppliers

There is an interesting piece in today’s Guardian newspaper with a report that Lord Sutherland, who chaired an inquiry into last year’s Sats test shambles in England, has pointed out that basic checking of the competency of a supplier can including Googling their name.

But this wasn’t done when the Sats testing contract was awarded.

As the report says:

Giving evidence yesterday, Sutherland said: “I don’t know companies that don’t do that kind of probing, whether it’s by telephone or Googling.

“If you Google, first you get the press cuttings and then you say, ah no, that’s so and so but here’s a serious report that maybe we need to inquire into further – and that’s what wasn’t done.”

Sutherland agreed that such online probing could produce gossip, “but if they have publicly failed to deliver on contracts in previous years, I’m not talking about 1920 here but earlier within the current period of five, six, seven years, if it failed to deliver then, then you ask what have they done to improve their delivery and performance?”

You can read the full story here (and you may wish to smile ironically at the sight of a member of the House of Lords telling others on how to get into the modern age, but he’s certainly right.)