GEMS can help you establish a programme to undertake a market shaping initiative effectively. It will set a challenge for both customer and supplier to respond to, for working towards a market that:

• Is clear on the strategic drivers;
• Is focused on sustainability;
• Is aware of the need to develop its capacity and capability;
• Has opportunities for increased private sector provision;
• Obtains efficiency savings and addresses waste and inefficiencies;
• Has the opportunity for change.

Developing the Programme

Change is a feature of a GEMS programme, and you will need to plan and implement changes both to the programme and the market it is examining at the right time.

The team you assemble should be confident, capable and delivery-focused. As they gain experience you will require flexibility to develop the team in size, competency and scope.

The team will need to grow as research and related programme management activity increases.

To help this work, it is considered that the manager needs to bear a few principles in mind:

• Build up knowledge contacts - no market exists in a total vacuum (even a new one). There will be a range of knowledgeable organisations and individuals that can be accessed to provide background, research and consultancy. Such would include universities, management and industry-related consultancies, professional and industry representative bodies.
• Develop political awareness - the programme needs to understand the role politics play in the market under review, especially once the GEMS programme commences to make recommendations for intervention / shaping activities.
• Develop and gain access to private sector experience - understanding the key supplier stakeholders will lead to constructive engagement.
• Develop market awareness and experience - how the market works and what it responds to are going to form part of any strategic recommendation from the GEMS programme.
• Develop repeatable processes - following the excitement of the early days of the programme when everything is new, the team will deliver more effectively with well-designed and accessible processes.
• Introduce additional support functions - there are a number of areas that will need establishing as the GEMS programme proceeds, these include:
  -A programme / project office; 
  -Records and document management;
  -Quality review and assurance;
  -Consolidate from loose to tighter structures - the increasing maturity of the GEMS team will require restructuring to introduce a stability and a set of new roles possibly not required in the early stages. The objectives will be to make the most from the assembled knowledge base.

Design to deliver

A market-shaping undertaking has to be fast moving and kept on track. You will design your team to be a delivery-focused operation. It will deliver:

• Speedy reconfiguration - grow quickly; shrink equally quickly! Reconfiguration and restructuring is the order of the day in a GEMS programme. Skills profiles suitable for the work in-hand and the near future;
• Flexibility -  The team members must be ready to respond to changes in direction as new information and understanding requires resources to be redeployed;
• Fast moving - to obtain results and influence a market, the GEMS programme has to deliver understanding and advice in a timeframe relevant to the market;
• Team capability - as the spotlight moves on, adjust the skills & competencies profiles to ensure they are able to keep the programme moving;  
• Knowledge sharing - expect to access large amounts of data to process into information and knowledge. Your programme cannot afford to allow knowledge silos to be created by teams or individuals;
• "Hitting the ground running" - team members will go straight into place - there is little or no honeymoon period;
• "Saying goodbye" - an exit process to manage leavers is vital. You need to capture knowledge and experiences, tie up loose ends, close down the working relationship cleanly and send them on their way;
• Shared vision - whilst mavericks and free thinkers may help the programme to get off the ground and start rolling, at all times there must be a centrally promoted and shared vision with related aims and objectives; 
• Collaboration - a shared approach to working and information sharing is essential.

Be sure to build

The GEMS manager will establish processes and systems to support and build the competencies expected in the team and those they deal with. This would include:

• Introducing formal programme management (after initial scoping);
• Experience exchange to help learning through the sharing of war stories and exposure to innovative thinking;
• Knowledge management and managing the turnover of key individuals during the life of the programme;
• Knowledge transfer between programme staff e.g. contractors, permanent project staff and organisation as a whole; 
• Actively undertaking to ensure knowledge and skills transfer occurs between staff including contractors and permanent staff; 
• Risk management systems - to identify and respond to the risks in a timeframe relevant to the risk and to the programme.

Making it work

Undertaking an exercise to identify how and where market shaping can be undertaken requires considerable momentum and support.

There has to be a big enough trigger to get it all started and to develop political will, senior organisational support, supplier interest and involvement and to maintain this throughout the GEMS programme.

For the Kelly Programme it was an initiative from HMT Ministers to establish and understand how public sector markets could be developed and shaped through public sector actions. For each market there was an existing momentum and political support. The third market (Independent Sector Treatment Centres) evolved from an understanding that the health market itself could be used to lever change within the NHS to meet policy objectives.

So, there has to be:

• A clear and shared vision / way ahead;
• Political support;
• Senior player involvement; and
• Significant political benefits for both suppliers and customers.

Work will then continue in obtaining senior people's consistent and visible support. Not only that but they must see the GEMS programme as being owned by them. The programme leader will be "one of them", accepted and recognised as a key player in the market.

A market will only respond to sufficient motivators - usually money!! To engage it with a view to shaping it will require a clear engagement plan to ensure the market stakeholders are informed about what is happening and why, and what their role is to be. The suppliers will have to be brought with you therefore they will need to know that you:

• Will balance commercial sense with political policy;
• Know and understand the risks for them as well as for you;
• Intend to understand the market and base your decisions on that understanding;
• Will keep the market informed about why you are doing this; about new and changing policy; about process changes e.g. contract changes / adjustments;
• Will open feedback and information flows - encouraging them for their ideas and input; to ensure they understand; 
• Intend to identify what is attractive to the market; 
• Will develop business models appropriate to support the market shaping that will encourage innovation.