The
synergy arising out of these three types of activities makes GRIP blossom.The
logo of GRIP is therefore a flower consisting of these three elements.
--) The flower represents the activities of the institute, rooted in and fed by new ideas and concepts from research. This represents the roots of the flower.
--) Consulting represents the contact with practice: testing ideas and concepts and generating new issues for further research.
--) The top of the flower represents
training and education: training managers
and students in the application of concepts, methodologies and ideas developed
and tested by the institute.
GRIP works closely together with leading consulting firms in the Netherlands and is related to the University of Groningen.
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GRIP-Training and Education focuses on the diffusion and application by users of ideas and methodologies developed by the institute. Special workshops for managers, in-company training programs and teaching in the Executive Program of the Faculty of Management and Organisation of the University of Groningen are means of reaching these GRIP-goals. Target groups are managers in public bodies, the private sector and the health care sector. Special expertise exists in facilitating implementation trajectories and change processes in companies and public bodies.
The
consulting division is one of the three divisions of GRIP, next to GRIP
Research and GRIP Training & Education. GRIP Consulting tackles problems
which companies are facing with the help of tools developed by GRIP Research.
The experiences we gain from consulting are then used by GRIP Research
to develop and further refine our tools. These tools are in turn used
for training and education of managers and students by GRIP Training &
Education, and
solving problems of our clients by GRIP Consulting.The goal of GRIP Consulting
is to provide clients with insight in the nature of their problems and
from that work out adequate solutions to them. That's why GRIP is good
at both diagnosis and analysis of problems, and in coaching clients through
the design and implementation of change processes that lead to the improvement
of purchasing performance and, in turn to the improvement of the whole
organisation.
Our clientele consists of small and large companies in both the private
and non-profit sector. Examples from our client base range from small
machine manufacturers through local governments and organisations in the
health-care sector to large multinationals.
Pushing the
frontiers of knowledge. This is the mission of GRIP Research. At GRIP,
we want to develop new concepts and new insights in the field of purchasing.
At the same time, the results of our research should be relevant for practice.
Therefore, we have two streams of research. One focuses on improving the
practitioner's toolkit: practical concepts, which can be applied in companies,
government organisations and healthcare organisations. These concepts
are tested by our consulting department and our university students in
their field work. The other stream of research is more theory oriented
and consists of a number of long term projects (4 years) with PhD students
next to shorter projects, where senior researchers are involved.In most
cases, we use a network perspective when studying the relations between
actors and the behaviour of actors in a network. This is combined with
systems thinking. Theories applied in our research vary from for instance
the resource dependence theory, congruence theory, game theory, a reformulated
transaction costs theory to the selection/contagion theory. Methods applied
to study vary from cognitive mapping to LISREL-models. It all depends
of the problem at hand and the research questions asked.
A close connection between the two streams ensures that practical spin-offs
of the more theoretical stream are used for the practitioner's stream.
The experience of the consulting practice of GRIP and problems encountered
by our university students during their internment period with companies
give further direction to the way how to improve our concepts and how
to direct our more fundamental research.