For a supplier
Use the gaps to find where a policy, claim or ambition has not yet become an operating capability.
Start supplier developmentThe Market Accord Gap Map
The gap between knowing and doing
Fourteen recurring points where market information, buyer intention, supplier capability and reliable delivery become disconnected.
Why a gap map?
Most business-support and procurement conversations isolate one problem: the supplier needs a better bid, the buyer needs more competition, the entrepreneur needs market access or the contract needs stronger management. In practice, these issues are connected.
The Gap Map gives buyers and suppliers a shared diagnostic language. It asks what must be clarified, implemented, operated, evidenced and reviewed before a relationship can be expected to perform.
Use it diagnostically: a gap is not a judgement that an organisation is weak. It is a question about whether an expectation and the evidence needed to trust it are aligned.
How to use it
Choose the point where confidence breaks.
- Select the gap closest to the current problem.
- Answer the buyer and supplier questions separately.
- Compare assumptions and evidence.
- Choose the smallest credible intervention.
- Review what changed and what remains uncertain.
Fourteen points of friction
From information to long-term performance.
Each gap has a dedicated page with buyer questions, supplier questions, expected evidence and a practical Market Accord response.
G01Information → implementationAdvice is understood but never becomes an operating processG02Bid readiness → delivery readinessA persuasive response is mistaken for a reliable operating systemG03Generic advice → sector capabilityA general template is treated as sector-specific assuranceG04New entrant → credible evidenceCapable founders face a track-record paradoxG05Buyer intention → market realityRequirements become fixed before cost, capacity and alternatives are understoodG06Supplier claim → observable proofPolicies and capability statements exist without evidence that controls operateG07Tender feedback → organisational learningIndividual debriefs do not reveal recurring organisational causesG08One event → sustained developmentUseful engagement ends before capability changesG09Compliance paper → management systemDocuments are assembled without becoming part of managementG10Market demand → procurement fitA useful product is not automatically easy for an organisation to buyG11Social value promise → deliveryCommitments are written before partners, baselines and evidence existG12Award → mobilisation and relationshipThe contract is won before the working system is agreedG13Payment behaviour → market healthSupplier reliability is assessed without considering buyer payment behaviourG14Fragmented support → portable evidenceEach programme starts again and the organisation cannot carry learning forward
For a buyer
Use the gaps to test whether a requirement, engagement or contract-management approach creates avoidable barriers.
Start a buyer challengeFor a joint relationship
Use the gaps after award to distinguish mobilisation, performance, payment, communication and trust problems.
Explore the relationship labTurn one gap into a controlled improvement project.
Market Accord can help define the question, evidence baseline, responsibilities, intervention and review point without pretending that every problem needs a large programme.