Supplier development is often framed as correcting weak bidders. Buyer improvement is often framed as writing better documents. The market problem is relational: requirements, incentives, evidence, capacity, payment and contract management interact.
Supplier responsibility
Suppliers must understand their capability, price risk honestly, build evidence, disclose limitations, control delivery and learn from failure. “The buyer asked for it” cannot justify an undeliverable promise.
Buyer responsibility
Buyers must understand the market, define outcomes and material risks, remove avoidable barriers, give sufficient information and time, manage conflicts, provide useful feedback and create workable contract conditions. “The market should cope” cannot justify a requirement that unintentionally removes competition or quality.
Shared responsibility
Both sides need a common record of assumptions, measures, decisions and learning. That does not remove commercial tension or statutory duties. It makes the tension more productive.
Why governance matters
A convening initiative can itself create bias. Market Accord is operated by a commercial company that may benefit from later consultancy. Trust therefore depends on visible separation, conflicts records, optional referrals, no pay-to-badge mechanism and a correction route.
The objective is not forced consensus. An accord is a disciplined way to identify where interests align, where they do not and what evidence should determine the next decision.