Focus on Procurement interview – Liz Palmer

Liz Palmer, acting General Manager of New Zealand Government Procurement

Where are you from?

I’m from here. Born and bred in Wellington. Hataitai, Thorndon and Kelburn. I finished university, spent months backpacking across Asia and arrived in England with £40 and a cheque I couldn’t cash. 11 years in the United Kingdom, living in London and then a small village in Hertfordshire while working in Fleet Street for Goldman Sachs before returning to my home town with my family in tow.

What did you train in and where did you study?

I studied at Victoria University of Wellington where I earned an MSc(Hons) in Geology – my thesis studied deformation in garnets in the alpine schist at Franz Josef glacier to understand how rocks move through the alpine fault plate boundary.

What attracted you to a role in procurement? And what keeps you here?

I was offered a job in procurement when I arrived back from overseas. Having never worked in New Zealand and with no government experience it was pretty hard even getting a look in. Then I got lucky - a manager saw my experience in the private sector, saw that it was transferable for the public sector and offered me a role in procurement.

What keeps me in the industry is the people I get to work with and the difference procurement can make in communities. When I first started here I didn’t quite understand the difference good procurement practices could make and now I do. Good practice goes a long way and can benefit whole communities.

Procurement can make a real positive difference in someone’s life. One of the first stories my team shared with me was about a government ministry doing a procurement deal with a nationwide retailer. The deal meant its clients could access new fridges and have the ability to pay them off in the long term as opposed to being forced to buy second hand fridges that cost more to run and have a shorter life span. That story resonated and has always stuck with me as a reason for doing procurement well, looking for opportunities, and thinking about the outcome not the output.

I still haven’t done all the things I want to in NZGP so I’m not ready for the next challenge yet!

What advice would you give anyone considering a career in procurement?

Do it. Procurement is a profession you do not need to have a degree or 20 years technical experience in to succeed. You do need some good transferrable business skills -communication, influencing, collaboration, negotiation etc to start with but you can grow here, you can learn on the job.

This is a profession where you can see work you’ve done create change. You don’t have to wait years to see it. That’s pretty rewarding!

What are three things the public do not know about the role of procurement in their lives?

1. Procurement touches every part of everyone’s life. You walk down the street, and procurement was used to build that street, from the footpath to the streetlight. Everything people see someone has gone out and procured.
2. A lot of people don’t realise that procurement isn’t about the price of a product – it’s actually about wider outcomes that can be achieved. An agency can use its procurement effectively to help deliver better outcomes than just the delivery of the good or service.
3. Procurement is not a hard profession to access or practice. It’s not a magical thing. Doing procurement well doesn’t mean you make it complicated and complex.

Can you please detail your top three achievements from your time at New Zealand Government Procurement?

1. I think it’s the application of digital and data here in New Zealand Government Procurement. Digital has grown in value here from being seen as a nice to have, to a valued expertise. They used to be on the sidelines and now they’re foundational - everything is about simplification and insights. It’s the future. That’s a large change. I was part of empowering that function.
2. Through all my different roles from the Business Systems Manager and now the acting General Manager, all the different parts of our group in New Zealand Government Procurement I’ve been able to bring in a real understanding of how every team functions and how they can support each other to succeed. We have this huge diverse workforce that does all these different things. It’s having responsibility for all those different teams and harnessing that power to work together that makes the difference.
3. Being part of the team that has helped grow a positive and team-based culture here at New Zealand Government Procurement. I’m really proud of the work we do. On a personal note, I’ve enjoyed being in an environment where I’ve felt supported to improve my Te Reo Māori and my understanding of Te Ao Māori. I’m not anywhere near where I could be but I’m on my way.

You have held various leadership positions in your career. What is your advice to people about how to achieve leadership roles and do you have any advice about how people can flourish in them?

I think my first reflection would be that I don’t think there is a consistent pathway around leadership - leadership seems to me to be a very personal journey. There are some people who aspire to leadership roles from an early stage in their careers, others can find that it’s something that they come to as their careers develop in a much less planned, almost organic way.

My second reflection would be that there are diverse ways to be leaders – it’s not all about people leadership. I think we need to get more comfortable with that. Different leader roles exist and require different skillsets. I feel strongly that everyone should be able to find a way to embrace leadership in their own mahi but equally I think it’s important that people take the time to figure out if leadership positions really are for them.

My own leadership career has been quite organic and certainly not planned! I didn’t set out with a masterplan to be a leader – I’ve never quite known what I want to be when I grow up!

I ended up realising that leadership was something that appealed to me during my first career in finance in London. As I took on different roles at the firm I worked for, I came to a realisation that what I enjoyed most was helping people contribute and do well. I loved seeing people succeed, seeing them get a kick out of their work, seeing them advance their careers at the bank or elsewhere – that’s what gave me the most satisfaction. That’s really what set me on a people leadership pathway. That focus on helping people succeed remains at the heart of my own leadership and is what consistently inspires and motivates me.

I think it’s really important as a leader to be true to yourself. Be open about not being perfect. I learn as much from the people I lead, as they do from me.

What is the most exciting thing happening in procurement right now?

It’s the rules review. I’m going to say it.

It’s having access to people who have the ability to make things happen at all levels of government, business and community. Times are tough economically right now so it will be interesting to see what innovations comes through that pressure cooker environment.

In an ideal world where you were not confined by a budget, what would you introduce to procurement that could help the industry function and develop?

I would change the Public Finance Act. Short funding cycles and siloed funding makes collaborating and doing the right thing to get the right outcomes so much harder.

In your opinion what is New Zealand’s greatest contribution to the procurement community here or overseas?

Our rules are quite unique and I believe world leading. Our flexible system when used effectively should deliver the right outcomes for Aotearoa New Zealand.