Focus on Procurement – NZGP commercial procurement leader Seán Barnes

Seán Barnes, Commercial Procurement Leader at New Zealand Government Procurement. Photo: Supplied.

Where are you from?

I was born and raised in Whanganui, and now call Ōtautahi Christchurch my home after living in a few places in New Zealand and Australia.

What did you train in and where did you study?

I started with a Bachelor of Technology at Massey University, majoring in Environmental Engineering. I then completed a PhD in Chemical Engineering/Microbiology at the University of Queensland. And then, I completed a Graduate Diploma in Business Studies at Massey extramurally. There is a moratorium on further study now.

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

I meandered into the world of procurement because the function gets to see and influence how money is spent. There is untapped potential to create positive outcomes, social and environmental, as part of the process. I’m still here hoping I can play a part in realising that potential and looking for ways and contexts where I can best influence change.

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

Just about everyone in procurement never intentionally aimed to get there, which also brings a lot of diversity of thought and skills into the profession. I would suggest people should have a look at procurement and supply chains just to get what it’s all about, and then pursue the things that interest, challenge and inspire you. Experience is probably more valuable than education in the end. It’s more about finding the role and context that allows you to make the best contribution or allows you to bank some more experiences if you are earlier in your career.

What are 3 things the public do not know about the role of procurement in their lives?

Number 1 – where things actually come from and how they get done. Number 2 – how complex supply chains actually are. Number 3 – realising there are a lot of layers to our decision making.

Can you share your top 3 achievements from your time in procurement?

Developing and delivering an approach to social procurement that turns intention to action. I loved the opportunity to work with both big organisations and big projects to show people what is possible. The “aha” moments are fun to watch.

Demystifying procurement for suppliers so they can win more work and deliver more social impact. This means explaining how it works in a way that people can understand and identifying the best way for the supplier to play in the system.

Helping to shift people’s mindsets and finding new ways of doing things. There is a lot of scope for a more people-focussed way of doing procurement that makes the experience better for everyone. I really enjoy learning and translating ideas to different places.

You’ve won the 2021 NZ Procurement Excellence Forum supreme award and the procurement professional of the year award. How has that impacted your work?

It was such a surreal moment as it was during COVID. I was grateful to have our work acknowledged by procurement professionals I deeply respect, and it reminded me to keep pushing forwards. It was also a key moment to encouraged me to share more of my thinking – I ended up writing a book and still do writing, speaking, and podcasting.

Social procurement is important to you. In a 2022 article you are called "the man who arguably started the social procurement revolution in New Zealand". How do you define social procurement – and how do you see it operating in practice in New Zealand?

Social procurement is intentionally delivering positive social and environmental outcomes alongside the goods, services and works being procured. It’s not an add-on. Every procurement has an impact, positive and negative. Social procurement is being more intentional and mindful of that impact.

New Zealand has a lot of great examples and passionate people driving social procurement. We now see specialist roles in procurement like other parts of the world. I think social procurement aligns with our values, and we still have a lot of work to make it a part of what we do day-to-day. The implementation part is what we still need to work on and committing to the things that make it easier for the wider system: intermediaries, accreditation, impact measurement.

What impact does social procurement have on the public?

Better outcomes, and better value from procurement. Beyond the goods, services and works you buy you can create employment, improve biodiversity, build small businesses, grow education opportunities and much much more. Have a look at Joyya and see what happens when you buy clothing, coffee and brunch at the Addington Coop in Christchurch.

Do you have any examples of social procurement in New Zealand you can share that you think other procurers could learn from when it comes to the implementation of their procurement policies?

We used to bring together buyers, public and private, and facilitate greater sharing of what they’ve changed in procurement and who they are buying from. There was always something to share when people make the time to sit down and talk about real-world practice. The most successful organisations were the ones that just started doing something small and seeing, and feeling, it work. Then you can go from there. A policy is meaningless without action that backs it up. 

Before procurement you were an infrastructure engineer – do you miss it? Are you able to use any of the disciplines from that role in your procurement career?

I feel like I contribute to infrastructure in a different way now and my background means I bring experience and knowledge of how things work. I’ve always thought in systems and there is a lot of parallels in terms of thinking about say water treatment systems and concepts like sustainability and procurement processes. I think I am a change realist too – things take time to change and sometimes you just have to chip away.

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

Growing recognition that we are the critical function to address challenges like modern slavery. I get excited about the role that we have to play and how best we can do it.

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?

There is a lot of talk about technology and opportunities to make things easier and faster. I think the number one thing, that doesn’t actually cost any money, is that we are enabled to do the little things that make things easier or better without the fear and risk aversion that is way too common in procurement.

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

I’m not really tapped into the history of procurement. What I do hear from overseas professionals is a respect of the way we do things in New Zealand: relationships, integrity, freedom in a framework, and cultural partnership. We can be better, keep innovating and we need to work to maintain those things, or they will slide.