Engaging with Defence
Debbie Howarth
NZDF Director – Industry Engagement
Our Mission…
Every hour of every day, 365 days a year, the New Zealand
Defence Force is contributing to the defence, security and
well-being of Aotearoa /New Zealand. It is our goal to
maintain well-trained and equipped armed forces that can
react to crisis at short notice.
We work in partnership with many other government
agencies helping people and protecting our territory and
our oceans.
Supporting NZ Inc….
React to natural disasters
Deterring unwelcome intrusions
Counter terrorism
Disposal of explosives
Support of conservation efforts
Participate in search & rescue
Protect our ocean resources
Protect our trading routes
What does this mean
New Zealand’s EEZ is 4million square
kilometres – the fourth largest in the world
New Zealand Defence Force has the ability
to deploy people and capability from the
Equator to Antarctica – our SAR region
A Force for New Zealand
Over
14,000 full & part-time servicemen/woman &
civilians.
Scientists, policeman, doctors, chefs, IT staff,
mechanics, accountants, storespeople, fire fighters,
teachers and more
12 locations throughout New Zealand
To be successful you should…
•
Engage early and regularly:–
our business is very diverse and an idea that is not do-able now
may be in the future.
•
Understand the customer:-
we are a complicated operation and you need to invest time to
understand our needs. We are no different to any other customer!
•
Be honest & articulate your USP concisely:-
we receive sales pitches that often do not amount to anything
because when they are investigated, they are not as good as first
thought.
•
Collaborate with others: –
your idea or product might not stand on its own but when matched
with someone else’s it becomes a package and all of us then gain.
To be successful you should….
•
Read, understand & question the Government Rules Of
Sourcing: –
we are bound by them and with a few exceptions tend to treat them
as the rules.
•
Keep up to date with our spend:-
this can change dramatically if a new mission arises. We have had
great success in engaging suppliers for urgent operational
requirements who are able to drop everything to help our teams
urgently deployed on operation
•
Understand our financial constraints: –
we operate with tight financial constraints and budgets are set early
and commanders have limited discretionary spend.
To be successful you should….
•
Understand the move from contract to relationship based
spend: -
we want to manage our suppliers, not their supplies
•
Talk with the Industry Engagement Team: -
feedback on how we can improve our engagement with you and this can
either be formally or informally.
To be successful you should NOT….
•
“Gild the Lily”:-
we are after ‘form, fit, function’ and value for money.
Gilding the lily will cost us both more
•
Lose your sense of humour: -
we are transitioning from contracts to relationships. We will not
always get it right and we may fall back to old behaviours.
•
Be pushy or demanding: -
if you have presented your pitch to us and we need more information or
wish to engage we will come to you.
•
Be afraid to engage our people socially: -
we all enjoy ‘talking shop’ over a beverage.
To be successful you should NOT….
•
Expect us to be a cash cow or push over:-
it is not how it used to be, we are now focused on time, cost &
quality.
•
Expect favouritism: -
Government Rules of Sourcing and our ethics preclude this.
We try to be scrupulously fair.
•
Try and evade the Government Rules of Sourcing: -
this will not work and is a ‘no go’
Useful Resources
The Ministers speeches and announcements
www.beehive.govt.nz/portfolio/defence
Defence – projects, reports, publications
www.defence.govt.nz
NZDF – strategy, capability plans, annual reports...
www.nzdf.mil.nz
Key take aways
We are aiming for strong
RELATIONSHIPS
COMMUNICATION
PARTNERSHIPS
Through
CLARITY
COMMITMENT
CONSISTENCY
TRUST
