From History to Strategy - The Power of Reflection

From History to Strategy - The Power of Reflection

Written by Michelle McFadyen

As Local Buy looks to the future in creating its Strategy for coming years, we invited Local Buy’s first ever CEO, Michelle McFadyen to share with the team some of the history of Local Buy, with a view that maybe the past could provide some guidance on what was and remains important.   

Michelle was with the LGAQ for 6 years before becoming the CEO of Local Buy from 2001 until mid-2004.  In 2004 she took up the role of CEO of the Boulia Shire where she stayed for 2.5 years before moving to Ilfracombe as their CEO for the last 18 months of that Shire before forced amalgamations.   Michelle was then appointed as the CEO of the newly amalgamated Longreach Regional Council from March 2008 to October 2012.  In a move to NSW, Michelle then held the role of Deputy CEO of the Bellingen Shire Council for 10 years.  Michelle now works as Michelle McFadyen Consulting, and holds Local Buy Prequalification on three arrangements.  To say she’s come full circle would be an understatement! 

We asked Michelle to write about what she shared with the team during our Strategic Planning day.

In 1996 I took up a job as a Telemarketer with LGAQ – I’d never heard of them and frankly, I knew little about Local Government.  I was in my chair all day calling local government suppliers and asking them to buy a trade display booth or sponsor the LGAQ Annual Conference. 

The unit I worked in was the CAPS Unit.  This stood for Contracts and Purchasing Services.  There was a manager, and three other staff.  One selling and managing the Legislation Services Commentary, and two contract managers – doing the core work of what we see in Local Buy today – putting in place bulk purchasing arrangements for local governments to access. 

A few years on and we moved from the old building to the building LGAQ and Local Buy occupy today.    CAPS continued in the new building and over time I progressed up the ranks to the Manager of the CAPS Unit.  We still only had a few staff and we had arrangements in place for things like Fuel, Tyres and Tubes, Lubes, and Travel. 

Ian Leckenby was the Director – and he and I travelled a lot around the State, talking at the strategic level with elected members about CAPS, and at the grass roots level with procurement staff (and CEO’s) – we ran workshops on procurement, on the LG Act and Regulations and we worked really hard at building relationships.  

And yet, we felt shackled.  As part of the LGAQ, there was tension – a wrestle for the LGAQ between providing a member service - and the fee charged to suppliers when doing business under the CAPS contracts with local governments.  

So…we commenced a process to corporatise the CAPS unit.  This involved advocacy internally at the LGAQ, to the CEO, to the LGAQ Board, legal advice, building the company structure, consulting with councils, putting a Board together and all the things you can imagine need to be done when starting a company.  We started this process in 2000 and on 3 December 2001, I moved my four staff down to level 1 of the building in to brand new offices with Local Buy on the doors.  

I will never, ever forget the moment and the feeling – it was about 8.00am on that Monday morning – I was first in the new office.  I pressed 1 on the lift, not 2, I used my keys and opened up the doors, I walked into my office and sat down at my desk pressing the ‘on’ button on my computer.  And I sat there thinking - what have we done?  I felt so alone and so removed from the support and comfort of sitting in the arms of LGAQ, from our colleagues at the LGAQ who were only upstairs, but seemed galaxies away.  And I realised, this was crunch time.  I fought hard alongside others to corporatise CAPS because I believed in my heart that we could and would be able to support local governments better that way.  Sitting there that Monday, it hit me hard.  The road blocks were out of the way (mostly), the excuses were gone, it was time to do what we said we were going to do.  

A friend gave me a laminated card with a quote on it – that day I stuck it to my computer screen.  It has been stuck to my various computer screens now for more than 20 years and is currently on one of my monitors in my home office.    

“Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great” John Rockefeller.

Before we go into what happened next, I wanted to spend a minute on the name – Local Buy. 

We had to choose a name for this new company, and in doing so we considered what at the time, were the most evident concerns councils had around the CAPS contracts.  At the time, and I would argue, still, the biggest concerns were around the use of local suppliers, using the businesses in their towns and regions. And while we were doing our best to ensure there was this opportunity on all the contracts we could, we were clearly not meeting the expectations of councils.  

There was no better way in my mind to honour their concerns – to let them understand that we see them, we hear them and we want to do everything we can to act on their concerns – than to call the business Local Buy.  

It was also full of risk.  We had to make this a focus now.  So Local Buy (the name) was part reality and part aspiration, and it was a message - buying locally is important to our customers (councils) and we were putting it front and centre.  

Now we just had to deliver on it!  

We went on to increase our staffing numbers (a little), broaden and refine our arrangements and our focus on local suppliers became much stronger.  We firmed up relationship management, our governance, and our general operations.  

And so some 22 years later, Local Buy continues to embrace what’s important to councils, great value and local supply.  It has grown and improved on what was, way back in 2000, a vision from a group of people who were willing to give up the good, to create the great and it’s clear that it’s still delivering on its original mission and purpose.  

Keep up the great work Local Buy.