Height 2023 Reflections -purpose, values and amazing people

Kia ora te whanau,

A quick message to thank our staff and clients for all your effort and support this year.

What our Height whanau and our clients have achieved collectively has been amazing.

As a business, we are a testament to the saying that culture eats strategy for breakfast.

As I wrote last year, great customer experience has its foundation in how your managers and work colleagues treat and care for you. If we are valued and loved at work, this will be reflected in how we treat our customers.

I often reflect on our purpose to "Build relationships, enhance Mana". What our clients give us permission to do is important.

We have collectively changed the face and challenged the status quo of social procurement, supplier diversity, broader outcomes, loving ones customer and tendering ecosystem. Here are some highlights:

• Encouraging and promoting supplier diversity,
• Māori and Pasifika businesses winning and making sustainable profits through government tenders,
• Helping our corporate customers to love and empathise with their government clients genuinely,
• Establishing the industry benchmark for tenders and preparing our clients to be successful at bid time,
• To drive procurements that value diversity, sustainability and equity to all parties, not just price,
• To see infrastructure construction beyond the concrete and sharp edges to implement opportunities for community engagement, training, local business entrepreneur opportunities, and through good design to make communities feel included and safer, and
• As a business, be a role model for the power of diversity. ????

Culture and associated accountability to values-based behaviours is the hardest thing to build and maintain as a team. As such, I am truly grateful to my leadership team of Kel McBeath , Sue Hart , Claire McCarthy , Melanie Llewelyn , Dany Rassam , Matt Willis and Stephen Dempsey for your acute care and attention to our Height whanau.?

We are also proud of what we have collectively achieved 2023. A small snippet of the highlights include:

• Celebrating our 10th anniversary at Ceibo with a selection of friends, family and special guests.
• Our continued world-class customer advocacy – an average of an NPS greater than 65.?
• Our procurement team remains the trusted go-to procurement agency for Telco, defence, FM, water, rail, and vertical building. This reputation has been built based on a track record of delivery and practical fit-for-purpose procurement solutions – well done, Kel McBeath , Dany Rassam , Veronica Tam , Sophie Mak , Bradley Rossi , Perry Fon Sing and Chris Lord .
• Being the go-to #1 bid consultancy in New Zealand – we have genuinely built deep, trusted relationships with our core bid customers. When they need to win, they call on the big guns – well done to Sue Hart , Melanie Llewelyn , Heather Murray , Gail Lorigan , Venla Autio , Rebecca McGarry , Susy Corney and our wider bid support team.
• Being the national leader in innovation in social procurement, broader outcomes and supplier diversity – case studies include Gisborne District Council Targeted Māori Supplier Packages, Wellington City Council Local and Māori Minor Civils Panel, Watercare Services Limited AUR Panel, NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi O2NL and KiwiRail Southern Fencing all are precedents that give permission to others to do things differently – awesome Mahi Claire McCarthy , Esther Croft , Kelly-Anne Penrose , Sam Murphy-Dreaver and Emma Foulkes .
• The steady growth of our Australian business and the evolving relationship we have formed with Indigenous Australian businesses and support agencies – big thank you to Greg Harrison and our wider Height team,
• Environmental management and the evolution of our offering around carbon monitoring and reduction – huge thanks to Emma Foulkes
• The growth of our team: a huge welcome to Esther, Susan, Susy, Greg, Chris and Leanne. We have now grown to a team of 36 full- and part-time employees.
• Our award and individual successes ENVIS Social Impact and Supreme Award Winner, Claire Winning the New Zealand Procurement Excellence Award - Procurement Leader of the Year Award and being recognised and winning the Association of Consulting Engineers (ACE) Presidents Award
• Growing sustainable Māori and Pasifika businesses - The privilege and opportunity we have had through our partnership with Te Puni Kōkiri , Pacific Business Trust and Amotai - Supplier Diversity NZ to work with over 80+ Māori and Pasifika businesses to pitch, win and make money in government contracts.?Special acknowledgement to Beaufa Brown , Georgia R. , Erin (Baker) Black , Venla Autio and the whole team that supports that mahi!
• The multiple keynote speaking events our team has the privilege to speak at? Aboriginal Affairs NSW , Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) , Amotai - Supplier Diversity NZ , āpōpō, ACE New Zealand and Trust Tairāwhiti
• Digital transformation – the implementation of productive.io, broader outcomes health check, BD data ongoing digital transformation and our exploration into AI in the new year – thank you, Matt
• Office – someone has to be the adult in the room to manage the details, systems and processes (including the lolly jar) that enable us to do what we do, so a huge shout out to Susan Thomas and Kathryn Hill . You have both been our rock and the constant we have needed in the office. Thank you so much.
• Veterans and supporting our defence personnel – the ongoing work we do with the New Zealand Defence Force and the support we provide our veterans, limited service volunteers and service people, the Defence Employer Support Council (DESC) and veterans resettlement training
• Continuing to promote and trying to be a role model for genuine diversity within the construction and engineering sector through our actions and support of the The Diversity Agenda
• Ongoing support for social and community initiatives such as School to Skies, ACE, Amotai, Diversity Agenda, Engineering New Zealand and Pacific Business Trust

We are super proud of what we have collectively achieved. What we do is important and can transform our communities and clients. We have made a real difference and hit well above our weight.

Over the summer break, please take time to rest and appreciate and enjoy what is important to you and your whanau.

Arohanui, Ngā mihi nui,

Warner