A Data Driven approach to winning major tenders with Carla Garvie
Carla Garvie, Commercial Director (Australia & New Zealand) at Alstom, has spent more than 25 years in rail and mobility. When we talked about what actually creates an edge in high-stakes bids, she started with preparation, role clarity, and the systems that let data shape decisions all the way through the tender.
Start with the people
Preparation is not a slide deck. It is making sure you have the right people, that they are committed, and that they understand what their role actually is. Because one of the most common tender failures is not capability. It is a lack of clarity and definition.
Everyone walks into a major tender with a different assumption about what good looks like. They have a different picture of what “strategy” means. A different view of what the process should feel like. A different expectation of how decisions will be made.
Role clarity is not admin
Role clarity sounds like something you worry about when you have time. Carla has worked in HR, and she knows how much it matters. When people understand how their role connects back to the strategy, you get better decisions, better handovers, and less rework. And when the pressure hits (because it will), role clarity is what keeps the machine moving.
Communication is a system
When people say “we need better communication”, what they usually mean is “we keep missing things”.
Carla’s approach is practical. Set up systems and processes for capturing information, not just in people’s heads. Do frequent reviews across the teams so decisions are based on what is actually happening, not what someone assumes is happening. Create regular touchpoints and drumbeats so the layers stay aligned.
And make sure the bid leadership team is connected to what is happening in interactives, not hearing about it second-hand. Because strategy is not static.
As you learn more about the client, as governance shifts, as commercial realities bite, the strategy evolves.
Start with strategy. Then earn your win themes
This was one of the strongest moments in the conversation. Win themes are not the strategy. They are the output of the strategy.
And strategy is not only what you want to deliver. It is what the customer is trying to achieve, what they are prioritising, and what sits underneath the procurement document.
Sometimes the RFT is not a clean reflection of the client’s true intent. It is a compromise. A product of internal politics, funding constraints, and risk posture.
So a data-driven strategy starts with better inputs. This can mean testing assumptions early, using what you learn from client engagement and being disciplined about what evidence you will use to support the position you take.
If you are not clear on the customer’s priorities, you cannot weave them through what you are saying back.
Data shifts a tender from intuition to evidence
Data analytics creates a narrative behind decisions. Analytics help you price risk more intelligently, particularly around departures and how the client is likely to assess them.
It helps you model lifecycle cost advantages and quantify availability and reliability.
And in sectors like transport, it can help the client build their own internal business case.
That matters because procurement teams are often not the same teams that carry the long-term maintenance cost. Budgets are political. Funding cycles are real. Decisions need to be defended.
If you can use data to help the client justify the right decision internally, you are not just responding to a tender. You are helping them lead.
Diversity takes more effort. It also wins
Carla is a big believer in diversity because it produces better outcomes.
It is harder to lead a diverse group of minds. It takes more time. It requires trust. But it also means you have thought through more angles and you are more likely to appeal to a wider group of decision makers.
Remember, often the quietest voice in the room has the gold that wins the tender. That means creating forums where people feel safe to speak up. It means checking in one-on-one, because not everyone is comfortable in the big room.
When someone goes off track, be respectful and be firm
Every tender has a bright shiny object. A technical tangent. A gold-plated idea. A section that is interesting, but not what the question is asking. So, seek to understand why they went there, then realign them back to the strategy. And when you are one week out and something is wrong, you do not negotiate with reality. You thank the person, and get them back on the right track.
The capability that matters most
In major tenders, hesitation is expensive and the teams that win are not the ones who never change direction. They are the ones who can read what is happening, pivot with discipline and keep the whole group moving toward the same outcome.
It comes back to the basics. Get the right people in the room early. Define what good looks like. Start with strategy, not slogans. Use data to move from opinion to evidence. Run interactives like they matter.
And lead in a way that brings the whole team with you, especially the quiet ones.
This is how major tenders are won.
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[00:00:00]
[00:00:46] Deborah: Hi, Carla. Hello. Hello. Welcome to Chasing the Win. Thank you so much for agreeing to join us. Carla Garvie, uh, commercial director for Australian New Zealand at Alstom. Um, what a role you work across [00:01:00] rail and mobility sector, um, leading commercial strategy and supporting the delivery of, of major tenders across Australia.
[00:01:08] And you've spent more than 25 years. That makes us a little old, doesn't it? Shaping strategic growth across that sector. Can you tell us a little bit about, about your career and what you've found most rewarding over the years?
[00:01:21] Carla: I'd never probably imagined that I would spend that long in rail, and I think most people who have been in transport, once you get in, it's very hard to get out again.
[00:01:28] And I think you really enjoy the people that are within that sector, and it does feel like one big family. But, uh, yeah, as you said, I've been to over 25 years and worked in operators, manufacturers, and, and now in, in a company where we're not only manufacturing the rolling stock but doing signalling and services as well.
[00:01:45] So I, it's been a, a coloured career in terms of diversity, in terms of the areas that I've worked in. I've worked in strategy, BD transformation, commercial, as well as even HR and safety. But I think all of [00:02:00] it's been really good for me to take into this role. Um, and it's helped me grow as a person and be able to understand better the people who I'm working with.
[00:02:07] Deborah: It's amazing. I wanted to sort of hone in, obviously on, on the tendering side of what you do. So in leading a major tender, what are the first strategic decisions that you think need to be made to establish the competitive edge for the tender From the very beginning of the job?
[00:02:26] Carla: You always envisage that when you start a tender that you're going to have a plan and how it's going to be different again.
[00:02:31] And I think everyone always has the best intent. For me, one of the things I really think is important is the preparation and making sure you've got the right people and who are committed to actually doing the tender. So for me it's that having the right people, the right team, and the role clarity around what the, their role is.
[00:02:51] But even just in a recent tender I identified what was really important is everyone has a different assumption around what good looks like. And I [00:03:00] think it's really important to shape that because you all have these preconceived ideas about what the start, the middle and the end's going to look like. And I think it's really important that you have that.
[00:03:10] But for me it's the people. It's a clear plan and understanding interdependencies is absolutely critical and. Being really disciplined across that plan and today's tenders, what I'm finding is that not only are you trying to manage all the deliverables, but in a lot of companies, they're trying to manage all the internal governance as well.
[00:03:29] Yeah. And so making sure you've got teams to be able to work on both just the tender but also the governance of the company. Um, but equally what's really been interesting is all the interactives and because that is a huge part of the evaluation process. Mm. So for me, it's making sure that you have nearly three teams set up that are managed and well run to be able to, uh, last the ground over that the period of time.
[00:03:55] And some of these tenders from, uh, RFI to eeo I they could be up [00:04:00] to two years. Yeah. That you're working. And there's a, a lot of burnout that can happen with people through that time. So for me, the checkpoints all the way through that and resetting is equally as important.
[00:04:11] Deborah: How early before the tender drops are you putting in place the right people, the right team and, and those multiple
[00:04:20] Carla: functions, like defining what they look like?
[00:04:23] Yeah. And I think, um, everyone in Australia and New Zealand will know that that famous infrastructure curve where we've got that big cliff and apparently we're all coming off that cliff. Now when you think about that, we all went through a period of being reactive to what infrastructure requirements were.
[00:04:38] And from a tendering point of view, during that peak period we're coming off the backend. And I think what's smart for most companies is they're moving into this left shifting approach where they start to do the pre tendering activity. So working with your customers, really understanding what they need, so your shaping what you think good looks like.
[00:04:57] And what I've noticed that's really common in [00:05:00] the market, but not only for us who are trying to win tenders, that actually for the procurement arms of companies. So, and particularly government organisations, they're starting to work out how do they change where they're starting the tender and doing more of a left shifting activity.
[00:05:16] Deborah: The three layers that you described that, you know, the Yeah. The submission process itself and the planning and process that goes with that, the deliverables that come from it, the governance process on top of that. Yeah. And then this added complexity of this interactive slayer. Yeah. If you do have those three teams, how do you bring them together in one coherent way?
[00:05:35] How do you make sure that the, the insights from that client interaction are being fed into, uh, the submission and that both dynamics are being fed through the governance process?
[00:05:46] Carla: I'll say communication, but communication has many different meanings. Uh, when I think about that, we are all working, we've got teams all overseas, and so they're dialling into these interactives as well, and they're working on the tender.
[00:05:59] So [00:06:00] having systems and processes set up where we are capturing information and doing frequent reviews across those teams is equally important. Yeah. A lot of the time too, you find with tenders that some of the people who are the technical contributors have their day job too. Mm. So it's about how do they make sure that they've got the time to be able to contribute.
[00:06:18] But I don't think anyone does it extremely well. We all talk about the burnout, but it's having, uh, the doing all the prep up front, having some of the documents that you're able to, uh, share across the teams and being able to have regular touch points and drumbeats set up to share. But you need the discipline with the team and you need the commitment.
[00:06:38] Deborah: Yeah. And that senior leadership team of the bid, that bid leadership team just plays such a vital role we've found, um, that having the, you know, either the bid manager or the major submission manager and the interactives manager sitting at a minimum as a fly on a wall in that kind of bid leadership team Yeah.
[00:06:57] Has been really effective to, [00:07:00] as you say, communicating the decisionmaking and the nuance of the client all the way through. Yeah. The bid
[00:07:06] Carla: as you go through the interactives, we all talk about these win themes. We can have win themes, but then we've gotta have a strategy. Yes.
[00:07:14] Deborah: I would flip it. Yeah. I would say you got your, I, I agree with you wholeheartedly.
[00:07:18] You got your strategy and then that creates win themes. They're awesome. So disconnected. Yeah. And, and I often think people are just, you know, pulling these things out of the air sometimes. Let's start with strategy. Correct. Correct. And articulate win themes from that. And I agree 150000% on that because,
[00:07:35] Carla: because on that, I think we, this industry is just all have your win themes and then they'll feed all the way through the document.
[00:07:41] But you've actually gotta sit back and go, what is our strategy? And the strategy is not just, um, what you are trying to deliver, it's actually what are the customer's priorities and what are they trying to do because they, their procurement document may not actually match up to what their end intent is.
[00:07:57] So if we are not clear about understanding the customer's [00:08:00] priorities Yeah. How do we make sure that that's been woven all the way through what we're saying back to the customer?
[00:08:06] Deborah: You've brought up two really interesting concepts that I've always grappled with in tendering. One is this, the, the, the assumption that people are defining things the same way.
[00:08:15] Yeah. And two is, is this. This need to understand that client-centric strategy has to come first. It has to permeate, it's iterative, and you can't just rely on the procurement documentation to, yeah, to tell you what the client wants, but that assumption part, I think is key. To communicating what the definition of strategy is, what the definition of process is, what expectations are, as you said, what good looks like.
[00:08:43] I often, in my training, I'll actually write the word assumption and I'll put a big circle around it and I'll just slash through it, and I'll say, this can be the defne for your tender making assumptions.
[00:08:53] Carla: Yeah, yeah. No, you're absolutely right on that. It feels as though someone's prescribed, this is how you should tender.
[00:08:59] [00:09:00] But I still think it needs to evolve in itself because I've worked in a few different organisations. We generally are using the same recipe. Mm-hmm. But I think we need to evolve ourselves and I think the industry is starting to shape that too.
[00:09:13] Deborah: Yeah. One of the other things we are hearing about a lot more these days, and I think that's with, um, the advent of ai, it's with the organisations becoming more aware of the fact that they can make sound decisions based on data.
[00:09:26] So how do analytics and sort of insight driven decision making with from that data shift the trajectory of a tender or a bid?
[00:09:34] Carla: Look, I'm a a huge believer in data analytics because I think it creates the narrative behind any decision. Uh, generally I think analytics fundamentally shifts a bid from intuition to evidence.
[00:09:46] And for me, there's probably a couple of key things that I find really important for a bid is it allows you to price risk more intelligently. And when we look at risk, we need to look at things such as departures and how you're [00:10:00] pricing those departures. Because as anyone would know who's tendering is that the client will come to their own determination around those departures.
[00:10:07] And so we need to try and make a judgement call about how they're going to price that risk.
[00:10:11] Deborah: Mm.
[00:10:12] Carla: The second one's probably more modelling the lifecycle cost advantages and um, and then also quantifying availability and reliability. And I think it's really important when you look at your life-cycle cost advantages.
[00:10:25] A lot of the time, particularly when you look at rolling stock, the tenderer might be a big government arm that is purely looking at the rolling stock with the maintenance may be done by another department. And so they're not so focused on that total cost of ownership. Yeah. But it's really important, we're thinking of the end goal and that goes back to thinking beyond just what you're tendering for because it helps them put a business case argument back up in mostly into government.
[00:10:50] So that is what data can allow you to do and it can start to help shape business cases back for the customer as well for them to be able to, particularly [00:11:00] in the political government environment that we have, where we actually are looking at budget funding every three years, they need to be able to put business cases up ahead of time and they'll need the data and evidence behind that to support it.
[00:11:13] And that's something that I think we can do with data, which we're probably not leveraging as much today. I was just going to ask you, where do you think, where do you think organisations currently are within with, with that use? They are evolving. I've seen that, like obviously I'm dealing with customers all around Australia and New Zealand and they are seeking to go back to, um, us as the suppliers to help them with their business cases.
[00:11:35] We've seen now, uh, a lot of consultancies that would ordinarily consult back into clients. They're probably don't have the funding. I think everyone knows where the debt levels are state by state around Australia at the moment and also in New Zealand. So they're looking to the suppliers to help them with that business case.
[00:11:51] And it's about the cost avoidance in terms of instead of them spending money, say in maintenance in one part, how are they better served by procuring new? Yeah. [00:12:00] And that's where we can help them. And that goes back into that left shifting and working with them early to help them push and change, um, positions within, uh, government and what they go out to tender.
[00:12:10] Mm. And if
[00:12:11] Deborah: possible, doing that pre-bid, pre probity and influencing the way the tender documents come out to market. Correct. Absolutely. Fascinating. I love the way you put it as, as moving from intuition to evidence-based. Yeah.
[00:12:25] Carla: Per
[00:12:25] Deborah: sheet.
[00:12:26] Carla: And I think with that too, you are able to do commercial scenarios as well.
[00:12:29] So you can run many different scenarios and throughout tenders using the data to help you run those scenarios helps you work out how you should play your position.
[00:12:38] Deborah: Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Fascinating. So, I mean, you work all the time on high stakes bids. We're not talking, um, hundreds of thousands of dollars here.
[00:12:46] We're talking multiple millions and billions of dollars here. How do you bring together technical specialists, commercial teams, designers, operational leaders? I mean, you've got this incredible [00:13:00] diverse group of minds to bring together, but they have to produce a cohesive winning solution in a finite timeframe.
[00:13:07] Yeah. How do you get 'em to do it? I don't think there's any secret.
[00:13:11] Carla: Oh, I think I
[00:13:12] Deborah: thought we were going to get the
[00:13:12] Carla: secret. I'm a big believer in diversity because I think diversity brings out better outcomes because then you're going to appeal to a wider group of people and hopefully the people in the decision makers market end of the day are actually going to see that in the bids that we're producing because we've thought through everything, because we've got diverse people within that group.
[00:13:31] So while it can be harder having a diverse group of people, you actually will get a better outcome. Number One thing I do is try to, I think before, as I said, is what does good look like? Like what does that winning strategy and making sure that we all have a concrete understanding at what that is, um, and translating the strategy into their role.
[00:13:51] So what does it mean for them? And role clarity. I'm a big, and I did spend time in hr, but I now fundamentally understand the importance [00:14:00] of role clarity and how it aligns back to strategy. Absolutely. And that is number one thing I would do. Um, and then also discipline, particularly around decision making, but when you have a diverse group of people, you need to make sure they all have the voice and feel comfortable speaking up.
[00:14:15] I've been in many different environments where some people don't have the comfort to, they don't feel comfortable speaking up. Mm. And it's really important that they feel that they can, because I want to hear their views. Mm-hmm. And so creating those forums that it's a trusted forum that they actually can put their views forward is also important.
[00:14:32] Mm-hmm. Often the quietest voice in the room actually has the gold that wins the tender. Yeah. Yeah. And making sure you check back in with them. And sometimes they're not comfortable in a bigger forum, and it's having those coffee ca catchups with them to get their views and being accommodating. It takes more time, more effort, but you will get a better outcome.
[00:14:50] Deborah: A side question from the shared definition of the win strategy and, and then the shared application in, in defined roles and responsibilities. What do you do when someone goes off on a tangent? [00:15:00] How do you, how do you pull back something that, you know, some people just find things really interesting to explore and they see a bright, shiny object within it, but it's actually contradictory or, or in a different direction to the strategy you've set.
[00:15:13] How do you pull them back to the strategy when they go and do that? Particularly engineers, they love delving into things that are interesting and new, like gold plating and As opposed to making it more
[00:15:23] Carla: commercially. Exactly. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Valuable to the client. Yes, absolutely. Um, making sure they understand why they've gone down that pathway and then.
[00:15:32] Trying to realign them back to the strategy. But I also believe you're in a high pressured environment. You've got short, tight frames. You've gotta be upfront and be respectful as well. Um, I've had situations where we've had a deliverable, we are one week out, and it was written and it was in the, it's absolutely incorrect.
[00:15:50] And it was not aligned to what the question was asking, nor to our strategy. And we've had to politely say to the person, thank you, and then get it rewritten. Yeah. And then finding out [00:16:00] that that rewritten piece of documentation, it was actually part of the winning recipe overall for the client. I think, um, it's worthwhile doing, but you've just gotta be respectful for people, but try and seek to understand how to bring them on the journey back.
[00:16:13] Deborah: Yeah. I mean, a really simple way that we've found, and at the, at the end of every strategy session we've been involved in, whether, whether we're facilitating it or just a part of it is a strategy statement or a, a form of win strategy charter, so that we are all singing to the same song sheet and made accountable for the way we pursue our roles within that.
[00:16:33] And that accountability really seems to help, because at least it allows you to bring people back to what they agreed to, and it kind of counteracts that, that desire to chase the, uh, the bright, shiny object. Yeah.
[00:16:45] Carla: Yeah. That's a good point. And I think you've gotta, I've had bids where we've been under-resourced Yes.
[00:16:50] And we've realised that sounds like every bit I've been on Yeah. Like every bit we always have this ideal state of what it's going to look like. Yeah. And then I, I like the idea, like it's just trying to redefine what the roles [00:17:00] are. We, I think having the weekly drum beats is always good, but I think redefining those roles, particularly as you get midway through the beard, you realise that the strategy's evolved.
[00:17:09] It's not what we originally thought doing the reset. Yeah. And then possibly then doing a redefining of all the roles. Yeah.
[00:17:16] Deborah: Which is why it's so important when you do have those three processes in place, that you know your submission deliverables process, your interactives and your governance, that they're all talking to each other.
[00:17:26] Yes. Yeah. Because then your strategy has to shift with that client piece of client feedback or governance, discovering. A, B or C or commercial going, Ooh, we can't do that departure. It's, it's, it just, it doesn't work from a risk perspective. Yeah. Um, it's so important, as you say that they all communicate and you can shift, you can shift in the way you need to over a bit.
[00:17:46] It's great to recognise that bits aren't static. That strategy isn't static. Yeah.
[00:17:49] Carla: It, it is interesting. I was just listening to what you're saying then. It is interesting though. I feel like, um, we as suppliers do need to give feedback back to, you know, state governments [00:18:00] and the customers because I think sometimes they're designing an ideal state of what a bid should look like with not knowing the reality is.
[00:18:06] So I'm equally, I equally push back and say, you've actually set unrealistic timeframes. I just want you to understand what you're doing. Then back for, to us, there's a whole point around health and safety. We, we all, we all understand wellbeing, wellbeing of the people, and for me a big goal is making sure that I'm looking after the people that are working on the bid.
[00:18:27] They're, you know, they're doing this day in, day out. We'll go from bid to bid, but I do need to make sure that I'm looking after their state of mind and looking after them from a wellbeing perspective. I agree
[00:18:37] Deborah: wholeheartedly. So what are some of the recurring challenges that. Unique, do you think, to transport sector bids and, and how do you navigate those?
[00:18:46] I think probably one,
[00:18:48] Carla: they're always, um, politically visible. So whatever we do, uh, we know there's politics that onsite as well. Yeah. So we've gotta be aware of that. And the stakeholders that are evolved, the funding [00:19:00] models evolve, uh, during the procurement cycle. So that is also quite a challenge. And particularly understanding state and federal funding availability.
[00:19:10] And, and that actually can drive the, um, contractual frameworks that underpin them too. So it's making sure that we are aware of those and also do we have the opportunity to influence it. So sometimes during a bid they may say that we've actually got funding, but they might be open to alternative forms of funding as well.
[00:19:28] So it's just trying to shift and pivot with that as well. Interfaces, I think, uh, the, that, that can be a challenge too, to try to understand all the different interfaces and particularly if you are one part of a bigger picture in a bid, and how do we interface back into the other parties and to demonstrate how we can be competitive in that space.
[00:19:51] And the other one is, um, risk allocation and how do we define risk? And I think that is a challenge to understand it from the customer's [00:20:00] perspective, but also from ours as well.
[00:20:02] Deborah: Yeah. And not to just approach it as BAU to really dissect it each and every time afresh to, to always look at it.
[00:20:09] Carla: And I think, I think with risk, uh, people don't see it as a a, it can be a, a strategic advantage about how you look at risk.
[00:20:16] Absolutely. Not just looking at departures on their own, but actually seeing how you can assess risk. Yeah. And see it as something that you can win by understanding it better. Absolutely. And what's important. Absolutely. Fundamentally, my number one thing is understand your customer.
[00:20:29] Deborah: Absolutely. You've thrown up a couple of other questions for me on, on what you've said.
[00:20:33] I mean, one was interesting. You, you used the, the word influence. You know, what are we in a position to influence? And I think that's fundamental. I think people, people don't dissect tenders enough in every single respect to see what they're in a position to control or influence. And there might be just some indirect tweak that they can make that actually gives them an advantage over another, another tenderer, are you
[00:20:57] Carla: meaning like influence in terms of [00:21:00] the stakeholders at the end or the influencing in terms of within the bid?
[00:21:03] Deborah: Well, it's both.
[00:21:04] Carla: Yeah.
[00:21:05] Deborah: It's really both. It's the fact that. If you look carefully enough at each and every deliverable and returnable, there's going to be somewhere in there that you can, um, I don't want to sound condescending. You, you can educate or raise awareness of a particular area by either engaging in that interactive session with the client as a stakeholder.
[00:21:26] Yeah. Or by keeping it closer to your chest and by using it as a, a point of difference in your beat.
[00:21:33] Carla: Yeah.
[00:21:33] Deborah: Yeah, definitely.
[00:21:34] Carla: The interactives have now really become, uh, an area. It's like an interview. Go, oh, you can win or lose. You can win interactives on the interactive. Absolutely. And the amount of preparation that needs to go into interactives, the pre meets to get alignment, the pacs to be able to present.
[00:21:50] There's, there's an art to it, and I think don't underestimate the value you can show in your interactives, and I, I'm tending to find that by the time you get [00:22:00] to your deliverables going in, they've actually already started to make a decision about who's going to win this.
[00:22:06] Deborah: Absolutely. No doubt there are completely objective elements to tenders, but honestly, what you'll.
[00:22:12] Trying to influence ultimately is the subjectivity of the process. Yeah. And so to engage through that interactive process in a way that shows the client exactly what you are going to be during delivery. Mm. How you're going to go about things, how you're going to collaborate, how you're going to discuss, how you're going to listen.
[00:22:31] Carla: Yeah.
[00:22:31] Deborah: Um, it shows them whether you're an organisation they want to work with or not.
[00:22:35] Carla: And I think also that's goes into the point around risk adjusting the price. So what is the cost to the state? So are you a stakeholder that they can trust to deliver? And while price, everyone says price is key, they also now start to look at what is the cost for us to switch from this provider to that provider?
[00:22:53] And can we trust them to deliver? And if they're, they're willing to actually switch, what is the cost to [00:23:00] them if you don't deliver versus, so I think we have to be really clear around having that trust with the stakeholders and having it prior to the tender coming out Yeah. Is absolutely pivotal for you.
[00:23:11] All the, and all the way through the process as well.
[00:23:13] Deborah: Yeah.
[00:23:14] Carla: It is changing and it is shifting. Um, but I think we've gotta be a bit more mindful about how we shift our organisations, particularly when we look at governance. Yes. And, um, how we utilise our people. That's where I think those two areas that we could all start to be a bit more wiser in our methods.
[00:23:32] Yeah, absolutely.
[00:23:33] Deborah: Tenders can be intense as, you know, political, fast moving, high pressure, all of those things. What personal leadership habits and mindsets help you stay centred and effective in that sort of context? So for me,
[00:23:47] Carla: uh, in terms of having really good engagement back with the team, so I want to have that trust with them.
[00:23:52] So for me, if I have trust with the team, if I pivot or change, they'll trust that I'm taking them in the right direction. [00:24:00] But in terms of how do I keep centred, yeah, I think a lot of deep breathing. Um, but, uh, I think we all get caught up in the adrenaline all the way through the bid too. Yeah. We're a bunch of adrenaline junkies.
[00:24:11] Yeah. And, and I, I'm good. I've got a fantastic team, um, in the current role and I seeing that they're there, they're there to win, they're to support each other. And I think the most important thing is also to have fun. You know, we've gotta laugh when things stuff up. We don't have a good day. We all have to make sure that we can laugh about it afterwards.
[00:24:33] Because if you're in an environment that's high pressured, you've gotta make sure that yeah, you can smile each day and go, right, that didn't go to plan, but let's pick it up the next day. So, absolutely. I think they're, they're probably the, you know, have the trust with the team, uh, and make sure that we have fun.
[00:24:48] Deborah: Yeah. One final question. If you were mentoring somebody Mm, stepping into a major tendering role today, what single capability or mindset would you tell them is [00:25:00] essential for their success?
[00:25:01] Carla: I think, you know, commercial acumen's really important. Having the technical skills is really important, but ultimately for me.
[00:25:09] Having the ability to make high quality decisions in a high pressured environment is what's going to help them. So the ability to think on their feet, take what they know, read the room, and understand how to be calm throughout that process is probably what I'd want them to work on. We are not all going to be experts, and it's important to trust your instincts as well and when you're making those decisions, but be able to do it calmly in a high pressure environment.
[00:25:37] I'm finding time and time again, no one's willing to stand up and make those hard decisions and that's what's really important when you're a fast-paced environment.
[00:25:46] Deborah: I cannot thank you enough for coming on chasing the wind and, and giving your time to have this conversation. It's been absolutely wonderful having you.
[00:25:53] Oh, thank you. It was good. Good questions. Oh yeah, sharks. Thanks very much. Cheer. Thanks. [00:26:00] Cheers.
[00:26:00]
