5 questions with Grosvenor managing director Stefan Gassner

In October last year, Stefan Gassner took the reins at professional services firm Grosvenor. Five questions with the managing director on his background, passion for procurement, and the firm’s goals for 2023.

How long have you been working at Grosvenor?

I've just had my 10-year anniversary. I started in the junior consulting ranks and worked my way up to first lead our Procurement practice and then our Growth offering.

Late last year I stepped into the managing director role. I couldn’t be more excited and motivated to take this great organisation on a journey of further growth.

Why do you want to help organisations be the best they can be?

Seeing something that isn’t quite working nags me. That goes for inefficiency at the coffee shop in the morning to a meeting with a supplier of one of our clients in the afternoon. I am driven to get a deep understanding of what is happening, use my and Grosvenor's expertise to come up with a plan and help our clients follow through with it.

I am passionate about developing my own knowledge, especially through research, and I am happy to impart what I have learnt to others to help them in their roles, to help organisations optimise their performance and ultimately to lift Australia's capabilities.

What is your expertise?

I have a passion for procurement which is why I conduct research annually into the state of procurement in Australia. I have seen the challenges that procurement teams endure in trying to understand and get visibility of their spend – that is why I developed SPAT – an AI powered spend analysis tool.

Developing SPAT also stems from another passion for coding and technology that I have dabbled in for years.

Why do you enjoy working at Grosvenor?

As cliché as it might sound, it's the people – both our employees and our clients. It genuinely is – and I am so happy that the days of face to face meetings and workshops are back! We have a fantastic team of highly knowledgeable yet humble people. That’s what our own market research points out sets us apart: we are experts without attitude.

What are your goals for 2023?

I am looking forward to kicking some goals this year. Our leadership team is implementing our new 3-year strategy that sees annual growth at 15%.

We have an ambition to be ‘Visible Experts’ in the services we offer and expand our markets in state governments, the Commonwealth and large corporate clients. Most of all, we are proud to be an employer of choice and keep on improving our own business. Exciting times ahead!