Paula Graetke, Consultant at JUMBO Consulting Group, shares how her background in economics and leadership led her to a career in procurement and offshore renewables. Her approach highlights the importance of clear frameworks and practical tools to ensure alignment, efficiency, and strong collaboration across projects.
What is your background and what made you choose a career in procurement?
My career started with a student job in HR while studying Economics and Business which then led me to complete my Master’s degree in Strategy, Organisation and Leadership. My Master’s thesis was about supply chains, which then inspired my search for jobs within supply chain management.
To be honest, I didn’t really know what to expect when working in procurement, but the wide range of projects and scopes I have worked on has allowed me to see the versatility of the procurement role in different organisational and project contexts. I always liked working with processes and structure as well as building relationships with people – so procurement matched perfectly for me.
I also view working in offshore wind and other renewable energy technologies as an important investment in a more environmentally friendly future, and it is fulfilling to be part of that journey and to work on something with a positive impact on society.
When starting up a procurement process, how do you ensure alignment and clarity from the start?
When we work on setting up procurement processes with our clients, we recommend starting with developing (or reviewing/adjusting towards) a solid governance framework. It provides:
- clarity on the steps that need to be conducted,
- the requirements for obtaining approvals; and,
- clear roles and responsibilities for the procurement managers and the different stakeholders who are involved along the way.
Having such a framework is the first key step; however, from our experience, having the practical tools and templates that help you reach the different milestones when maturing your contract is the second critical success factor.
Essentially, you want to provide the “how‑to” as part of setting the governance standards. An example could be the topic of evaluation during one or more rounds of tendering; the evaluation result is a key deliverable to governance boards. So, if you provide procurement managers with guidance, criteria, evaluation mechanisms and a tool to facilitate the evaluation process, such a toolbox can create the ultimate (theoretical and practical) alignment on a project across all scopes. Such specific tools enable decision‑making and help achieve the goals set out for procuring a contract – in terms of budget but also benefiting time and resource planning and overall efficiency in daily work.
It is about finding and setting that framework which provides both a clear direction to follow and flexibility in how it is adapted for the different scopes (categories).
Which 3 attributes or qualities do you think distinguish exceptional procurement professionals?
For me, the 3 most important attributes in a procurement professional would be:
- Discerning insight – a quiet superpower
- Stakeholder Gravity – ability to attract alignment and commitment through relationships; and,
- Structured thinking providing and maintaining clarity and direction even in uncertainty
Where do you see yourself in 5 years from now?
That is a very good question, and of course one could answer it with a specific position or role you would like to have by that time. For the moment, I look at it a little differently. Of course, I see myself working in procurement on exciting projects on behalf of JUMBO – and there are two directions I look forward to progressing in.
One is at the industry level: to expand from being a specialist in one offshore category to applying that knowledge and those learnings in new industries and new technologies within renewable energies, storage and transmission. We can already see that expansion since we joined forces with Turner & Townsend. Hand in hand with the first, the second direction is that we are constantly refining and expanding our service offering. As procurement experts, we can build bridges into other functions of businesses, collaborate with them, and thereby create impactful solutions that contribute to and inform future operations.
I have also had the opportunity to work on a range of different assignments outside the traditional “Procurement Manager” role, and these have provided steep learning curves. They show that your three‑ or five‑year plan does not have to be a linear path as you might initially imagine it to be. It is rather about being open to and challenged by special and complex settings you are placed in – and that is certainly something the offshore wind industry continues to provide.
Interested in learning more about how procurement can drive impact in offshore renewables? Reach out to Paula Graetke to explore how JUMBO Consulting Group supports clients in building well-structured procurement strategies.