Progressing · Innovate to Stretch
Building a procurement-led Stretch RAP
A firm with a well-delivered Innovate RAP needed to progress to Stretch, with Indigenous procurement as the centre of gravity ahead of the 2026 IPP threshold change.
Professional services firm · 300+ staff
Illustrative example. This describes what an engagement of this type typically involves, drawn from common patterns in RAP delivery. It is not an account of a specific client engagement, and no figures shown are measured client results.
The situation
- A genuinely well-delivered Innovate RAP with evidence captured throughout the term
- Government client contracts increasingly asking for demonstrable Indigenous procurement performance
- The 1 July 2026 change to a 51% First Nations ownership threshold approaching, with existing suppliers verified under the previous threshold
- Supplier spend tracked as a single annual figure, not by category or business unit
- No Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander representation in senior leadership
The approach
- 1
Readiness
The Innovate outcomes did support a Stretch submission — an assessment that is not always favourable, and is worth doing honestly either way. Procurement was identified as the area of greatest genuine leverage given the firm’s spend profile and client base.
- 2
Supplier re-verification
The existing Indigenous supplier list was re-verified against the incoming 51% ownership threshold rather than assuming prior verification would carry forward. A process was established for periodic re-verification rather than one-off checking.
- 3
Measurement design
Spend tracking was rebuilt to report by category and business unit, not as a single annual number. A single figure cannot show whether performance is on track against a target that rises each year, and cannot identify which parts of the business are contributing.
- 4
Design
Three-year targets were set across procurement spend, employment and leadership representation — each one tested against whether the pipeline work to achieve it actually existed, rather than being set at a level that read well.
- 5
Embedding
Procurement targets were written into category manager objectives, and Indigenous supplier consideration was built into the standard tender process rather than run as a parallel initiative.
Where it landed
- A Stretch RAP with procurement as its centre of gravity, aligned to the firm’s actual sphere of influence
- Supplier base re-verified ahead of the 2026 threshold change rather than after it
- Spend reporting able to answer client and tender questions by category and business unit
- Procurement accountability embedded in category manager objectives
What this shape of engagement teaches
A single annual spend figure is not sufficient reporting once targets rise year on year.
Supplier verification is a recurring obligation, not a one-off task — particularly across the 2026 threshold change.
The strongest Stretch RAPs concentrate on the pillar where the organisation has genuine leverage, rather than spreading evenly across all four.
Other examples
Starting from nothing: a first Reflect RAP
Leadership had committed publicly to a RAP, but nobody internally had run one before and no relationships existed with local Aboriginal organisations. The work was mostly about slowing down.
Read → Stalled RAP · InnovateRecovering a stalled Innovate RAP
Eighteen months into a two-year Innovate RAP, the working group had stopped meeting and nobody could say what had been delivered. The first task was establishing what was actually true.
Read →Recognise your situation?
If any of this sounds like where your organisation is, a free discovery call will tell you what the realistic next step looks like.