Life Behind the Screens: Susan Furber

Leading with empathy and a focus on lasting transformation

With a career spanning local government, public sector agencies, consulting, not-for-profit organisations and software vendors, Susan Furber brings a broad and experienced perspective to her role as Head of Public Sector at Lánluas.

Susan began her career in Adelaide as a graduate with a technology vendor supporting local government. She progressed through customer support and development roles, eventually becoming a development manager and spending around 14 years with the organisation.

Her career has since taken her across Australia and the UK. She has worked within a council, held corporate communications and intranet development roles in England, and contributed to organisations including the NSW Environment Protection Authority and Starlight Children’s Foundation.

A six-month role with Broome Shire Council was followed by a return to Adelaide shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic. Susan later led a professional services team for a software company before establishing her own consultancy and working with the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

Although the organisations and locations have varied, technology, software and transformation have remained consistent threads throughout her career. Working across different sectors has given Susan an understanding of both the technical aspects of delivery and the practical realities organisations face when trying to implement meaningful change as well as the strategies that will lead to success.

As Head of Public Sector at Lánluas, Susan oversees the company’s public sector clients and manages a five-person delivery team comprising planning, reporting and asset management consultants.

Her advisory role is highly varied. A typical day might involve undertaking strategic analysis for an upcoming piece of work, leading a team catch-up, preparing a report or project managing a client engagement.

No two days are really the same. The role has a strong delivery focus, but it is also about supporting the team and understanding what our clients need.

Susan remains closely involved in client engagements and believes this hands-on approach is particularly important in the public sector, where transformation often involves additional layers of complexity.

Public sector organisations tend to operate within highly structured environments, with greater governance requirements, limited resources and tighter budgets than many commercial organisations. Important responsibilities may also rest with just one or two people.

In this environment, Susan believes consulting partners need to work as an extension of the client’s internal team rather than simply providing advice from the sidelines. Organisations may need additional capability, practical guidance and access to experience that is not available internally, particularly when improving or upgrading their systems.

For Susan, a successful system implementation cannot be measured solely by whether the technology goes live. Lasting transformation also requires user adoption, change management and a focus on embedding new processes and ways of working across the organisation.

Transformation is not just a technical piece. It is about user adoption, change management and embedding the change so the organisation continues to benefit.

She believes the support provided around an implementation can be just as important as the technical delivery itself. Helping people understand and adopt the change is essential if the organisation is to realise its long-term value.

Consulting can also mean providing advice that differs from what a client initially hoped or expected to hear. Susan believes navigating these conversations successfully depends on establishing trust from the outset, so clients understand that the advice is grounded in what they need to know rather than simply what they want to hear.

How that advice is communicated is equally important. For difficult or nuanced discussions, Susan prefers a face-to-face conversation or video call rather than relying on email, where tone and context can easily be lost. A direct conversation creates space to explain the reasoning, understand the client’s concerns and work through the issue together.

One piece of advice has remained with Susan since the early stages of her career:

You can’t control what other people do, so focus on what you do and do the best you can.

It is a philosophy that has helped guide her through international moves, new industries, organisational change and leadership responsibilities.

Her experience has also taught her not to underestimate the value of trusted peers and mentors. Susan believes it is important to build relationships with people who genuinely want to see you succeed and whose judgement you trust, particularly during challenging periods.

Her own approach to leadership is grounded in compassion, trust and practical support. Asked which inspirational leaders she would most like to have lunch with, Susan nominates Australian entrepreneur and Boost Juice founder, Janine Allis and former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, both of whom she admires for their compassionate approach to leadership.

For Susan, the best part of working at Lánluas is the people. She values the variety of experience, knowledge and backgrounds across the team, as well as the close working relationships that come with being part of a smaller business.

You have the flexibility of remote working, but you are still part of a great team that is generous with its knowledge and committed to delivering good outcomes for clients.

Her travels have included Iceland, Greenland, Zanzibar and Patagonia, often incorporating photography workshops and opportunities to capture remote landscapes and natural phenomena. One of her proudest achievements was winning a prize for a photograph of wild horses in the Camargue region of France.

Photography provides both a creative outlet and a different way of viewing the world, one that reflects many of the qualities Susan brings to her work: patience, curiosity, attention to detail and an ability to see the bigger picture.

Whether she is supporting a client, leading her team or photographing the northern lights, Susan’s approach remains grounded in understanding the environment, building trust and helping to create something that lasts.

Learn more about what it’s like to work at Lánluas by visiting the About Us page.