Once you’ve hit upon a good thing, figure out a way to sustain it. That’s Denise Turner Roth’s challenge.

President Barack Obama’s nominee to lead the General Services Administration said, if confirmed, she would make sure recent reforms are woven into the agency’s fabric.

Following a lavish 2010 training conference that made GSA the punchline of late- night jokes, Dan Tangherlini, then the new administrator, streamlined the agency’s structure and tightened watch over the agency’s expenses. GSA said it has saved $28 million just by revisiting travel and conference policies.

Tangherlini left earlier this year. Roth, previously Tangherlini’s deputy, has been filling in since then. Obama last week nominated her to be the permanent administrator of GSA.

Given that her time at the helm will be relatively short, Roth uses the word “sustainable” a lot when she speaks about her management priorities.

“The next part is to ensure that those changes are a solidified part of how we operate,” she said on In Depth with Francis Rose.  “Our job is to make sure that when we step away at the end of the administration, that those activities are a regular operating part of the organization .”

Roth said management training will be critical to her success.

Roth says GSA will be more proactive in helping agencies

“GSA has quite a bit of data, info and knowledge about the agency partners that we work with,” Roth said.

While GSA is already helping other agencies improve their operations and save money, it can be more proactive, she said. GSA needs to consider how agencies will operate five years from now and suggest solutions to meet those needs. For example, it may be colocating with other offices to save money on real estate, she said.

“I really want us to take what we know and bring forth those solutions to agencies  before they even think about it,” she said.

In some ways, Roth said, GSA is the test bed for other agencies. It has given  its Washington headquarters an open design to encourage employees to move freely about or to telework. It has also launched 18 F, a small office that helps agencies improve their digital services.

Roth pledges to make GSA an economic catalyst nationwide

Because GSA is the government’s biggest landlord, its real-estate decisions have had profound impacts on local neighborhoods, from NoMa to the Southwest Waterfront, Roth said.

A former city manager, Roth would like GSA to help its agency clients to consider those implications when making property decisions.  Whether it’s creating live-work-play communities or bringing jobs to an area, federal agencies play a role, she said. 

“What I’d like to see consistently across our national portfolio, is that we are proactively looking for those opportunities to leverage from local, state   and private-sector activity to strengthen areas,” she said.

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