Monday, 20 May 2013

Determine the Why, not simply What or How you’ll do it.



Interviewing Paul Herrod, CEO of KPMG, for series 2, he brought up an intriguing angle regarding how it was highly engaging for a leader and an organization to further explore purpose and the beneficial consequences of service delivery beyond one's mission statement; beyond the standard 'what' an organization promised a client; beyond the normal RFP breakdown of how it would set upon doing any particular task.

One lightning rod for Paul was seeing how his firm’s participation in the Rugby World Cup took on far wider, and certainly visible, dimensions beyond the ‘risk assessment’ work they were brought on as a sponsor to do. ‘Waves of consequence’ permeated wider communities, and indeed New Zealand itself. This certainly went beyond the immediate success of their direct client, the Rugby Union, at the time.

It came down to the real (if at first, ‘twee’) concept that there was perhaps an even higher purpose to ‘getting it done right’ or simply ticking all the boxes while fulfilling a service.

That community-inspired, even NZ inc. ideal, is in fact a strong motivator for many leaders I have met, and it certainly struck a chord, given the central purposes of Leaders Review. This theme had to open Series II.

In the online, breakout version (released today to coincide with our press release) KPMG’s CEO explains some of the run-on effects in terms of some of the first-up reactions from others both outside his organization and within.

Explore your focus on the why things this week. 
(Helps more than a bit.)
Peter Anich
Producer