Chief Executive Officer, KPMG
BCom (UNSW),CA

Geoff Wilson addressed graduates from the UTS Business School in the Great Hall, University of Technology, Sydney on Wednesday 8 May 2013, 2.00pm.

Our speaker today is Mr Geoff Wilson. 

Geoff was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of KPMG Australia in January 2008. He leads and sets the strategic direction of KPMG and provides an important leadership role in KPMG’s Asia-Pacific practice. He has held numerous leadership roles within the firm including National Managing Partner of Audit.

Under his leadership, KPMG has been dedicated to corporate citizenship and in 2010, KPMG became the first accounting firm to launch a Reconciliation Action Plan. He is a member of the Australian Human Right Commission Group’s Male Champions of Change which was set up to ensure equal representation of women in leadership positions and is also an Ambassador of the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation.

Geoff is a Board Member of the Sydney Festival, the Australian Business and Community Network, and the Society for Knowledge Economics. He is also a member of the Chairman’s panel for the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, Knox Grammar School Council, the Australian School of Business Advisory Council, and Alumni Leaders Network for the University of New South Wales.

It gives me great pleasure to invite Mr Geoff Wilson to deliver the occasional address.

Speech

Good afternoon, Chancellor, Vice chancellor, members of council, distinguished members of the faculty, graduates families and friends, ladies and gentlemen.

I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land, the Gadigal and Gurin-gai people of the Eora nation, and pay my respects to their elders both past and present.

It great to be at UTS. I’ve enjoyed an excellent relationship with the university, particularly with Professor Roy Green, Dean of the Business School, and most recently I participated in a panel discussion on campus on the topic of ‘gender diversity’, something I am very passionate about.

Firstly, let me say congratulations to each of you on your personal achievements which have brought you here today. It an outstanding achievement, and you should be very proud of what you have accomplished. By sheer coincidence my son, son number two, is actually graduating from UTS later this afternoon, following this session.

I stand here not only to deliver an address, but to share in the pride and emotion of this moment, and acknowledge the critical role parents and family have played in helping you prepare for the next phase of your lives.

I’m particularly looking forward to being in these seats in a couple of hours’ time, and watching my son walk across this stage to receive his degree.

But let me start with a question or two for you to ponder.

What does the next phase of your life look like? Having worked hard to obtain this qualification, what do you plan to do with it? What contribution would you like to make to the business world, and society more generally?

There are three things I thought would be useful to share with you today.

The first is how I see the current external environment and the opportunities and challenges this presents for you. Secondly, the skills and behaviours that I believe will be necessary to succeed in this environment, and finally, I’d like to share with you my thoughts around a commitment to a broader society ambition.

So my ambition, my observations on the external environment; well I believe in business you have to face the reality of the situation you find yourself in. The reality of the situation we find ourselves in right now is a world that is uncertain, volatile, ambiguous and changing at a pace and in a manner that we have never seen before.

I became CEO of KPMG Australia in January 2008, at the beginning of the Global Financial Crisis. As you heard, I am stepping down soon to move to Asia to lead KPMG in Asia pacific and join our global executive team which I’m very excited about.

But when I started back in early 2008, the storm clouds were brewing, and I had virtually every single person say to me, “Well you picked a fine time to take over as CEO of KPMG.” As it turned out, we’ve faced one of the toughest economic climates ever for the entire time that I’ve been CEO of KPMG Australia. The answer to the question of course, is that in life, you rarely get a chance to pick your time and for me, as a leader, it about playing the cards you dealt. It what you choose to do with those cards that will make all the difference.

What we’re all adapting to right now is a world of much lower growth, and at the same time the world is quickly becoming a smaller place as we all become much more interconnected both personally and economically. Just look at how quickly Australia has become so dependent on China and Asia for growth.

We’ve seen incredible changes in technology, particularly with social media and other disruptive technologies, and I had the good fortune by virtue of my qualification to live with my family in Silicon Valley for 3 years to understand what impacts technology can have on society. More broadly, I was able to look at the impact on online retail with sites like StrawberryNet, Fishpond, Shopbop and Net-a-porter, are changing how we shop and how we live. For graduates, there’s an amazing case study playing out in front of all of us as retail chains like Myer and David Jones fundamentally alter their strategies to adapt to a changing market place and the impact of disruptive technologies.

We’re also looking at changes to the ways we interact with the media through online news and YouTube. Each of us can create a news story simply by using our mobile phones.

What we’re really seeing are business models that have been in place for a very long time needing to change at very short notice, so the good news is business graduates are in high demand.

The reality for each of you, as you start your careers, is that change is a constant, and there is a premium for individuals who cope with change and turn change into an advantage for their business. This may require you to develop some new skills, adapt to a rapidly changing world and run with it.

Change creates opportunities for innovation and new thinking. We recently announced that we’re moving to new premises in Barangaroo in January 2016; this is something that is challenging people like me right now but that not about the bricks and mortar, it about how we create a workplace that is exciting and creative for our people to work at which is at the same time productive, innovative and rewarding for our clients and our customers? I would encourage you to be part of that conversation.

What are the skills and behaviours needed to succeed in this rapidly evolving world?

If I reflect on my time as CEO, I think there are some critical things people in business need, some of these have been alluded to already, but there are a couple of must haves.

The first is to have a strong moral compass, a commitment to acting ethically and with integrity. In business, you find that you be asked on many occasions to help with many problems and find solutions. As you know, business is not just about the numbers, it about working with people to solve complex problems and communicate solutions in a clear and simple way.

Knowing what the right thing to do is not always easy but it an important skill, and I would recommend you look for peers, friends and mentors, to help guide you in those difficult situations.

Next is keeping a positive attitude. In leading a firm like KMPG, you have to stay positive and energised by the things you doing in order to make change happen.

Six years ago, we set out to make KMPG the best firm to work with, and I’m pleased to say that despite a challenging environment, we are a different firm today than we were six years ago.

Remember you can make a difference. Staying positive and energised is a great way to enjoy your work, but it also inspiring for others. People like working with high energy people.

I was fortunate to learn a lesson early from one of my mentors, to focus on the things that give you energy and spend less time on the things that take energy away from you. I’ve always started each day being eager to get into the office, I can’t wait to get in, which is a bit sad really but nonetheless true. It feels great to literally bounce out of a meeting which is positive and forward looking, still solving problems and creating, but being positive. You would know that from the classes you really enjoy - you can’t wait to get to them, you can’t wait for the class interaction, and you can’t wait for next week’s courses, where the interaction and vibe is so positive.

As a leader, I am constantly thinking “am I leading in a way that energises people?” If not, I need to think about what I need to do differently. The message here is that a positive attitude leads to a constructive and creative problem solving. You will also need the ability to grow relationships built on trust with your teams, your clients and customers.

Personal resilience, we’ve all needed plenty of that in the last few years and as a leader the buck stops with you. You need to inspire and lead even when times are tough and staying healthy is important to this.

We need compassion to focus on the people and things you really believe in. You need a bit of hard work, there’s no substitute for that. I would encourage you to ask lots of questions, be curious and look for mentors to help.

Today, we live in a world of constant feedback, so embrace the feedback and work on it to enable you to build your personal skills.

Over the last six years at our firm, we've leveraged these skills and behaviours to really help focus on applying a client centric approach. We really understand our clients, the issues that they facing, and their businesses so we can be well positioned to help problems be solved.

We’re looking to continually innovate. We’re committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace and adopting a global mindset, particularly as we reach into Asia. I’ve learned some great lessons of working with diverse teams over the last ten years.

Thirdly, a final observation I’d like to share with you today, is around self-awareness, really knowing who you are as a person, and being clear about what you stand for. While succeeding in the business world is fantastic, it also important to contribute to a broader aim.

For me, there are three areas that I’m personally passionate about; diversity in the workplace and I’m fortunate to be part of Elizabeth Broderick’s ‘Male Champions of Change’, which has the single objective to increase the participation of women in leadership positions across Australia.

The second area is around indigenous affairs, closing the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. I’m very proud of the fact that KPMG was the first accounting firm to release its reconciliation action plan, and the third area is around education and innovation.

There has been nothing more moving for me than to sit in an indigenous primary school in Arakoon and hear from a group of mothers discuss the changes and sacrifices they are prepared to make to ensure their children get to school, receive an education, to give them a chance of a better life.

Similarly, through the ‘Australian Businesses in the Community’ network, we work directly with schools which have many students who have arrived in Australia from some very challenging and sometimes desperate circumstances to provide these bright kids with the opportunity to get an education so that one day they might be able to sit in this room with you.

That is incredibly rewarding for me personally, and for hundreds of our people that work on these programs inside our firm.

So what path will you take? Will you start a business? Will you grow a business? Will you be an investor? A consultant? A banker? An accountant? A tax adviser? Analyst? A trader? Or, serve the community through not for profit?

It amazing the difference business people can make to ensure we create a better society. What difference would you like to make?

In conclusion, change can be daunting but can also be exciting and invigorating.

I’m about to embark on an exciting new role leading KMPG in Asia, the fastest growing region on the planet, and whilst exciting, I can tell you it also very daunting, so I do understand many of the feelings you have as you start your careers.

My last piece of advice is to just dive in and have fun. I’m sure you find it rewarding and incredibly fulfilling. Good luck and congratulations again on your great achievements. I wish you every success in the future.