Being inspired by pioneering

Our new PwC Risk vision is to be ‘pioneers in a world of changing risk’. I’ve always loved the concept of pioneering and so this vision excites me for the future.?

Since I was a young girl, I’ve been inspired by pioneers. Initially I was focused on adventurous pioneers. There is something magical to me about going somewhere others haven’t, of seeing something amazing for the very first time.?

I loved hearing about how my dad visited neighbours, who were the only ones in his street to have a television, to watch the pictures of Neil Armstrong taking the first steps on the moon. I loved reading about Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay climbing into the unknown to reach the top of the world.?

As I grew up, I increasingly became inspired by the pioneers of thought. The bravery and leadership of Emmeline Pankhurst and the courage and inspiration of Martin Luther King. They inspired me to think differently, to try and challenge stereotypes and to believe that I could achieve much more than I ever thought possible.?

More recently, I’ve watched with delight as women have increasingly broken boundaries to become political leaders of their countries, leaders of companies and leaders in society.?

These might be the high profile pioneers but I believe that all of us can be pioneering.?

When I battle through the pain of a marathon or overcome my fears to climb high into the sky to see our beautiful world from the summit of a mountain, I am going to places that others have been before. When I went to Cambridge University from my local comprehensive school to be in a small minority of women to study maths or when I proudly joined a partnership where I hoped to play a small part in increasing the number of women, I was doing things that others had done before. And I was so grateful that others had been to those places and done those things, as they showed me the way.?

But all of these things were pioneering to the young me - a girl from an incredibly loving family on a council estate who would never have dreamt of being able to achieve these things - and to the older me - a shy and private woman was was nervous of public speaking, didn’t think she could lead and was terrified of mountain exposure. And when I think about the future, and what I’d like to achieve, both personally and professionally, that feels pioneering to the future me too.?

This love of pioneering is why I’m so excited about our new Risk vision at PwC. It talks about being pioneers in a world of changing risk and working together with our clients to navigate uncertainty with confidence.?

The concept of navigation here is important, because it can be so difficult to achieve. The world that our clients, our people and society is moving into is incredibly different to the one we all inhabited even a few years ago. Events that would previously have been billed as ‘once in a hundred year events’ are happening regularly. Some of the changes that we are seeing are, in my view, wonderful - for example, the increasing acceptance, and celebration, of individuality and the development of technology that can help transform lives. But some of the changes are challenging, sometimes leading to horrifying events - for example, the increasing polarisation of views and the fast moving climate changes.?

It would be much easier to simply focus on doing what needs to be done today and not try and navigate through today to get to the future that awaits. This isn’t good enough, in my view, as the generations coming behind us need us to be brave, to find solutions, to take risks. They need us to be pioneers. We can all play our part in this and I’m very proud to be part of a business that is putting this at the heart of its vision for the future.?