What CEOs are saying on 'thrive2030' ...and...Why am I doing this?

1. Which CEOs are contributing to thrive2030 so far?

I have a great job. Talking with CEOs from across Asia (the largest continent in the world with 48 nations, 60% of the world's population and 67% of the world's GDP)...and Pacific nations too...I am enriched with data, insights, knowledge, understanding, empathy, inspiration and ambition. Ambition to help clear the fog the pandemic has created and to source ideas to thrive to 2030.

Since June, I have had in-depth weekly conversations with 21 CEOs from New Zealand (3), Australia (3), Hong Kong (3), Malaysia (2), Singapore (5), Vietnam (3) France (1) and the USA (1). The latter two are outside of the Asia-Pacific region but both CEOs have oversight of business in the region. You can see the list and their videos here

Theses CEOs include:

• David Darling, CEO of medtech cancer research company Pacific Edge in New Zealand. Pacific Edge is currently an NZX darling having recently oversubscribed in its latest capital raising. Pacific Edge's story helps us appreciate the tenacity and perseverance that technology start-ups have, which enabled them to push through the pandemic to win new contracts in challenging markets like the USA.
• Ann Sherry AO, Board Chair of UNICEF Australia and board member of Sydney Airport, National Australia Bank and Infrastructure Victoria. Ann spoke frankly about how boards across Australia have learned not to ignore things on the Risk Radar that say 'low probability, high impact' like a pandemic! I asked many CEOs whether other items on the Risk Radar that seem unlikely will now get more attention - like climate change (you can hear their answers here)
• Datuk Umar Swift, CEO of Bursa Malaysia in Malaysia. Umar explained how Malaysian rubber plantations enabled manufacturers to pivot to new demand for PPE, becoming suppliers of 80% of the world's rubber gloves in 2020. He also reported shifts in investment from traditional superannuation assets to retail as consumers moved to online shopping and he shared the massive challenges of living with 15,000 cases a day, saying many had resorted to wearing double masks.
• Girish Ramachandran, President - Asia Pacific, Tata Consultancy Services in Singapore. As world leaders in technology and business intelligence TCSs prediction is that 1/3 of all workplace activities will be automated by 2030, creating a shortage of 4.5 million technology workers by 2030. Girish outlined the opportunities this creates and detailed TCSs worldwide recruitment program for women to return to the workforce.
• Sue Kench, Global CEO of King and Wood Mallesons, based in Hong Kong. Sue explains how the firm pivoted to respond to pandemic-driven changes to support clients around the world. She shares how her firm focused first on keeping people safe, then moved to adapting business processes and utilising all available technology to ensure uninterrupted services to clients. Sue offers pragmatic advice about how to plan forward.
• Matthew Driver, EVP Services - Asia Pacific, Mastercard in Singapore. Matthew sits in an enviable position at Mastercard where he has visibility of what we spend our money on and how that changes in a pandemic. He outlines changes in consumer spending and savings patterns and details how Mastercard has adapted its service line to include Cyber Security to keep our data safe and support digitisation of businesses as they continue to respond to the virtual world we now live in.

2. Lessons they have shared

All 21 CEOs and Board Chairs generously shared lessons of working through Covid. Some experienced deep personal challenges and felt immense responsibility for employees when the virus first struck. Stepping up to be the leader their people needed them to be at the time, was top priority.

For others, raising capital and managing cash reserves was the most critical aspect, followed closely by the need for immediate adaptation to working in a virtual world.

Lessons reported by the CEOs in our conversations include:

• To expect the unexpected
• Not every change needs to be so over-engineered (we sent 1000s of people to work-at-home in a week, it just happened, without 12-months of selling 'a business case')
• We can, and we did, work much faster; we achieved 5 years of technological developments in 5 weeks
• We spent years analysing the risks of 'flexible working' prior to Covid, but when we had to send people home to work, these risks were not realised
• Trust is a key criterion to adapting and surviving
• A crisis focuses people on each other and generates collaboration; collaboration brings about change and efficiency
• Our people behaved urgently and responded supportively when Covid hit, but we're not sure the new behaviour 'will stick' when we next ask them to change rapidly (perhaps 'resistance to change' will return)
• We don't need to travel around the world attending face-to-face meetings to be effective - virtual meetings and conferencing are highly effective
• Mental health has accelerated, it has made us more empathetic; we listen more
• For survival, we need to build more adaptable, digitally enabled organisations that can pivot faster
• Leaders are still adapting to the hybrid working model; we are not sure yet what our culture re-set needs to look like to support people and address issues arising from this major change (that impacts strategically, operationally and culturally)
• There is heightened awareness of the need for cyber security and safety
• Industries that could pivot fast were able to take advantage of Covid-driven marketplace opportunities...it's a lesson for us all

3. Where to from here?

In the 5 months that I have been researching opinions of leaders, their thinking has evolved. For example, in the early conversations when I asked the CEOs whether world leaders were learning through this pandemic that collaboration and cooperation is needed to address the global issues, and whether that learning would now be applied to climate change, some people thought that my suggestion was a big leap.

In later conversations, the idea has become accepted as a possibility. The pandemic is shining a light on the cost of self-interest and highlighting that none of us are safe until all of us are safe. Maybe the Glasgow climate summit on the horizon helped to focus the mind, but more leaders now believe the pandemic is pushing the sustainability agenda because new entrants are highly focused on producing products that are good for the environment.

There is still much to discover about how the pandemic is shaping our world and how people, communities, organisations and nations are responding, what the lasting impact will be on business and society, and how cultures need to adjust to make delivering strategic pivots possible.

I hope to discover the changes as they are happening and bring them to you to appreciate and learn from. Individually and collectively, we have much to learn about the human response to this life-changing global upheaval. All human activity impacts on economies and businesses. thrive2030 is an exercise in future-scaping and I am grateful to all CEOs who are contributing their story, observations, expectations and future projections.

4. Why am I doing this?

I have lived and worked in four corners of the world and in that time, I have observed, and driven, many changes and developments, and assessed how these impact on a company's journey on its growth curve. It's what effective change agents do. As a strategist and change agent, I like to stay ahead of the curve and these in-depth interviews with CEOs assist with that.

Many of you know of and contributed to my book Stepping Up. I interviewed 100 leaders from 16 cities across Australia and Asia, representing 26 industries, to discover the extent to which greater diversity was considered an enabler to boosting productive and growth. The findings simulated conversations that influenced change and allowed me to frameup the 'Culture Circuit' as a tool for readers to use to examine and shift company and industry cultures.

I expect something useful to flow from these thrive2030 CEO conversations also, and there is a personal drive too; I am reaching out to leaders across Asia-Pacific to hear their stories because I want to know what others are thinking, feeling, doing and achieving because it tops me up, fuels my creativity and allows me to 'see' possibilities for the future, through their individual and collective journeys, which I can then share with you.

I have been working with and advising CEOs around the globe since I was 26 years old (ask me how that is possible another day - but it's a fact) and I know the desires, fears, anxieties and thrills they experience day-to-day. I have also had my share of C-suite roles, enough to know it's challenging at the top, and what success and failure feels like.

thrive2030 is my way of supporting CEOs in Asia-Pacific to get through the fog created by the pandemic...and find the place, in the displaced new world we are entering, where opportunity knocks.

I hope you will continue to join me and the CEOs who share their stories with you online.

Pamela

Pamela Young, growthcurv

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