32 war on talent


Fear not, if you’ve got talent and good leadership you won’t fall off


In 1492, how did Christopher Columbus convince three ship’s crews that had always stayed in sight of land and feared they could fall off the edge of a flat world, to sail across a vast ocean and discover an unknown land called America?


The actual answer may be lost in the mists of time, but Grant Thornton’s Sacha Romanovitch told more than 100 invited business guests at an Agents of Growth evening in Reading that Columbus’s achievement undoubtedly demonstrated his leadership skills and entrepreneurial ability to build the right talented team – qualities just as relevant and necessary today to achieve commercial success.


It was just one of many intriguing questions that were raised, discussed or answered at


the event, part of a focused series of ‘Winning the talent battle’ seminars arranged by Grant Thornton in association with bankers HSBC and lawyers Shoosmiths.


Romanovitch, a member of Grant Thornton’s national leadership board and responsible for people and culture, was among seven guest speakers and panellists providing professional insights into their research, experiences and knowledge gained during their own successful careers involved with leading organisations, employee engagement and talent resourcing.


Leading questions for tomorrow’s world


In today’s fast-changing globalised businessworld the arts of leadership and winning team creation were becoming more challenging, said Romanovitch. “We know that what it has taken to be successful in this world, is very different to what it will take in tomorrow’s world.”


Employees will want different work-life styles, a greater sense of purpose, corporate and leadership structures may be changing, and communication and information technology advances could be such that “by 2050 laptops will have the processing capability of the whole of humankind.”


She suggested the knowledge-driven era was moving into an innovation and creative era where human abilities to lead, understand, collaborate and “make sense of the world” would be paramount. And, it could be a world where job satisfaction rather than a high salary might be the driver for individual creative performance.


She spoke of a future VUCA-world – volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous – and asked: “What will we need to lead and drive success, and ensure that our business is valuable in that world? We need to encourage people to step into the unknown and not just deliver the results of today.”


Like Columbus, leaders would need to inspire trust in their well-selected teams, Romanovitch said. “A cohesive team is built on trust.”


Such trust enabled strong relationships to build, a joint commitment, individual desire to


www.businessmag.co.uk Sacha Romanovitch


perform well for the team, and ultimately the achievement of satisfying results.


Success started with the creation of a leadership team that actually led, by example, establishing clear corporate values and company objectives, within a business environment enjoyed by the workforce. Achieving such leadership underpinned by clarity, communication and reinforcement of the corporate mission and achievements could lead to a high-performance culture and beneficial virtuous circle, she explained.


Romanovitch left the audience with another question to ponder: “What was the difference between a good Germany team that won the World Cup, and a highly-talented Brazil team that failed to deliver?”


Jim Rogers as presenter-host, opens the evening


Values that took ARM from a barn to world leader


External awareness of high employee engagement is beneficial for recruitment, while internally within an organisation it can also boost productivity and reduce absenteeism.


Paul Peplow, vice president of talent for the runaway global success that is ARM plc provided evidence of that within his insight into the inner workings of a company that Forbes 2014 rates as the third most innovative in the world.


Peplow revealed that ARM values guide how individuals operate within the company. Currently ARM provides semiconductor ‘chips’ and software for 95% of the world’s smartphones and delivery of results is achieved by combining managed values of teamwork and selflessness, constructive pro-activity, customer and partner focus, responsiveness, personal development, and innovation.


Employee engagement is a key driver within ARM and, gleaned from regular staff feedback surveys, high among the factors that produce constructive engagement are an understanding by individuals of their work contribution to ARM’s objectives, a collaborative team environment, and confidence in the decisions of the ARM management.


Put simply, work is meaningful and personally fulfilling for ARM employees.


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – NOVEMBER 2014


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