Episode 7: Purpose-driven governance
Put simply; Purpose-driven organisations do better. They are more ambitious, they attract and retain the right talent, they inspire innovation and are able to make faster decisions. Crucially, they are more trusted. Why? Because they know exactly why they do what they do, and who they are doing it for.
Purpose beyond profit is the key to remaining competitive and sustainable in the long term – we explore the importance of looking beyond the bottom-line and how innovative governance teams are driving change.
Download the presentations slides
Watch ANZ's Age Concern Technology Workshop 2021 video
Presenters:
- Antonia Watson, Chief Executive Officer, ANZ
- David O’Connor, BDO New Zealand Chairman and BDO Auckland audit partner
Towards the end of the webinar three additional questions were posed that we didn’t have time to cover. Antonia has kindly provided answers to those questions below.
Is it important to have diversity or diversity of thought as vital at board or management level to achieve purpose driven governance that is impactful
I see it more as diversity of life’s experiences. We should be as diverse as we can so we look like and can see the different points of views of our customers and New Zealanders generally and so that around the decision making table we improve our chances of making the right choices.
What impact has ANZ's purpose led approach had on leaders within ANZ?
Having a purpose you can relate to or be inspired by is an important reason people work in places (the others are money and personal advancement). Our engagement scores are best in class internationally for the financial services sector, so I think it’s impacting. Having a purpose also helps leaders make business decisions because leadership is often about making judgment calls about use of resources and organizational focus.
With the ANZ footprint across the Pacific and into parts of Asia, do you see as much brand pressure to be environmentally or socially conscious? Have you taken NZ activities and learnings further afield into these markets?
Our staff in Asia and the Pacific see daily the threats to their local environments and are highly conscious of our purpose. In fact, in many of our Pacific businesses staff are highly engaged outside office hours in ANZ led local environmental initiatives. The great thing about our purpose statement is that it ladders down well for each ANZ country to operationalise at a local level.