KPMG's Lisa Heneghan: Embrace change to succeed in these challenging times
A recruitment crisis, rising inflation and soaring costs: sticking to the same old methods just won’t work in this economy
Cultural change is all the rage these days. Even pre-pandemic, we were talking about the mindset shift necessary to move from waterfall to agile; but the massive empowerment of IT since 2020 has boosted digital transformation efforts and moved safely enacting change to the top of the CIO's agenda.
"You can have the best technology programme in the world, but it's worth absolutely nothing unless you can drive the cultural change to actually adopt and use the technology and drive the business benefit," says KPMG's chief digital officer Lisa Heneghan, who leads transformation at the Big Four accounting firm.
Change can come from the top down or the bottom up; which one you adopt will largely depend on the makeup of your organisation's workforce.
"It's very different driving change in a firm like KPMG - our average age is 27 or 28 - to driving change in a big bank, where probably the average age is maybe over 40; or in government where I think it's probably closer to 50."
A top-down approach will bear fruit in organisations with what we'll call a ‘mature' workforce. Having "a clear mandate at the top," where executives embrace technology and show that change is coming, is most likely to bring your staff along on the journey. On the other hand, Heneghan argues that a younger workforce will be more swayed by seeing their peers adopt change.
"In a firm like [KPMG] with an average age, as I say, which is much younger, you can't drive change top-down: you've got to drive change from within the business."
They're like your Phone-a-Friend as opposed to a Phone-an-IT-Service-Desk
KPMG handled this through a programme called Digital Ninjas: "People who sit in the business - so in Audit, in Deals, in Tax - who understand the business they're in, but also whom technology comes naturally to.
"We created this group of people who became passionate about changing our firm. They're like your Phone-a-Friend as opposed to a Phone-an-IT-Service-Desk, which is not an experience most people want to go through."
Digital Ninjas has grown at an explosive rate. Three years ago, there were 50 Ninjas in KPMG; now, there are over 1,000, and every graduate who joins is offered the opportunity to join the programme. It's been so successful that it's recognised as a brand inside the company.
Out of the shadows
Digital Ninjas has helped change perceptions of tech from ‘scary' to ‘transformational'. Heneghan's next move was to remove the walls between IT and KPMG's core business, enabling deeper collaboration between departments.
"IT has been in the shadows for many years, and what I think I've managed to do over the last few years is to shine a light into IT - so people can see in, and my IT team can see out. I think that's incredibly important...
"At the end of the day, IT functions keep businesses operating, and now most businesses are somewhat digital businesses, so it's really important that people get visibility and that your organisation gets visibility of what they do."
Removing those walls and bringing teams together has been "fabulous," says Heneghan. With the growth of hybrid events, for example, the IT team has been getting involved from the outset: shaping and driving them to make them work on a technical level.
"It's like sparks start to fly... They love the fact that now when we're doing these sorts of events, they're in there and part of it, shaping it and driving it. So, it's incredibly important. It's good individually for people, but it's also good for IT. IT needs to understand what employees want and what customers want. And if you're shut away, you're never going to do that."
The collaboration has raised the level of technical knowledge in KPMG as a whole, and the company is now drinking its own champagne. For example, the client-facing Cloud Operations team is responsible for advising clients, building their cloud environments and helping them move to the cloud - but it also manages and builds all the company's internal cloud environments. This wouldn't have been possible with the old, siloed way of doing business.
Scale affects change
KPMG is a massive firm, employing more than 14,000 people in the UK alone. In some ways that makes it easier to pursue ambitious transformation efforts like Digital Ninjas than it might be in an SME - but you can't let scale stop you.
"I still think the concept is the same [in any size business]: you've got to be prepared to try out new things and you've got to challenge yourself to be different from what you were... It might be harder in a very small business because you'll have a CEO or somebody who very much drives the change from the top.
"I encourage - because I've talked to many board members and executive committee members - I just encourage them to get your people thinking about how you can change. Allow them to test different ways, rather than thinking that you know the right answer.
"I can't talk for what's the best way for most of our people to work - I know what works for me and I can help them with ideas, but I don't think it matters how big you are as an organisation. The difference now is you have to empower your workforce to help you work out the right way for them to work."
It's a difficult time to be a business leader. There are recruitment challenges, mass resignations, and the economy is riddled with inflation and rising costs. That makes it more important than ever to embrace change and work with your people to make sure they feel connected and loyal to your business. Following the same strategy as you did in the past, warns Heneghan, is only going to hurt you in the long run.
Technology is advancing at an unprecedented rate, and the industry is changing along with it. To keep pace with the latest trends join us this October for the IT Leaders Festival 2022: where IT decision makers to come together to learn, collaborate and tackle their biggest challenges.