2021 New Zealand Impact Report
Deloitte's commitment to responsible business is rooted in our purpose - over 175 years of making an impact that matters for our people, society, and clients.
As businesses move towards thinking about purpose more broadly, we are seeing the role of boards along with their responsibilities also evolving in parallel with changes to board diversity and expected capabilities, for instance cultural competency and sustainability.
In particular, sustainability and climate change is moving to the top of the board's agenda.
This section speaks to some of the interactions that Deloitte New Zealand is having in the social and environmental spaces to support boards and leadership teams as they build capability and look to deliver solutions to society's difficult problems.
Leadership
As our firm grows and changes, so our leadership must change and evolve as well.
Over the last couple of years and we have seen the average age of the partnership decrease, and the diversity of the team has increased to more fully reflect the clients and communities in which we live and work. We recently completed a three-year succession process to refresh our leadership and help position the firm for the future in order to deliver on our long-term strategy.
As a result of this succession process the former Chief Executive Thomas Pippos has moved into the Chair role, and Mike Horne became our Chief Executive. We have also refreshed most of our Business Unit leader roles as well.
Leader Perspective – Climate Risk and Governance
Melissa Collier is the Leader for the Assurance & Advisory Business Unit. The topic of climate risk is becoming a top-table issue and for Mel's team has become a critical part of their skill set.
“Climate risk, and due consideration of the impact of this risk on an organisation’s operations and results is quickly changing from a ‘nice to have’ to a critical item on every board’s agenda. This reflects rapid growth in investor and stakeholder demand for ESG information, with a particular focus on climate.
Considering this, we are focused on engaging in proactive and meaningful dialogue with audit committees and management on the topic of climate risk.”
Melissa Collier, Business Unit Leader, Assurance & Advisory
Click here to read more information on the topic of climate change governance.
CFO Forum / Engaging boards and CXO
Sustainability is firmly at the heart of the evolving role of the modern CFO, as custodians of strategy, risk management, performance and value creation. Our CFO Climate and Sustainability Programme – delivered in partnership with the Sustainable Business Council - is designed to empower and enable CFOs to take the lead in driving climate and sustainability action in their unique and influential roles. The programme is designed to provide guidance and best practice, but to also build connections and facilitate collective problem solving within the CFO cohort. We have delivered three programmes to ~50 CFOs total across New Zealand to date, with the fourth kicking off in March 2022.
Jayesh Rama, Director, Consulting
Global Women Breakthrough Leaders Programme
The Global Women Breakthrough leaders programme has a legacy of 11 years and many of our senior women at partnership level have taken this challenging course. The course focuses on having a sense of purpose in everything we do and challenges participants to think differently about how they lead and why they do in that way. The course encourages participants to push outside their comfort zone to ignite breakthrough thinking. The purpose of the course is to provide the participants with the tools, belief system and support network to lead in executive levels of leadership and positions of influence to help ensure that New Zealand has the right diversity of representation from gender to culture at the highest levels of our organisations.
Participating in the course has given me so many new ways of thinking in terms of what great leadership means, with many of it learned from the challenging questions and activities posed to the cohort and the sharing of our experiences – including sharing all our doubts, desires and successes. The following phrase sums it up perfectly – He aha te kai o te Rangatira? – he korero, he korero, he korero. (What is the food of the leader? – it is the words and communication; it is the communication that brings knowledge).
Annamaria Maclean, Partner, Tax
Ethics
Ethics are foundational to a firm like Deloitte. This year, we appointed a network of Ethics Advocates across the firm. Through the program we are championing ethics by:
- Increasing awareness, visibility and importance of the Ethics programs
- Fostering conversations
- Making ethics accessible
- Encouraging engagement and speaking up
- Setting a positive tone
This allows our people to have a trusted path to express any concerns, but day-to-day, the Advocates act as role models and support to others.
Andrew Dick, Partner, Ethics Leader
Supplier Code of Conduct
Organisations are asking more questions of their suppliers, contractors and sub-contractors about their approach and performance on ESG related topics.
This is driving an important movement for companies needing to be able to meet these questions and requirements.
Some drivers for these questions are the global strategies to reduce carbon emissions, Modern Slavery legislation in Australia and other jurisdictions and the NZ Government's Broader Outcome procurement processes.
Therefore, we created our Deloitte NZ supplier Code of Conduct.
We are taking an approach to collaboratively work with our suppliers towards meaningful positive change, while also working on our own supply chain challenges.
We are seeing a trend with our clients and our partners to step up in this area and enhance their ESG performance, including their strategies, data and reporting mechanisms.
The Collaborative Advantage (an organisation we co-founded with Kathmandu) is a great example of companies coming together and looking to support each other to make those changes.
Experience has shown that a 'tick the box' exercise doesn’t cut it anymore, and meaningful relationships based on trust and long-term commitment are needed to make the change together and support suppliers in making the needed adjustments.
David Bygrave, Associate Director, Consulting
Client perspective - An iwi partnership approach to social and community housing
Since 2018, Deloitte Rotorua has been advising Ngāti Whakaue and its commercial entities, Ngāti Whakaue Tribal Lands Incorporation and Pukeroa Orauwhata Trust.
There is an acute housing shortage in Rotorua across the transitional and affordable housing spectrum. Many of the applicants for transitional housing and those that need affordable housing in the region are of Ngāti Whakaue descent. Healthy, secure and affordable housing is fundamental to whānau living and working to unlock their potential.
Ngāti Whakaue Tribal Lands Incorporated is seeking to address the housing crisis in Rotorua through the development of 1,200ha of general and Māori land into a large-scale subdivision with a full range of house typologies and supporting commercial and public infrastructure, including affordable housing for Ngāti Whakaue whānau.
Community housing is complex due to the sheer number of stakeholders that need to be managed. However Iwi are an ideal and willing partner to assist with bridging the social and public housing demand and supply imbalance.
Our governance and leadership work with NWTL provides a head start on engaging with multiple stakeholder groups to unlock funding and support for critical infrastructure interventions targeted at supporting Ngāti Whakaue whānau gain access to housing. Our recent work was not only about accessing Crown funding, but also for the Crown and NWTL to work together through the Te Tiriti principles of Partnership, Participation and Protection. The success of this mahi is that it is an example of Māori whenua value can be enhanced, using a Te Ao Māori perspective. Our engagement will continue to invest in capability development and sharing approaches to commercial negotiation and risk management.
The process and relationships and journey are just as important as the end destination.
Tamarapa Lloyd, Partner, Consulting
Avi Chand, Director, Deloitte Private