“Tech isn’t optional.”
It’s a blunt, if somewhat ironic statement, from PwC Australia’s Chief Digital Officer, Vishy Narayanan. He immediately follows it by espousing the importance of behavioural change above all else in addressing the challenges of the future. The technology itself barely gets a look in during our talk.
It makes sense though, when Narayanan explains the role he occupies. With the absorption of the CIO role into his remit earlier this year, the CDO sits firmly in between business and technology, “helping to pull both together”. He likes to joke that PwC Australia killed the traditional IT function.
Previously, a CIO had a larger role given a big part of a business is infrastructure and ops. With the shift to the cloud and increasing rate of technological change, however, there’s a significant reduction of that core IT footprint.
But that doesn’t mean less work, it just means different work. Such as skilling employees in the ways of digital.
It’s a change thing
“As a 135-something year old firm, evolving with technological change isn’t easy,” says Narayanan.
But the firm is ambitiously looking to capitalise on this change, and build on its strength as a knowledge-based business to offer tech capability as a professional service in its own right. Increasing its capability in this area however has not been without its challenges.
As emerging technology and automation have evolved, so has the need to upskill staff. While it might be nice to think that people with skills in machine learning, automation and data analytics are grown on trees and easily harvested, the reality is not so abundant, says Narayanan.
And besides, he points out, PwC has taken the stance – very strongly – that technology is about opportunity. This optimistic outlook on the future led to a commitment to upskilling leadership and staff, and the fact that the majority of employees and partners understand, are invested in, and committed to change gives the business great license to transform.
This is where Narayanan’s focus on the importance of behavioural change comes in. Rather than implementing a tech program, PwC instead decided to run a “whole of firm behavioural change, learning and development program” called Digital IQ.
Partners and leaders first
Measured across four areas – skillset, behaviour, mindset and relationships – the program, which has successfully run in the US and UK firms, begins with a test which assesses a person’s ‘IQ’ in matters digital. Once a score has been given, a tailored learning program is suggested, which staff have 11 weeks to complete before retaking the test with the aim of improving.
Behaviour must start at the top, though, and rather than just put all the digital learning on the young or newly employed, all 700 plus Australian partners took the Digital IQ test at the annual partner summit.
“I expected most would keep their scores under wraps and we’d be lucky to get 50% of partners reporting their scores. We were pleasantly surprised when nearly 90% chose to disclose their IQ to peers,” Narayanan says.
Moreover, they went on to commit to actions to improve their scores, and name what learning areas they would invest time in. This was a necessary milestone to reach for the program, because partners have to lead themselves, before they can then lead their people and better solve clients’ problems using technology – imprinting the necessity of digital competence by demonstrating it.
It’s a model that can be used by all businesses, says Narayanan. Start with the C-suite, the board and then move downwards.
Bug-testing and implementation
When asked what the most challenging parts of implementing the change program were, Narayanan freely admits there were a few.
“Many were overcome through the journey naturally. But in fact, one of the benefits we had was that we already had momentum. Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane were moving to new offices – with new ways of working and technology embedded in them.”
“While this change created a certain amount of churn and angst, or flux as I call it, when driving a change like this you must have an element of it already happening. Otherwise you’re embarking on transformation from a standing start. That’s a much harder proposition”
The other element that had to be overcome was time itself.
