Heroes in Business - Steve Payne Consulting Vice Chair Ernst & Young Americas ($37Billion GLOBAL revenue)

Episode Date: March 23, 2021

Whoever said Don’t Question things? Steve Payne Consulting Vice Chair Ernst & Young Americas ($37Billion GLOBAL revenue) is interviewed by David Cogan founder of Eliances and host of the Eliances Heroes Show. Broadcast on am and fm network channels, internet radio and online syndication.    

Welcome back to Alliances Heroes, where heroes in business align. To be part of our super community and find out more about All as you know we just published where I interviewed the chairman of CBS so make sure that you go to alliances.com that's Eli a and CES calm because as you know it is the only place where entrepreneurs align well imagine this of all, overseeing one consultant is a lot. How about 10,000? Still not enough? How about 20,000 consultants? Our next hero, that's he oversees more than Americas, $37.2 billion in global revenue. Count that. And you can reach him at ey.com. Steve, I don't know how in the world, first of all, it's hard managing one consultant. And I know from past history, having been a consultant, everybody's got an opinion as a consultant. How in the world do you keep track of 20,000 plus? Well, we have a wonderful team at EY, David. So we have a great infrastructure and a great team where, you know, obviously I don't have 20,000 people directly

reporting to me, but I have a wonderful team up and down the Americas who helped me lead these wonderful people. Now we've gotten some listeners and viewers submit some questions. And one of those questions is that, how do you go about deciding, picking, and skills that you look for? And especially with everything going on in the world, but there's always something going on in the world and stuff. But being able to, you know, what attributes do you look at of who to hire? And then the second part of that was from another person was, how do you, with everybody now working so remotely and at home, how do you keep track of performance? Two great questions. So depending, the skill sets that we recruit for will depend on the capabilities and the actual area that we're looking to recruit from. So we have people that are highly technology-driven,

so whether they be cyber experts, we have people who are expert in data and analytics. We have people who are transformation architects who work with business leaders all over the world to reimagine and reframe their businesses. So the different skill sets will apply to the different functions that they will play inside of EY, inside of our consulting practice. But there's some common attributes. Clearly, we want people who are

analytical. We want people who have got a curiosity to learn and do more. We want people who've got a confidence about them. We do love people who've got some swagger. We don't like arrogant people, but we love people who've got swagger and confidence and really want to work together with other people across the whole of EY around the world to help our clients solve their biggest issues. And talk to us about this new digital first mindset and traditionally analog companies or industries. What's the digital first aspect?

Well, I think that it's just, I think in the last few years, David, we've seen that people's minds have been opened around what does it mean to be digital first? And I think there's a couple of different things. I think most people's entree into the digital world are, you know, through their phones. You know, the fact that, you know, I can leave my home here in South Carolina, get a taxi, get a flight, get a hotel, do all of those things without needing a wallet because I can do everything, making reservations, check in, call a taxi, all through digital is amazing. And of course, so that's people's, I think, early adoption to the world of digital, then this pandemic has changed it in such a big way. Because as you

mentioned, you know, EY has moved 300,000 people out of offices and out of client sites to deliver the work remotely. And the fact that we're working with our clients who most often are also remote is that that connectivity has changed. But that's just one element of digital. That's really around the communication platforms. If you look at how people now connect with their clients, use technology to reimagine how they can give their customers a different experience, their employees a different experience, their suppliers,

everyone in their ecosystem a different experience, that is all enabled by the digital revolution. So with that, Steve, what does your crystal ball say in regards to the future if when things start opening up in that, will workplaces have employees and consultants come back? Or is it now where we're in the thing is, hey, it's remote, we're making it work? I mean, that's what people want to know. That's a great question. And I don't think it's a one size fits all. So there is no doubt this industry has gone, you know, we've swung the pendulum very far the opposite direction from

being road warriors to now working remote, not necessarily in offices, but even from home. So I hope and I expect that this will change the way we work. There are going to be new ways of working. I think several things are going to happen. One is that one of the challenges of this industry is attracting and retaining talent who want some work-life balance as opposed to traveling all the time. Now, we have people who love the idea of traveling, and we'll do that for their whole career. So I think the opportunity here is going to be, A, our people are not going to want to travel as much. Everyone is craving, absolutely craving that human interaction,

whether it be with our teams or with our clients. But I think our clients are looking at the way they work. They won't have to want to find space to have us reside in their buildings full time. Perhaps they don't want the expenses of us flying and traveling to spend time with them. So again, they will want to see us and we want to see them, but finding that right balance. But then there will be other people who are desperate to get to the office. You know, the average age of someone at EY is 26.7 years old. So you may have two or three people sitting in an apartment in New York, joining webcasts and video calls from the edge of their bed. So even though they may not want to travel, I am sure that they're looking forward

to getting back into an EY office so they can actually sit in comfort and not have to listen to other conversations at the same time. And again, I'm interviewing Steve Payne, consulting vice chair at Ernst & Young, $37.2 billion in global revenue. And again, you can reach him at ey.com, ey.com, because you're listening, watching me, David Kogan, host of the E-Alliances Hero Show. So you know, again, the only place to go, E-Alliances, E-L-I-A-N-C-E-S.com, the only place where entrepreneurs align. Steve, what kind of advice can you give?

You know, you've been very successful in your career. I mean, you've climbed the corporate ladder, responsible for over 20,000 consultants. That's a huge responsibility. What advice could you give perhaps? You know, you mentioned the average age of E&Y. The advice that you can give to parents now that want their children to be successful, maybe perhaps work for such a prestigious company like EY. And now with, again, the people being home, what kind of things, advice would you give to them to start

that and instill the right things in them? That's another great question, David. I love the idea of people entering the consulting industry. I think that in some ways it's like doing national service, is that you get such an experience to so many different opportunities, whether it be different technical skills that you're going to be asked to apply yourself to, to different industries. So in a very few short years, you can expose yourself to an array of experiences

that if you join a corporation, you may not get for many, many years. So I'd encourage people to take risks, be bold, lean into things, be the sponge, learn as much as you possibly can, ask questions, be curious. And really, again, lean into every opportunity you can because how much you progress often is in your control, right? Be bold. Lean in. Make a difference. Stand

out. And Steve, with all the projects that you've been involved with, which I can only imagine how big that number is, is there one particular project that stands out the most that you're just like, wow. There's so many. I mean, we do so many works. I've done work, David, over the years where I've helped prison systems reduce inventory inside the prisons because the offenders make products, which is a unique experience. But I see some of the work we're doing today in terms of helping organizations or government and states issue and distribute vaccines. We see the work that we're doing with some of the financial institutions. We're helping them get loans out to small businesses, which is very, very rewarding. So we do some really cool projects. We help the largest

organizations in the world reimagine their future and help them make that transformation, bringing the power of everything that EY has from consulting, strategy, tax, risk, assurance, all embedded in those capabilities. And they are fantastic projects. And then there's some of these other projects which look quite small on the surface, but very, very rewarding to the individuals because they're grounded in a purpose. Excellent. Well, Steve, I need to ask you because we talked a lot about digital and stuff. But one thing that I noticed and our viewers were noticed, too, and if I don't ask that, they're going to get mad at me is is that you don't have a digital watch. What kind of watch do you have? I have a three hundred dollar analog watch.

It's true. Everything else from a digital perspective, I've got timers, I've got calendars, I've got everything I need on my phone. So I have to confess, I'm a little bit old-fashioned with the analog watch. Excellent, excellent. Well, Steve, you provide the people, the technology, and innovation to help all businesses transform. You know what? That's a hero. Consulting Vice Chairman Ernst & Young. You could reach Steve Payne at ey.com. This has been David Kogan with the Alliance's Hero Show.