2020 CEO Survey: Richard Deutsche, Deloitte

With the right technology infrastructure and preparedness it is easier to respond to major disruption, says Deloitte Australia chief Richard Deutsche.

What are the three enduring lessons or changes to flow from COVID-19?

Like so many organisations we learned many lessons as a result of COVID-19 but three enduring changes for Deloitte are agility, hybrid working and the importance of digital.

Agility: I think we proved that we could move quickly to respond and by responding quickly we were able to focus on recovery for us and for our clients. We are now turning our attention to how we and Australian business, government and society can thrive in a post COVID-19 world.

We learned that there are many aspects of work that can be done anywhere, and elements of this will remain. At Deloitte we were able to move more than 9000 people to working from home in just a couple of days. We are now looking at how we can be more flexible with where, how and when we work, and looking for ways to use technology to transform both our clients and our own business at pace.

Digital: The COVID-19 crisis acted as a rapid accelerator for many aspects of business models, particularly digitisation of the business model and moving to the cloud. We have learned that these are critical capabilities for high-functioning public and private organisations and you must continuously invest in them.

How would you rate the shape of the Australian economy as we head into the new year?

Australia is in a very fortunate position. We have effectively got the health aspects of the crisis under control so we can turn our focus to our economy. With the state borders opening we can take control of our own destiny within the country and drive economic activity through to 2021.

What three reforms are needed to sustainably grow the economy?

In 2020 government and business worked closely together and that led to some great outcomes that have supported the Australian economy. If government and business continue to do this into 2021 and beyond this will lead to sustainable economic growth. Continuing this collaboration will, no doubt, lead to policy reforms that are supported by both government and business, which will increase the chances of their success. In relation to broadbased tax reform, more specifically, there are many elements of this that, when completed, will drive sustainable growth for the Australian economy.

What are the three best growth opportunities for your company in 2021?

The best growth opportunities for all organisations in Australia are aligned to the forward success of the country, which includes the digitisation of our economy.

This year we saw the rapid acceleration of digitisation across business, government and society. In 2021, Australia needs to harness the best of this change and lock-in the benefits for sectors such as health and education as well as ensure the safety of our increasingly digitised lives through cyber skills and infrastructure.

For Deloitte, we are seeing opportunities as the organisations we work with move to prepare for these changes. In addition, there are new opportunities emerging in Asia Pacific for our firm. It is an exciting time to be part of shaping the future of the country and to give our people growth opportunities through their work.

Finally, and I think most importantly, we need to invest in our people, in their skills, leadership capabilities, personal agility and resilience. This is something we are very focused on in our firm – the personal growth mindset.

What impact will digital transformation have on your company?

We have been a leader in digital transformation and putting digital at the heart of everything we do for many years and that has put us in a terrific position to support our clients and meet their needs, even before the pandemic.

As the world responded to COVID-19, we saw the need for ourselves and all businesses and government agencies to accelerate the shift to digital to enable virtual working and to continue to support customers and citizens. We saw that with the right technology infrastructure and preparedness, it is easier to respond to major disruption.

This rapid acceleration in the shift to digital has changed many businesses for the better, opened up growth opportunities and forced organisations to reflect on what is possible going forward. That has been our experience as well.

Digital and technology transformation is a significant opportunity for Deloitte as a business. We have invested heavily in our capability in cloud, digital, data and analytics for many years, so that we can work better with our clients but also transform our own business. In 2019 we created a Virtual Office to enable more virtual ways of working. In 2020 this came into its own as our people shifted to working entirely remotely. And in 2021 we are working to ensure our virtual mindset enables our people access to more opportunities without geographic constraints.

How would you rate business, state and federal government performance this year?

If we look at where we are in Australia today, we are in a privileged position on the global stage because we have the health crisis under control and we have real economic activity returning to Australia. That is a testament to the federal and state governments and business working together to achieve mutual outcomes for the citizens and communities of Australia.