Skills-building opportunities should be extended to people outside of the mainstream talent pool. That might include at-risk youth, veterans returning to the workforce, or immigrants struggling to make a life for themselves in a foreign culture. The process for creating wealth must begin with creating opportunity for all.
I grew up in India. From my childhood, I remember the great reverence that people held for our national hero, Mahatma Gandhi. He galvanized millions to march as one, disarmed the empire that had ruled his country for nearly a century, and enabled India to become a free and independent nation.
Fresh out of grad school, I arrived for my first day of work at Deloitte ready for the long haul. For my generation, that's what those early years were about - laying the foundation for a lifelong career with a great organization. More than 30 years later, I'm still with Deloitte, and I have no regrets.
For acquiring companies, the excitement is almost always about where they are going - that is, their strategy for gaining greater growth and productivity. But when mergers fail, it's often because no one focused on who they are - that is, their culture, which is critical to successfully bringing different groups of people together.
Technology is advancing at breakneck speed, upending old ways of doing business and resetting the social contract between employers and employees.
In exceptional boardrooms, the intellectual rigor generated by a challenging question is both an accepted norm and a precursor to reaching informed decisions. This is the crucial edge that sets apart boards that lead from boards that follow.
What I would say is that if someone faces discrimination, they should never back down. They should be self-confident and educate others not to have such an attitude.
Success in M&As comes with executing with vigour along with the obvious right choices that you got to make.
All the good work in the world will not compensate for the damage that a single facet of the business, or a rogue individual, can do. Insider trading, environmental damage, human-rights violations, and opportunistic practices erode trust and result in net negative impact.
