David Pearson, Managing Partner and Chief Executive Officer of Deloitte CIS, believes that integrity, commitment and support are his core values.
1. What values do you share in life and within your organization?
Number one is integrity. You need to be working with people either as partners or as our staff or our clients but you trust them. There has to be integrity and that is not up to discussion. Another one is commitment. As a partner it is expected that you are doing everything you can to help the partnership. And I think that level of commitment is absolutely critical as well. I do think that part of partnership is also around support and being there for each other. There is an expression in English: "I'll throw you in the water and you swim or drown", as an idea about hoping people succeed and I don't agree with that. I think you support people to be successful. I think that's incredibly important. Particularly in our environment where there is a lot of young leaders in Russia. And we all need development and support as we grow up, no matter the role. Those are some of the values for me.
2. Do you have any examples?
Integrity, where it has been tested. Fortunately there are very few situations where I found that there was a lack of integrity. However there are certainly situations with clients or with our people where we had evidence of lack of integrity, where they are not being honest about something and if that's true then we have to sever ties immediately. And I have an example where it was someone very important in this firm. Not recently but a couple of years ago. And there were questions about integrity; well, a person can't be here. Did it result in less money? Yes. Was it the right decision? Yes. So, I think, that's an example around integrity use. It's not negotiable. It doesn't matter really who the individual is and what they bring, if there is a lack of integrity and you can't trust them, it's not going to work in our environment. Around commitment, I see examples of commitment teaching everyday. It's fantastic; I get a call in November from one of our biggest clients. It was 10h30 at night. He said, "Dave, can you help me?". I said, "Certainly, let me talk to you tomorrow morning". I had a meeting with five partners at 8h00 in the morning. They all picked up their phones that night or emails. We were in the office at 8 o'clock the next morning; we were at the client at 12 o'clock, saying, "How can we really help you. Here are the ideas we've generated this morning." And there are hundreds of examples like that where you are committed to each other, and you're committed to the client and that's fantastic.
3. Do you have any examples around support?
I have lots of examples around support too. One of my favorite stories is I had quite a difficult client about ten years ago and we were doing a transaction for this client, a very stressful situation. I was in London, it was about 1h00 in the morning, I think, or 2h00 in the morning. It was one of our bigger clients, and the client said, "do this or else." And I said "No". It was not the right answer. The right answer... this is the right answer. And I called two of my senior partners at the time in Moscow - I was a young guy back ten years ago - and said, "Can you help me? This is what has happened. This is what I said." And I was nervous as you can imagine, you know, big client and, saying, we're mad at you. And they said, "We support you, Dave. So, you're making the right decision, if you need us to help, let us know". So, thirty minutes later - now it's five in the morning in Moscow or something - another phone call, "This is the right decision, you know, I'm confident this is the right decision for you, even though you don't agree with me", and the individual said "ok". But that would have been much more difficult if I did not have the support of my partners, who I was able to wake up at 4h30 in the morning in Moscow and say, "guys, that is what's going on". And, so, that support is what critical. So, those are a couple of examples around values
4. Integrity is not just about lying or stealing, it's about much more complicated situations sometimes.
I think you're absolutely right and it is almost always a difficult situation. You know, rarely, is someone stealing something. They are trying to make a decision. And they bend what shouldn't be bent. People want to think that everything is black or white and, as you know, it's not. Almost never it is black or white. People are intelligent, people are good, I believe; and, so, you're in the grey and you're having to assess a difficult situation almost every time. Why did you make that decision? What were you thinking? So, you end up with tough answers sometimes like your example there.
5. For me it is always a question how the company can keep integrity inside if they have to ask their people to do something wrong outside.
Well, it is a big trick, but in our environment and with many companies in Russia, I don't believe that all companies in Russia have kick backs and all the rest of it. I think more companies than we believe are good honest companies and I know we are. And how we deal with it, with our people, is - if this is the line, and if there any chance we can get closer to the line, we are going to say "no" in advance. We don't want to put ourselves in a position where it would even be considered. And our people after working here and seeing this, I believe, they think the same way. So, you avoid all those steps, you avoid those situations: that could result in kick backs or something, some issues you don't want to be involved in. But, again, like you said, it's not subject to discussion. We had an opportunity about six months ago, a million dollars - a million dollars right now, it's a nice project and it was a great project, we were going to be very good at it, it was just in our strength. And the client said, "Ok, everything is fine but I want you to structure your agreement to be like this, which is not what the agreement should look like". The agreement should be: ok, we are going to start doing it over six months, you pay us five times. Right? Instead, we had a structure: so, you pay this company and this company, and this company, some this year, some next year, etc. We said. "No. it's not in substance what's happening, we can't agree to that". And, so, we walked away from it. And we're not the only company that has those types of examples, I'm sure. Could I stand up and explain this to the five interns as to why we did it? No. Well, what are you teaching them than? They are looking to us on the path, so, that was the decision, and there were lots of examples like this.
6. Some people believe that business is about cheating and stealing and pending honors...
It's sad, because it's not like that. We have hundreds of clients and they are honest business people, and they are trying to do what's best. They're trying to earn a living. Most are not billionaires. Of course, you think about richest men, women in the country but most are just good honest people who are trying to do a good job, raise a family quite honestly, I believe. And, there's probably more corruption here than in many countries but that doesn't mean we're all corrupt. And, in fact, I think that makes us stronger to avoid it.
