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Responsible CEO How do you articulate the overall vision to your workforce? Is it a But again, we also wanted to engage our own people. And we heavy lift? were missing the chance to also engage the families of our people. Once you frame it as sustainability—not philanthropy—our people So we kicked off KPMG Family for Literacy as a spouse-led program. get it. The lifeblood of KPMG is our talent. We could have come They provided the expertise on who needed the books and what at diversity and inclusion from a social responsibility standpoint. the best way was to get them to those who need them. In the past But we chose to come at it from an angle that I think is much five years, we've distributed two million new books to kids. My wife more effective—sustainability. For that, we have to be diverse and was walking through an airport, and she saw a poster connecting inclusive. I don't care color or se or whatever they are, if they don't third grade reading failures to prison cell predictions. It's all think they're going to have a phenomenal career with us, we won't about leveraging. If I start with 22,000 employees that's a lot of have the best talent. horsepower, but if I engage the families maybe I now have 100,000 And metrics? people. We even involved our interns, and they have taken the idea back to their schools, so now we have literacy programs on a bunch Our commitment to measurement, accountability, diversity, and of college campuses. That's the power of leveraging not just your inclusion is light years ahead of where it was just three years ago. employees, but the broader community. I want a partenership that's 30 percent diverse by 2015, which would be up from 25 now. Easier said than done, but what we did So this is not run-of-the-mill checkbook philanthropy? a couple of years ago was establish measurable criteria across 150 Right. Much of our CR actitvy does not flow through the leaders throughout the firm. We track voluntary turnover of high- foundation. Because this is in many ways the heart and soul of the performing diverse members of the workforce. We measure the company, it's not a foundation sitting off to the side and giving diversity of our major client teams' representation—it can become money. I should add that this is not something new to KPMG since self-fulfilling in some ways. And this is important. You take a I've been in leadership. I've been here 35 years, and this has never diverse indivudial who joins us, we now ask what they are doing in the first three years. You have to start at the very beginning. Those weren't questions that our partners were being asked a few years ago. just been a commitment—it's been an expectation that if you're going to be an outstanding KPMG profesional, you can't just focus on self, career, and firm. When we interview new partnership candidates, this is front and center that we are about the greater But this is about the business case, not sprouts and granola, right? good. Exactly. It's easier that way, making the transition from thinking But the concept of CR has evolved and expanded during your career, about diversity as a social good to its criticality for the marketplace. hasn't it? It is a social good, of course, but it's much deeper than that. You don't have the option of thinking this isn't important. If you ignore that, you're not getting promoted, because you're not the wellrounded leader I need in the future if you're only delivering on one dimension. If I'm sitting one on one with an employee, it doesn't matter how many speeches I've made if I'm not bringing this up consistently in my own behavior in a cascading kind of way. Yes, but the managing partner in the Washington office when I started was as committed and focused on community improvement as anybody around today. I think it has to do with the recognition that we're a somewhat unusual professional services firm, with talent based in 90 cities, as opposed to equipment and factories with material assets in four or five locations. You can't have 1,500 people working in Washington, taking the fruits of the economic What about your outward-facing efforts? What's the substance of your vitality of the city, without saying it's my job to help improve this work and stakeholder engagement beyond your office walls? city, too. Education is the overarching theme of our efforts, cradle to grave. We have a Ph.D program that's been around for 15 years, trying So it's a self-improvement imperative in a way? to get minority professors in front of the classroom. But we didn't Sure. Forget that it's the right thing to do. Forget that you have the whole continuum. So now we have an alliance with want to improve the city. If you don't buy any of that, I always felt the National Academy Foundation, which gets us to the high that the opportunities I had outside the firm—on board of a couple school level. And we have our literacy program, teamed with of nonprofits, four years chairing an association—those were First Book, which is a 501c3 in Washington, D.C. The idea was personal skill building too. That's why I tell our people that you're not to create something brand new but to team with partners missing a huge opportunity if you don't take advantage that have expertise. of things outside work. [10] CR MAGAZINE | MAY/JUNE 2013