August 24, 2022

Cultural Capability and Business Success Report: 5 top business leaders making cultural capability a cornerstone of their success

The Superdiversity Institute is proud to launch the “Cultural Capability and Business Success” report.

The report signals the start of a serious conversation about what the S in ESG means. In the 21st century, we’ve caught up to the fact that business ‘success’ must incorporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) imperatives, as well as financial ones. But much of the focus has been on environmental and governance imperatives, and it has not always been sufficiently clear that ‘social’ imperatives include cultural considerations.

The reality is that businesses that fail to put a proper cultural framework on ESG will compromise their ability to relate to culturally diverse staff and customers and this will detrimentally impact their bottom line.

In this report, we hear from five business leaders who are part of a vanguard who understand that cultural intelligence and capability (CQ) is critical to business success:

  1. Rob Hennin – CEO of nib New Zealand
  2. Kiri Nathan – Director and Designer of fashion label Kiri Nathan
  3. Shayne Walker – Group CE of Ngati Porou Holding Company
  4. Scott Pritchard – CEO of Precinct Properties New Zealand
  5. Angela Lim – CEO and Co-Founder of Clearhead

 

Quotes from the Report:

Shayne Walker – We have started talking about using a capital C – ESGC – to say, actually if you lump us in the ‘social’ then we as indigenous people get lost, and we don’t like that” 

Angela Lim – “A fish might not know it’s swimming in water, but if you come from outside that environment, you can see the water. As a migrant you can see things that aren’t visible to others”.  “Then having to assimilate in some ways into the new environment means that you have to learn what other people consider ‘normal’ or ‘positive’. So instead of it being much more subconscious, it is a much more deliberate way of understanding the cultural environment that you are operating in” 

Kiri Nathan – “If you look after the culture then the business looks after itself”

Rob Hennin – “If you want to distinguish yourself in the marketplace, culture matters – to your customers and to your staff. It matters every single day”

Scott Pritchard – “10,000 people worked on Commercial Bay – from a huge range of different cultures. I’ve always found that if you treat people with respect, understand their values, and what drives them, you will get more out of it, on both a personal and professional level”. Scott “The important thing is not being afraid to ask questions when you don’t know something. In almost every respect I will get advice and get people around me who will guide me in the right direction. I’ll ask and ask and ask” 

If you wish to download the report please click here:

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