What opportunities do you see in 2025?
There’s a real opportunity to help businesses grow and prepare for the future. We anticipate that 2025 will be the year that AI moves from experimentation to enterprise scale, and we’re already seeing some emerging leaders in this space, particularly in the financial services and telecommunications sectors. At Accenture, we talk about AI as the next “digital”, and it will be truly transformative. Our New Zealand research for Microsoft found generative AI could more than double our productivity – growing GDP by 1% per year and adding $76 billion per year to NZ’s economy by 2038.
What will it take to kick-start New Zealand’s economy?
The economy is showing signs of improvement. Inflation is within the Reserve Bank’s target and interest rates are reducing quickly. According to ANZ data, business confidence is at a 10-year high, which is a very important portend of their expectations to invest. Most business leaders I’ve met are fairly pragmatic about the macro-environment going into 2025. Productivity remains stubbornly low. Raising it not only lifts our economy – it lifts the standard of living and wellbeing for ordinary Kiwis. To achieve growth in this challenging environment, many of our clients are looking to reinvent their businesses through large transformations, while cutting costs at the same time. We’re also seeing a big focus on talent and the development of future-ready skills, which is a great thing for the nation. The other big consideration in this context is, of course, the role of AI and automation in driving productivity.
How will a Trump presidency affect the geopolitical dynamics?
No matter who’s in charge, many of our clients are understandably focused on how global events might affect their businesses. A Trump presidency could bring changes in geopolitical relationships, impacting areas like trade, regulations, even security. The movement for deglobalisation is a challenge for any trade dependent nation such as New Zealand and that will affect decision-making, potentially sparking interest in nurturing new trade markets. But one thing is clear: Kiwi governments and businesses have always had to navigate through geopolitical change. The real opportunity lies in how they adapt to these changes.
What are the concrete actions your company has taken to reduce climate change?
When it comes to our own footprint, we follow the same advice that we give our clients, working closely with our suppliers and investing responsibly to reduce the impact of our operations. For example, 95% of our applications run in the cloud and we’ll keep advising clients to be cloud first organisations. Globally, we are the largest professional services company to have an emissions reduction goal approved by the Science Based Targets Initiative, including a commitment to reduce our scope-one and [scope-two] emissions by 65% by 2025 from our 2016 baseline. We also set requirements on suppliers – 82% now share what action they are taking.
How are you increasing diversity in your business?
We’re continuing to build on what’s already working. Unquestionably, succeeding in this period of global uncertainty and change requires new perspectives, skills and types of leadership – all of which I believe we need in a diverse and inclusive workforce. That means throwing everything into making sure Accenture remains a workplace of choice for people of all backgrounds. This work includes unconscious bias training for team members, specialised learning, flexible work arrangements, mentoring, and mental health resources.
What is your New Year’s resolution?
More reading, less screens.
Where and how are you holidaying this summer?
We’re due to move back into our family home in Waterview in mid-January after a long renovation, so I expect I’ll be spending the break packing boxes!
What would you recommend as a good podcast to listen to over Summer?
I started listening to the Between Two Beers podcasts a few months back and have enjoyed those.
