Deloitte Global CEO Discusses Attracting Top Talent, Investing Through a Recession at UVA Darden

A global recession may be looming, but forward-thinking corporations are unlikely to retreat and retrench. Speaking at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business as part of the Leadership Speaker Series in conversation with Darden Dean Scott Beardsley, Deloitte Global CEO Joe Ucuzoglu said he sees an increasing sentiment among business leaders of “not letting the short-term business cycle disrupt critical core investments in transformation.”

Companies know that current megatrends around embracing technology, leveraging analytics and empowering the most talented people are going to be core to success in the coming decades, and a temporary recession is unlikely to shake those calculations.

“Even if we do hit [a recession], you want to be investing through the cycle so you can come out stronger,” said Ucuzoglu. Rather than retreating in the face of storm clouds, companies are “hoarding talent” and investing in people and technology to ensure they are well positioned for the medium- and long-term.

The corporate and consumer worlds are in the early stages of the adoption of a transformative set of technologies, the convergence of which is changing the way we work. Ucuzoglu shared that a recessionary cycle will do little to alter that trajectory.

In an era of historically low unemployment in the United States, the CEO of the professional services firm shared that the most critical governor of growth is having enough talent, and addressed concerns that technology would render professional services positions obsolete any time soon; instead, the adoption of new technologies is making professionals “that much more powerful,” he said.

Deloitte has long been part of a popular career path for UVA and Darden students, and Ucuzoglu said there were currently around 1,000 UVA alumni working across Deloitte’s businesses.

Today’s graduates increasingly want to work somewhere that aligns with their values, Ucuzoglu shared, one of the many reasons the company has tried to be vocal and transparent on issues such as sustainability and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). On the latter topic, Ucuzoglu shared that it was clear that promises and pledges in the wake of the corporate rush toward DEI issues in 2020 was insufficient, and the company has tried to be “ultra-transparent” in its efforts to live up to its ideals.

To that end, the company instituted an annual DEI Transparency Report, offering concrete goals on topics such as diversifying the workforce and leadership and tracking progress.

DEI is just one area where consumers expect businesses to take a leadership role, as the purpose and role of business becomes more expansive, Ucuzoglu shared, juxtaposing the shareholder-primacy mindset of the past with a stakeholder mindset. In a time of declining trust in societal institutions such as media and government, trust in business has remained relatively resilient; operating in the best interest of a broad cross-section of stakeholders is the best way to maintain that trust, Ucuzoglu suggested.

Similarly, the notion of the all-knowing and domineering corporate leader of yesteryear has been “chipped away at over time,” Ucuzoglu shared. Today’s effective leader is highly empathetic, values-based and has a learning-mindset aware of what they do not know.

The leader who is confident he or she has “it all figured out,” is the leader who is likely not poised for success, the CEO shared.