Operational Leadership: Lessons from PwC’s COO - with John Berriman

And the operational mindset is something, you know, with my consulting background that I find very interesting indeed, because, you know, people look at implementation, execution, as it's sometimes called, as, you know, that'll just happen.

And I don't look at it that way.

So what kind of views have you got around this thing, which is operational mindset and efficiency and effectiveness and implementation?

I suppose in my case, I've always been, I guess, what's called a completer finisher.

I find it sort of unattractive if something's 90% done and the rest is not done.

And funnily enough, in a firm like PwC, where you've got the best part of 1,000 partners who are all busy doing their own thing, but within a strategic intent that the firm lays out.

You don't get a lot of people who fancy making their time doing operations.

But I did enjoy that.

And I think if I look back, when I first joined Coopers, I was allocated to an audit group and we had 30 people on the group.

26 people on the group went to Oxford or Cambridge.

And I came in from a nine month foundation course in accountancy at North London Polytechnic.

I'd had a very good education at private school, but I'd spent more time on the tennis court.

I hadn't found water skiing at that stage than I did studying.

And it was probably a bit of a shock to me and probably to my parents.

And I went off to the poly.

I came top in the poly, which was what enabled me to apply to and secure a role with Coopers.

But I was very conscious that I was in an environment where if I was going to succeed, I probably needed a slightly different string to my bow.

And this may amuse you.

One of the very early things that I did operationally is that I found the filing system in our office to be very frustrating.

Whenever I wanted to find something, it was never in the place it ought to be.

And I guess I'd been in the firm a couple of years at that stage.

I was only 20.

And one Saturday, I took the tube down from my flat with some screwdrivers and I unscrewed all the filing system and completely revamped it.

I have to say, I hadn't had permission for doing so.

But when everyone came in on the Monday, of course, no one could find anything.