Great minds think differently
With constant change making flexibility the key to future success, Fisher Leadership has introduced new cognitive diversity discussion modules, encouraging board directors and C-suites to think outside the box.
Fisher Leadership is renowned for bringing diverse talent to the executive and board table. Over the past 20 years, half the appointments to executive roles have been women. The firm has also facilitated the recruitment of more than 25 senior Indigenous executives to key roles around the country. This expertise is behind the company’s purpose of “creating a world of difference”. Headed up by new managing director Michelle Loader, the executive search practice has grown to include the CogNative Advisory and Gig Executive businesses – aiming not only to recruit diverse talent but also to curate cognitive diversity (diversity of thought) as a competitive advantage at the decision-making table. When Asialink, Australia’s leading centre for Asia engagement, commissioned Fisher Leadership to recruit the new position of CEO of Asialink Business in 2014, the board was seeking an outstanding executive who could expand operations abroad. For Fisher Leadership’s founding director, Jo Fisher, the ideal candidate required “special skills, agile thinking and adaptive leadership”, given Asia’s diversity of cultures and business styles. But they also needed breadth and diversity of thought if they were to lead a future-focused business. Mukund Narayanamurti, a director of KPMG with a gold-standard MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management in the United States, was a stand-out candidate. Fisher Leadership recognised his capacity to achieve real impact, thanks to his mindset and frame of reference. However, Narayanamurti, then in his 30s, was younger than other candidates, he came from the professional services sector and his career path differed from other leaders at Asialink. Could he get up to speed fast enough? Fisher Leadership felt the answer was a firm yes; his capacity for fresh perspective was, in fact, his greatest asset. Five years later the gamble has more than paid off. Narayanamurti is a recognised leader in the field, Asialink Business has grown and diversified under his watch and he’s passionate about cognitive diversity at the C-suite level. “Australia needs a diversity of ideas, capabilities and cultural intelligence to navigate technological, social, economic and geopolitical changes,” he says. Says Loader, “As executive solutions experts, we have a responsibility to find and attract the right talent, who are highly qualified and offer new frames of reference and experience, to help mitigate the risk of reinforcing collective blindness. Ultimately, we are influencing a better future for all.”