LUKE VISCONTI: Your background seems to be exceptional for a CEOthe government-service aspect of it was particularly interesting. How do you think your diversity of experiences added value to you as a leader at EY
MARK WEINBERGER: I did work in government for a long period of time, in different elements, for different political parties. I was an entrepreneurstarted my own firm and grew it until I sold itand have worked in big business. The advantage it gives you is to be nimble, to learn how to really listen and distill lots of different points of view, and be able to try and carry it forward. When you’re in government you don’t have authority to get all the votes you need from different members of Congress, so you have to persuade them, you have to convince them of the why not just the whatthat’s really important in business, too.
When you’re an entrepreneur and you need to create your own brand and you’ve got to build yourself up and tell people why they should hire you as a small startup, you’ve got to convince them of the why. You’ve got to persuade them of what you bring that’s different. When you run a large organization and you have 175,000 people around the world, you’ve got to get them to understand the direction you’re going in and move them in that way, and that’s all skills you learn from each of those different elements of the roles that I’ve had.
