Lessons from a pandemic – CEO panel discussion, 16 June 2022
Leading teams and organisations over the past two years has been tough-going for many Chief Executives. Last month Cheewei Kwan (Kerridge & Partners) facilitated a panel discussion to reflect on some of the lessons learned through the eyes of three of Aotearoa’s Chief Executives: Carrie Hurihanganui (CEO of Auckland Airport, ex-COO Air New Zealand), Gordon MacLeod (CEO of Ryman Healthcare until Oct 2021), and Melissa Cantell (CEO of Fidelity Life, ex-COO IAG). We were also delighted to be joined by more than 50 Chief Executives amongst the audience.
Left to right: Cheewei Kwan, Melissa Cantell, Gordon MacLeod and Carrie Hurihanganui
The panellists’ experiences took us back to March 2020 when the country was thrust into Level 4 lockdown at the onset of the Covid pandemic. The level of resilience and determination needed to deal with the crisis was felt throughout as the leaders recount the initial shocks to the business. Carrie and the team at Air New Zealand had to implement immediate significant staff reduction - given the available information at the time, Carrie believed that the airline managed to strike a fine balance between commercial preservation and keeping staff in the whānau. A key factor that helped with the process was the huge amount of communication to staff on the dire situation facing the business and the need for survival.
The pandemic hit when Melissa was the COO at IAG and was tasked by the CEO to lead the Covid response for Australia and New Zealand. At that time, IAG has just set up call centres in India, Philippines, and South Africa consisting of more than 1000 staff. Additionally, only 300 of her 4500 staff in NZ were set up to work from home. Within 10 days of the lockdown, the global customer call centre staff were taken out of action. At the same time, customers were flooding the call centres with concerns about their ability to service premium payments and were cancelling policies due to financial hardship. Within a week, Melissa’s resourcefulness and perseverance helped her successfully enabled 4500 staff to operate remotely and effectively respond to customers.
As Gordon and his team at Ryman saw the impact the virus was having on other countries, he immediately sought scientific advice to inform their decision making. A microbiologist was brought in to advise the executive team on decision-making and also help educate staff and residents on the nature of the virus. Before the government decided to shut the borders, the Ryman team made the call to lock-down their retirement villages for the safety of the residents. At that point, this was a bold move as it effectively stopped visits from family members to elderly residents. As a result, Ryman achieved a Covid-free population in all the villages in 2020.
The conversation then dived deeper into how these leaders dealt with the impact of the pandemic on their leadership teams and the employees, and the challenge of decision making when there is so much ambiguity. While leadership at the top can be a lonely place, the CEs also drew tremendous support and wisdom from their executive teams. As the person in charge of leading the Covid response for the organisation, Melissa noted that it was particularly helpful that she was empowered to make decisions quickly given the constantly evolving situation.
Gordon spoke about the need to unite the senior leadership team and the importance of making sure his team fully understood the rationale for any decisions made. Carrie spoke about the need for the leadership team at Air New Zealand to share the burden of communications especially on staff reductions. The importance of constant and frequent communication around business decisions and concern for staff wellbeing were common themes raised by the three leaders.
The way CEs relate with their boards was also significantly impacted by the pandemic. Gordon highlighted the strength of his CE-Chair relationship (they spoke every day for three months at the start of the pandemic) and this was helped to a large extent by the fact that his Chair was a long serving Director and Chair and absolutely aligned with Ryman’s values, and also a GP. The Chair stepped in to keep the Board informed, which allowed Gordon to focus on running the operations. Melissa explained that the IAG board developed a flexible working relationship with the executives, where weekly meetings were held to provide regular support and advice to the executives, and there was no requirement for board papers.
All three leaders have taken away personal leadership lessons from the past two years. One of Carrie’s key takeaways was that sometimes ‘good enough is good enough’. She realised that her usual proclivity for perfectionism was just not viable when leading through a crisis and she has learned to be more flexible and adaptable.
Melissa was pleasantly surprised she still possessed the drive and resilience that she once had when she started out as a young lawyer. Being someone who is driven by change and transformation, she appreciated the opportunity to lead during the pandemic and rapidly implementing systems and policies that made the organisation more agile and future-proof. Her parting comment to us was “don’t wait until the next crisis to work like you’re in one!”.
At Ryman, Gordon was very much guided by the founding principle of the organisation, where actions and decisions have to be ‘good enough for Mum and Dad’. He also spoke about the advantage of investing the time to know his team as individuals when times are good, because when a crisis hits, the leader would be much better able to relate and inspire the team. Gordon also emphasised that while it is critical to deal with the crisis, it is just as important not to be overwhelmed by the tactical issues and to stay focused on the company strategy, e.g. Ryman managed to launch five new retirement villages in the midst of the pandemic.
Those gathered clearly appreciated the personal anecdotes shared by the panel as many have gone through similar experiences over the past two years. Perhaps most sobering was the consensus amongst the leaders that there would be no return to a pre-covid ‘normal’ as the Covid situation continues to evolve. As leaders, while we prepare to deal with the next big crisis., we must not lose sight of the long term strategy.
Our sincere thanks go out to the panel members and all attendees, and we look forward to seeing you at our next event later in the year!