His appointment follows the promotion of Peter Forrester, who, after eight years in the role has joined the company’s national executive team in a new role as regional managing partner responsible for the 14 Deloitte offices outside Sydney and Melbourne.
Mr Forrester will be based in Parramatta. Mr Rezek was formerly MD of Jaguar Australia and leader of Deloitte’s motor industry services group.
Danny spoke exclusively with WSBA editor, Mike Walls.
WSBA: Congratulations Danny, you have been charged with continuing growth of a very successful brand is this region, how do you feel about that?
Danny: I think people are really pleasantly surprised with the experience here at Deloitte because there may be a perception that, you know, we’re this big business and we only deal with big business but the reality is, we deal with clients from $1M to $1B in, in this region. And we service them and that’s whether it’s private or audit or tags or data analytics or, or whatever it might be. The heart of what we do is, is really about the client experience and where we add value and, and I think that’s been the success of the office to date, why it’s demonstrated a significant growth. And, and simply put my role is just to keep, keep that trajectory going.
WSBA: Your core experience is in the motor industry. How do you see your growth in the motor industry connected with the region?
Danny: Well I guess my client base is exactly that spectrum. My clients are from families that own a car dealership through to the corporates, the multinationals. So I’m dealing with clients through that massive spectrum and they’re parts of global entities. The issues that they face in business are not that different to others. I mean at the end of the day a car dealer is a retail business and, and it’s a retail business and as we know retail is a challenging environment. But you know we’ve helped retailers find ways to improve their business and I think that same principle applies whether they’re in the motor industry or their in the nurseries or they’re in chemicals or whatever industry they’re in…property development; the principles apply. It really comes down to people and relationships and the knowledge and the experience that we have and how do we, how do we support them and, and help them grow. Because, I think that ultimately is what this region’s about is growth. And sure, we’ve got a lot of the traditional services that you might expect in the chartered accounting practice but I think a lot of people would be pleasantly surprised that a lot of our products and services are very much geared to helping businesses grow and manage that process and, and whether its sourcing a funding, whether its helping them with strategic planning, whether its just giving them leadership training. It could be all of those things, they’re things that you probably don’t instantly associate with a with a practice that’s probably got its roots in accounting but you know today, Deloitte is, well it’s the largest service provider in the world.
WSBA: And your experience in terms of making this trajectory happen....how do you see this happening?
Danny: Yeah, June the 1st is the big date. Actually I was with Pete just before I came and saw you. We’ve started the handover process.
WSBA: The apprenticeship?
Danny: Yeah the apprenticeship, I’m on the apprenticeship at the moment. His office is based here and he wants to be here and I’m delighted that he’s staying so I think that’s also an important statement about how important this office is to the national practise. So you know we’ve got one of the most senior executives of the entire firm, is actually based here. You know, within the practice here we’ve got a number of centres of excellence that are not just only for western Sydney but also for the national practice.
WSBA: What is striking to many people is the way this firm has been led in this region. How do you see leadership of the business taking shape during your term?
Danny: It is good leadership; it’s a whole range of things. It’s not one single factor. It really comes down again to the people element isn’t it? It’s the person that’s the captain of the team and all the players in our team, so I’ve got big shoes to fill but looking forward to it. My leadership style is very much one around giving people the ability to make those decisions for themselves, allow them to make those decisions and act on them so I guess, I see my role as really being a facilitator. To help them occasionally, maybe guide them. I’m definitely not an autocrat. My style is very much around I guess, we talk about it in our firm as empower and trust. And I truly believe in that and you know my style over the years has been very much along that line and it’s a partnership, it’s a very collegial atmosphere. It’s not a hierarchal business and orders come from on high.
WSBA: Do you see, as a Deloitte Private as an arm that has that got big growth potential there? I mean this area here, western Sydney, is known for a higher percentage of private companies?
Danny: Yes, huge. Look Deloitte Private is a business that specialises in looking after those individuals, families. I guess the private enterprises and even on occasions some of the small cap listed business. So it very much focuses on that market and as you say, you look at western Sydney, if you had to make a generalised statement it’s really the sweet spot for Deloitte Private but, having said that there’s a lot of head offices and buildings housed in Norwest Business Park and so forth that again, icons of the Australian industry but you know we cover that full gamut. And that’s what I said everything from $1M to $1B and beyond really. You know it’s fundamentally around people and logistics for example; managing a team, getting the right levels of productivity, getting the right levels of engagement.
WSBA: That’s obviously your strength, people, and that’s very much in today’s business environment. Do you think leadership has changed over the decades?
Danny: I think leadership styles have changed. In a corporate environment I’m talking about. I think absolutely so. I think as society moves, you know I go back when I first started a long time ago you know the style was probably an autocratic style. I’m sure if you read the different books and articles around leadership ….you’ve got the generational change and when you look at our business you’ve got a large percentage of our team is under 30 years of age.
WSBA: That bodes well for the future?
Danny: Look I think our opportunities are almost endless. Whether it’s through private business, whether it’s through some of the listed businesses or even local government because of the growth, there is no single pocket that you could say that’s the sweet spot. That’s the beauty of where we are and this region is that I think that there’s many sweet spots and, and they’re all kind of feeding off each other and multiplying each other and creating that momentum. And I guess our role is to, to really help facilitate that; in some cases bring the parties together because they’re often looking for skills and needs and whatever it might be and I’d like to think that across the team of people that we have here, that we are pretty well connected with the community and the business people and the leaders and local government and our role is really quite simple. It’s to be that conduit to help bring those people together I think. It’s interesting just to share with you our philosophy. If you look at all the meeting room names on this floor its all about a meeting place. They are all variations in different languages about, it’s about you know where people come together to meet, to connect and I think that’s fundamentally our role.
WSBA: Thanks so much for your time, Danny.
