Rising from the Mailroom to the Boardroom

Unique Insights for Governance, Risk, Compliance and Audit Leaders

Bruce R. Turner

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000413168
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Negocios y empresa
• Subtopic: Auditoría

Boards and business leaders expect their key advisors to deliver fresh insights, and increasingly expect them to demonstrate foresight. To achieve what is expected, it is crucial to understand the dynamics of conversations in the boardroom and around the audit committee table. This book provides those unique perspectives.

The journey from the 'mailroom to the boardroom' follows the story of a young banker who moved into the internal auditing profession as part of the 'new breed', then rose through the ranks into senior leadership and chief audit executive roles, before assuming audit committee and board roles that had an immense influence on governance, risk, compliance, and audit professionals. Success does not always follow a smooth and uneventful trajectory, and this story reflects insights from both the ups and the downs of the journey.

Each chapter shares insights, better practices, case studies, practical examples, and real-life challenges and draws them together into 101 building blocks, each one providing crucial career-long learnings.

The storytelling provides insights to people at all levels on the importance of positioning oneself to step into leadership roles, helps them understand how to evaluate and pursue potential career growth opportunities, provides tips on how to holistically manage and advance their career, and inspires higher-level thinking that enhances governance, risk, compliance and audit practices.

Part 1

Learning the Ropes

Key message: It's important to realize your potential by choosing to act in ways that drive your success.

“Bruce Turner is one of the most capable officers I have had the pleasure to work with. The potential for him is unlimited because with his knowledge and ability he would be able to undertake without difficulty any position.

Mr Turner has been a tower of strength at this office and everything asked of him has been done with speed and accuracy. His cooperation with other staff including me has been unbeatable.”

Clive Morley

Bank Manager

State Bank of New South Wales

June 1983

1

Packing a Pistol in the Mailroom

Business skills are vital to the success of governance, risk, compliance, and assurance professionals in the modern business world. Learning an industry from the ground up can help to launch a successful career through well-rounded grassroots experience, though an untrained teenager carrying a pistol is unlikely to fit within contemporary risk tolerance levels. This chapter highlights emotional intelligence, passion for learning, risk comprehension, and an innovative mindset as crucial levers in forging a pathway to success … and it also signals the value of heeding life lessons, like punctuality, given a career was almost extinguished on “day one” upon arriving late to an induction session. It highlights the importance of the message from Walt Disney (1901–1966), “It's kind of fun to do the impossible.”

Entity Profile and Role
Sector:	Financial services sector – retail banking
Entity:	Rural Bank of New South Wales
Entity description:	The Rural Bank operated as a state-owned limited-scope financial institution that primarily lent to and dealt with farmers during its early years. It operated from 1933 until 1982 when its mandate was extended to a standard commercial bank, and its name was changed to the State Bank of NSW. Because of its limitations on operating as a savings bank, the Rural Bank established a relationship with the Tamworth Building and Investment Society (TBIS) in November 1976. The TBIS changed its name to the Rural Building and Investment Society (RBIS) with transactions accepted throughout the Rural Bank network. The RBIS ultimately transferred its engagements to the State Building Society in October 1982 For entity metrics, see Chapter 4
Primary role:	Clerical, accounting, and customer services
Main responsibilities:	Entry-level (junior) clerical and ledger-keeping roles. Steady rise into customer service, telling (cashier) then examining and supervisory roles
Timeframe:	The First Decade. (Descriptors for the timeframe are provided at the beginning of the book to reference the different decades throughout my working career. These descriptors are indicative and are not intended to align precisely with the different stages of growth)
Purpose of Table (relevant to all chapters):	The content in this table is included at the start of each chapter to provide context to the storytelling in terms of the role and responsibilities I held at that time, and the nature of the organizations where I was working

PERSONAL STORY

I entered the workforce during a time when great change was gaining momentum.

• Gough Whitlam was a transformational political leader who was elected Australian Prime Minister in 1972. One of his early decisions was to abolish conscription and end Australia's involvement in the Vietnam war. This was personally significant, as I was nearing an age where I could well have been compelled to enter military service.
• The banking industry was on the cusp of computerization which made many of the manual processes obsolete. I am glad though that I learnt the bank's back-office operations from the ground up as it gave me “street cred” through my later banking roles.
• Importantly, banks had traditionally used “seniority” as the sole basis of promotion, but this was transitioning to a “performance-based” regime. As I had been identified as a high performer, this aided my career trajectory.

As a result of a school competency assessment, the school's career advisor mentioned to me that I would be well-suited to banking, and there was a job on offer at the Rural Bank in my hometown of Penrith. I was given a phone number to call, which I did about a week later; in hindsight, I was a bit casual about it.

I ultimately met the bank manager and was given some forms to fill out which had to be completed in traditional fountain pen and ink. As I had been using a ballpoint pen for several years, I ended up splattering ink all over the forms and was reluctant to hand them in. But I did so after some “gentle parental persuasion.” My chances of securing the job were slim, but I was unconcerned as I was not actively looking for a job and the six weeks of vacation before senior high school was quite appealing.

To my surprise, I was one of 6 junior bankers appointed to the Rural Bank's Penrith branch in the summer of 1971, joining a local staff of around 40. My starting salary was a modest $1,636 per annum (equivalent to $10,426 in 2020). This was one of the largest Rural Bank branches in the state outside the Sydney CBD and was designated as a “super grade” branch. I started a few days after I finished high school. In retrospect, a break would have been nice.

There I was in the Rural Bank mailroom in Penrith using an old typewriter to address correspondence and using a wet sponge to affix the postage stamps. It was late-1971 and I had left secondary (high) school to start my first full-time job. I had turned 16 the month before. It was prior to any computerization and the modern technologies that would emerge over the ensuing decades.

The key insights from this phase of my story are:

• Onboard younger employees thoughtfully.
• Create a learning environment.
• Maintain a fun business environment.
• You reap what you sow.
• Leverage emotional intelligence.
• Apply the risk appetite.
• Shape the control environment.

CONTEXT

Many business leaders attribute the success of the business to their staff. There are many factors that inspire staff to perform at an optimal level to help the business achieve its strategies, objectives, and goals. Some of these elements are discussed in this chapter and illustrated in Exhibit 1.1; underpinning these efforts are the risk appetite established by the board, and the control environment maintained by the business leaders.

EXHIBIT 1.1Inspiring staff to perform at the optimal level – board and business leader roles.

KEY TAKEAWAYS AND DEEP DIVES

ONBOARD ENTRY-LEVEL EMPLOYEES THOUGHTFULLY

Setting the Scene

My first day in the workforce involved an induction session conducted face-to-face at the bank's corporate headquarters in Martin Place Sydney. Beginning my first fulltime job and spending the first day in Sydney was a bit daunting for a 16-year-old kid (involving train trips totaling nearly two hours, across a distance of 40 miles). One of the other new appointees was Stephen McDonald (who went onto acting fame after a few years in the bank); Stephen and I agreed to travel together, as he was confident, an experienced train traveler, was a couple of years older, and knew his way around the city. Or so we thought!

We managed to get ourselves lost, and finally made our way into the induction session nearly an hour late. At the time, the facilitator was stressing the importance of punctuality. It was an uncomfortable start to my working career. It was a good lesson though, and I made a point thereafter of always being on time. I took personal responsibility for my movements, and was attuned to travel logistics and had a Plan B in case there was an unexpected disruptive event.

The bank had a structured development program for its junior bankers and that experience impressed upon me the importance of creating a learning environment (discussed in the next section). I had learnt from day one that punctuality is paramount and demonstrates respect to others. But there were many idiosyncrasies of fulltime work compared to school that I needed to learn.

In the last century, bankers were promoted based on seniority, and performance was not a factor. While that changed over time (to my benefit), one of the early lessons was that “rank has its privileges.” All senior positions were held by males, and it was customary to call them “Mr <surname>.” You were never permitted to call them by their first name. There was a clear pecking order.

While I started my first job straight from high school, now-a-days entry-level employees for “white collar” roles at large entities (e.g., financial institutions, government departments, and professional firms) usually come through established entry-level employment programs tailored for graduates, cadets, and scholars. An overview of these programs is contained in Exhibit 1.2.

EXHIBIT 1.2
Examples of common entry-level employment programs

Program...