Perspective - Summer 2009

Early passions

Naomi Denning, whether she knew it or not, was probably always going to be a consultant despite the fact that her driving passion was gymnastics, an activity which is not immediately seen as a team sport but one that does require rigour, passion, dedication and discipline. Above all it demands similar attributes and talent from those who support the athlete. In Naomi's case, a strong support team headed by her mother encouraged her to take up gymnastics at the age of seven, and at the ripe age of eleven enabled her to take her skills to the next level. Coaching very young gymnasts, she developed her drive for success through sustained effort and her passion for coaching.

Graduating from Loughborough University, pinnacle of the UK's sports education system with a BSc in mathematics and sports science, Naomi combined two passions that would form the basis of her subsequent career decisions.

Naomi's origins are from just outside Bristol where her father spent his career as an aeronautical engineer for Rolls Royce, which could explain the family passion for travel. The rural and comfortable family life in a West Country village close to the Welsh border might have created a picture-perfect, family-centred, community-minded working mother. And to a certain extent that is just what happened, except she instead took off to London and the destination was Hong Kong.

Armed with the basic ethic of "If a job's worth doing, it's worth doing properly", Naomi set to work earning money for the short-term and establishing the building blocks for her career. She took part-time jobs in pensions and the financial services industry while saving money to travel the world on a gap year, before commencing an accounting job the following year.

However, those plans went by the wayside when she received a call from Tim Gardener, her early mentor at Mercer saying: "There is a job here. It's yours if you want it".

The rest could be history, but after some three years the deferred gap year came back to haunt her and she took off to Australia, passing through Hong Kong on her journey. It was one of many trips driven by family reunions with her four siblings now spread all over the world or by work, that would satisfy her thirst for travel and her love for Hong Kong. And no amount of delayed flights, military coups, tropical cyclones or medical pandemics have yet quenched this thirst.

Naomi returned to London after a year Down Under where she gained valuable experience in the investment management sector, working in the Sydney offices of CS First Boston and County NatWest.

Leadership in progress

With a taste for new frontiers and a growing reputation in asset consulting, Naomi joined Wyatt in Hong Kong --“ the firm destined to become Watson Wyatt --“ in 1994 to set up its investment consulting business in Hong Kong. In two short years she was named Regional Practice Leader with for Asia Pacific including Greater China.

This could be seen as being the wildest dreams of an 11 year old gymnastics coach, or part of a strategic plan for a strongly focused and disciplined mathematics-trained team leader.

Whatever the underlying rationale, there is no doubt that Naomi Denning has achieved a great deal in a relatively short time and, luckily, thoroughly enjoys Hong Kong on just about every level. As an avid traveller she loves Asian food; the wide variety of clients and cultures she deals with in Hong Kong and around the region; the opportunities inherent in the diversity of legal systems, economies and work practices; and the ability to educate through shared experiences.

"Hong Kong is perfectly positioned in time and space to conduct business on a global basis," Naomi said, "I have a family that is spread around the world and fortuitously, Hong Kong is an ideal hub from which to visit Australia, North America and Europe for personal and family travel. I also have a special passion for Thailand where my husband, Alex, and I got married and where we regularly return as a family to enjoy our holiday home in Phuket." Hong Kong also provides plenty to do for a young and active family with its mountains, trails, islands, beaches and yes, even Disneyland.

If an eight-day week were to be declared it would take very little time for Naomi to fill the extra hours.

Having seemingly managed to achieve a good work-life balance, she and her industrial designer husband, Alex Chunn, together embarked on and completed an Executive MBA (EMBA) from Kellogg/Hong Kong University of Science and Technology while managing the teams they are responsible for in their equally demanding careers, two very busy travel diaries and two very new children; daughter Emma, three years-old and son Ben, one year-old.

A focused approach and a committed, value-driven work ethic go hand-in-hand with a long-term career proposition that by its very nature drives success for all involved, the company, the team, the clients, the industry and the executive herself.

But why would you go back to university when you already have so much – the family and the career? Why would you choose to study for an EMBA while pregnant? And why, above all, would you choose to do it at the same time as your spouse, a decision some people would think would remove that all-important organic support?

Naomi of course, has the answers: "Good questions. Clearly I already had the benefits of university and had also learned a great deal throughout my career to date" Naomi said, "but I missed the structured and theoretical framework that seemed to be a real product of the EMBA course. I am also of the school that states you never stop learning and we all have to continually audit our skill sets and build on them, and this EMBA allowed me to fill a few gaps. Developing and improving marketing skills is one immediate example. And while I am privileged to have worked with people of the calibre of Roger Urwin and Grahame Stott at the most senior level of Watson Wyatt and with very smart colleagues and clients on a daily basis, the EMBA provides regular and interactive access and exposure to those very bright who you may never meet otherwise."

And the personal pressure?

"It made perfect sense to embark on this with my husband because we were able to share the pressure and support each other during the course. Living in Hong Kong provides a well-supported home environment and being pregnant with our second child meant that I could focus on the study and the baby without the pressure of work during my maternity leave."

Effective time and people management? In this light, it makes perfect sense indeed. She even managed to attend all classes and deliver Ben between modules...

So how effective are those time-management and leadership skills qualities seen within Naomi's team and by her clients?

Foundation Values

Core values, more often than not, start from first principles and are not learned as such, more absorbed from the examples of family behaviour and immediate environment. They remain throughout life and are almost always to be found informing management styles and leadership qualities.

Sound management and strong leadership share two stages. The first is creation of the activity, in the case of Naomi the provision of investment consulting advice and the second is its delivery or execution. The first is the product of process-driven detailed analysis and evaluation and the second is the product of a keen understanding of people and the way they work.

"Irrespective of the project or the client, the amount of meticulous research and analysis doesn't really change very much," Naomi said. "What changes is the way the results and recommendations are delivered."

"Clients can be very different. Some want everything in bullet points on a single page and the benefit of detailed discussion while others want a 200-page report from which to form questions and comments."
"Managing my team over the years has reinforced what I learned early in my career with Watson Wyatt and that is the power of ownership and trust.

"Grahame Stott, a former head of Asia for Watson Wyatt had a wonderful way of imparting ownership and trust which has lost none of its currency. He would say ‘I'll leave it in your capable hands...', a sure way to promote diligence and leadership."

To Naomi's set of values, one could add flexibility. Flexibility of body as a passionate young athlete, and flexibility of mind when it comes to her leadership style and her keen listening of her clients' and associates' needs. But flexibility without strength would be like investment without governance – making it just one half of the equation.

- Andrew Dawson is Editor of FTV Talking Points, a newsletter specialized in investment matters.

- Romy Serfaty is Managing Editor of Perspective, romy.serfaty@towerswatson.com