The Big Boss (Mr. Jim Turley) spends his last day in the Philippines (Update)

Mr. Jim Turley is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ernst & Young (EY), a leading global professional services organization providing assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services. 

(With approximately 167,000 people in 140 countries, Ernst & Young is one of the largest professional services organizations in the world.)

That is, until June 28, 2013.

On his last day on the job, he chose to spend it in the Philippines.

He is probably also remembered as a Boy Scout. And not just a former Boy Scout.

For a CEO heading a very conservative professional services firm, he gained widespread approval by voicing out his opinion on gay rights in the Boy Scouts of America. And I'm sure, young and old folks of EY, boy scouts or not, rallied behind him.

When I saw the email invitation to managers, I thought that this will be a live streaming session hosted from wherever Jim is (he prefers to be called simply "Jim"; he said that "Mr. Turley" is his dad =). Yes, I was surprised to find out that he actually flew in to our Manila office to spend his last day in the Philippines. When my friend Maris dragged me out of my cube and told me this, I dropped whatever I was doing.

We saw his lighter side as he gamely fielded questions like:

• What did he think of the Miami Heat - San Antonio Spurs NBA finals?
• His comment on this post: "Jim Turley’s hair has its own interns. In recruiting season, it is estimated Garnier receives $5 million in revenues off Turley hair gel alone."
• Is it true that he is the Justin Bieber of Accounting?
• What's the most memorable Filipino food for him? (Jollibee champ ! --- which was what we all had after the session)

I love that picture on the right side (facing you).
He is one of the coolest CEOs out there :)

Ms. Marlu, one of SGV's partners hosted "The Lighter Side of Jim".

I will remember him for his words of wisdom --- the nuggets that came straight from a global CEO. How often do you get that chance?

• Be yourself. A lot of us are trying to be someone we are not. 
• He never expected to be a CEO and never planned to be a partner. There were times that he wondered why he didn't get the assignments to high-profile Office of the Chairman (OCA) accounts. But he still worked on what EY needed him to do and tried to bring out the best of his teams even if these were for "smaller" accounts. EY gave him opportunities to manage offices (again doing what EY needed him to do). When he did really well, this eventually led him to his post as global CEO.
• He learned a lot from people --- including those from "real" people who work the odd jobs and blue-collar tasks. 

Not all of us will be CEOs. Not all of us know our CEOs. Not all of us know what a CEO does. We may be up there in the authority chain or down here where the ranks toil hard. But are we that different? Or are we the same in any way?

In the end, this lighter side of Jim made me realize that he is just like any of us (probably just much cooler? I'm the boring stereotype =). On that day that he broke the news of his CEO post to his family, his wife reminded him to put the dishes in the dish washer and take out the garbage, and his son asked if he could have an allowance increase (The answer was 'No'). 

He asked the same questions that some of us may have asked as we tried to chart our career paths. He believes in PEOPLE, the greatest and only assets of professional services firms like EY. The computers, buildings and properties are not. The ASSETS, in the case of firms like EY, go home every night (or early morning :) and they come back again the next day. Imagine the risk if all the assets decided on a boycott or a vacation leave? 

My take on all of these: When we take care of our assets, our learnings from them are the profits earned.

To Mr. Jim Turley, stay cool and have a happy retirement :)

Ciao dears! 

P.S. My friend Maris and I arrived early. We had short chats with Jim 'cause he chose to sit with the front-row audience before the session started. We also had our pictures taken with him =) Well, I'll see if I can post this here later ;)

UPDATE: Here's my pic with the Big Boss :) Thanks to Maris!