A message from Mike
Our Chief Executive
New Zealanders faced many challenges, including economic uncertainty, talent shortages and geopolitical upheavals over the last year. Early in 2023, extreme weather events caused significant distress and disruption across the country with severe floods in Auckland, followed shortly by the devastation wrought by Cyclone Gabrielle. As a firm, we focused on supporting our people, their families, our clients and communities. In Auckland, Deloitte people logged more than 252 hours of volunteering with our charity partners in the wake of the floods, while the global and regional firms provided significant financial support. I’m proud of the way our people have risen to the occasion, leveraging our skillsets and our network to help our clients and communities face these challenges and prepare for the future.
Weather events and climate change have increased our clients’ interest in understanding how they will be effected now, and into the future. Boards of Directors are keen to understand the potential risks and how they can avoid, mitigate or adapt going forward. We have been delivering climate services to our clients for well over a decade, but we continue to strengthen our sustainability and climate services with a focus on supporting our clients in their transition to a low-carbon economy, with people and nature at the centre.
We’ve also made progress on our own ESG journey, meeting the FY23 commitments set out in our Sustainability Linked Loan relating to travel emissions reductions, transition to renewable energy and gender diversity targets. We will continue to educate and empower our people to take action on important environmental and social issues.
The health sector continues to be a focus for our firm, especially with the post-COVID world and move to a new national health system bringing fresh challenges and opportunities for the sector. Adding the Francis Health team to our consulting practice in late 2022 means we've been able to scale and offer our clients a more diverse range of skills and experience in this area.
Much of what we do across different sectors is underpinned by technology. Many of our clients are undergoing digital transformations, and our alliances play a crucial role in helping us deliver world-class services. For example, our involvement in Techweek was a highlight this year, allowing us to forge new connections and showcase the thought leadership and services the Deloitte Digital teams can support our clients with. Faced with a new technological frontier through the rise of artificial intelligence, New Zealand will again be looking to businesses to take charge and this will be a strategic area we look to support clients with over the coming years.
Our strong connections to both our fellow global and Asia-Pacific member firms enable us to bring international expertise to our clients while we stay rooted in our local communities, recognising the foundational role of te ao Māori both in New Zealand, and within our firm.
The key to us staying on track in what is a rapidly changing world, has been our ability to stay true to our values and purpose. We all want to make a measurable impact, delivering positive social and environmental outcomes in Aotearoa and recognising what makes us “uniquely kiwi.”
I hope you enjoy reading this report as we reflect on some of our highlights from FY23 and share our progress against our environmental and social commitments. We remain grateful to our clients and communities for the opportunity to collaborate on this important mahi to help make New Zealand a more sustainable and equitable place to live.
Ngā mihi nui
