‘Transformation’ a must have talent: Ransom

Expertise in “transformation” and “change” are increasingly becoming core skill sets for employers as they adjust to heightened community expectations and technological disruption, according to Emergent chief executive Holly Ransom.

Ms Ransom, who previously worked in senior roles at National Australia Bank and Rio Tinto, says there’s been a huge shift to the way companies are hiring, particularly among large corporates that are like “Titanics” having to turn. It comes as companies, policymakers and workers grapple with a shifting outlook for “work” in the future.

“People are becoming increasingly creative in how they’re approaching organisational structure,” says the founder of Emergent, a consulting company specialising in disruptive strategy and helping leaders execute change.

“We’re thinking about what can assist us that can move something so large, where are the different access points…that’s perhaps more nimble or closer to the customer.

“I think increasingly, companies are looking to hire people who’ve got change expertise. They’re looking at transformation as a core skillset.”

After becoming a director of Port Adelaide Football Club, recently interviewing Barack Obama and securing the policy demands of her cohort at the G20 Youth Summit in 2014, Ms Ransom is no stranger to championing for change.

Speaking to Westpac Wire before the Westpac Bicentennial Foundation Scholars’ Summit at the bank this week, she says the most disruptive technologies in the next five years would be blockchain – digital distributed ledgers – and artificial intelligence.

On diversity, she says she’s “constructively discontent” and corporates had more work ahead, which she is more than willing to “light a fire under” to speed up.