Paul Somers

Change advocate connecting entity and individual aspiration. Message

Rather than lavishly describe my experience, I thought I’d provide 6 reflections - 3 work and 3 non-work:

Work
1.) Strategy isn’t all about creating shareholder value, which was a primary focus at Google and Groupon. Macquarie University and The Australia Council for the Arts have opened my eyes to the insurmountable importance of public value in our complex global ecology. I’ve worked extensively alongside Boards, Executives and teams to identify where they might best invest their limited resources.

2.) The amount of data is exploding; in the last 2 years alone, 90% of the world’s data was generated. At Google, I recognised data’s importance in negotiation, decision making and process design, but that data in isolation only goes so far. An understanding of incentives, history and individual preferences - combined with data - can explain much behaviour.

3.) A former Director of Google once advised that the best career advice he received was to ‘go where the growth is’. I’ve sought to enable this simple but sage guidance for all teams and organisations I’ve contributed to. I’ve found it to be much more satisfying to be around growing people and organisations than those wilting away. It’s fun taking a seat on a rocket ship.

Non-Work
1.) My parents have an unwavering commitment to standing up for those less fortunate. Mum’s career has spanned 40 years on the retail floor, with Dad’s of a similar time period in retail management. They’ve met folks from all walks of life and they taught me to never forget that ‘it’s all about the people’. In my interactions, I seek to place people firmly front and centre.

2.) The older I’ve got, the more I’ve come to value the communities around me. One community I’ve been luckily involved in is the Brown IE community. Not only did I achieve a lifelong goal in obtaining an MBA, publish my 1st academic paper with 2 classmates and scale 1 of the world’s 7 Summit’s in Russia with another, but I’ve 250 colleagues globally from whom I learn every day.

3.) I’m passionate about many causes, but those striking closest to home for me are education, disability and mental health. I’ll do whatever I can to move mountains for those doing great work in those, and other, critical spaces. I’m also an avid Barcelona FC fan, lover of nature and have an unhealthy addiction to Sydney’s best chicken burgers.

That’s a snippet of my story. Over to you. Over and out.