Colella relishing life in the global classroom at Moore

“It has revealed organisations and leaders, and leadership teams that have struggled to cope with it all,” said Mr Colella, who today is chief executive of the Moore Global accountancy network.

“It is a test. As a CEO, people look to you for leadership, and [for] some of the leadership challenges you have no reference points for. There’s no pandemic playbook for leaders. As a global business, how do we deal with conflict, because we had peacetime for so long? How do we deal with the ebb and flow of what we thought was a fairly stable, global economy and supply chain?

“How do we respond to geopolitics in a global organisation where you have members in Russia, members in China, you have members in America… how do you hold the unity together?”

These are big questions, but the challenge in rising to them is one that Mr Colella relishes. Referring to the inflation crisis and economic upheaval that have followed in the wake of Covid and conflict in Ukraine, he declared that the current global malaise “reinforces the importance of leadership development”.

“You do what you can in what might be described as peacetime,” he added. “But the leadership approach is only secure until the moment the next challenge comes. And then it is how do you respond in a crisis. For me, leading a global business, probably the biggest single strategic focus and investment for me has been on leadership development, and we are seeing the dividends of some of that coming through just now with a leadership cadre all over the world who are handling things well and where things are uncertain and unknown, they are responding well.”

He added: “The challenge today is that a strategy is out of date within months… so what you are needing is a group of leaders who are attentive to the world around them, who are attentive to their local environment, their people and their clients, and are able to respond appropriately with agility and speed.”

It is now many years since Mr Colella worked in the classroom, but he still sees himself as a teacher as he performs his role with Moore Global – a worldwide accountancy network that includes 30,000 people based in around 550 offices in 114 countries.

“The reality is I’m still a teacher,” he said. “It is just a bigger classroom. I chose to teach particularly where there was the opportunity to develop young people from underprivileged backgrounds, and my approach to leadership is no different to my first day in a classroom. My job is to help people fulfil their potential. We are a people business, and we are a business about the development of people.”

Mr Colella, who taught for 18 years, was a depute head teacher in St Margaret Mary’s Secondary in Castlemilk when he left the educational coalface, answering a call from the Scottish Qualifications Authority to help deal with an exam crisis. Within two years he was leading the organisation. He then moved into the accounting world for the first time in 2006, when he became chief executive of ICAS, the professional body for chartered accountants. It was a role he would hold for more than 12 years, before moving to Moore in 2017.

Moore’s members include the Scottish accounting firm Johnston Carmichael, which joined the network last year. Mr Colella said Johnston Carmichael was precisely the kind of firm Moore wants in its ranks as it targets becoming a top 10 global accounting group.

“They are our firm in Scotland, and they service client needs in Scotland from around the world, and vice versa,” he said. “Moore will provide for the needs of Johnston Carmichael’s clients wherever there are needs in the world. It is a model ultimately built around supporting the clients, but also supporting Johnston Carmichael in their own development as a firm – a strong firm in Scotland that also has international ambitions as well. It works well on both sides.”

Among the big themes in global accountancy Mr Colella covers during the conversation is the move by private equity investors into accountancy firm ownership. He noted that regulators have still to “figure out” the implications this change will have on traditional ownership, adding that it is still not clear how such investors will achieve their desired return.

“The thing about accountancy services is that it is difficult to commoditise”, he said. “The product is the relationship that the professional advisers and auditors have with their clients. It is not like a product – the product is the people. And what hasn’t been fully worked through is how private equity will get back what might be their traditional model of return on investment.”

Mr Colella also mulled how “attractive” the accountancy profession is to the upcoming generation. “We are seeing a lot of recruitment challenges across the world,” he said. “Audit is not as attractive as it may have been in the past, and even if you can persuade them to join and train, keeping is another matter.”

He added: “One of the things we have been addressing in Moore is [that] young people today recognise you have got to have stable and safe and well-rewarded careers if you are one of the big accountancy firms, but that is not enough to keep them. They are looking for purposeful organisations to give their lives to, and commit their careers to. We have been working hard in Moore to make sure our purpose is strong.

“One of the great benefits of a global business like ours is we can provide that purpose. But we can also provide the opportunity for mobility, and the experiences around the world. And we are seeing that now that Covid [travel restrictions] are over. In the last month we have seen a number of young people move around the world to our offices and it is a very exciting, attractive prospect. It is great that we are able to get that back on the table for young people deciding where they want to work.”

And Mr Colella said Moore’s purpose was not limited to doing the right thing by its people, but the wider societies it operates in.

“It is our fundamental societal obligation to share what we have, and to support the underprivileged, the poor, the communities we live in,” he said. “What difference are we making to them? We don’t view this as an add-on of corporate social responsibility to support our annual reporting. This has to be ingrained and part of the soul of this organisation, and lived authentically. And that it a hard, hard test. We are putting huge investment in just now to make sure we are living it before we are giving it.”

He added: “We have appointed 200 social ambition ambassadors within our firms, from young managers [and up]. And they are driving a social ambition agenda with the leadership of the firms across the board. Every firm will submit to us every year their social ambition plans, not just their performance metrics. What are we trying to do in our communities is to make a difference.”

What countries have you most enjoyed travelling to, for business or leisure, and why?

Having offices in over 100 countries there are many opportunities to travel. As any parent would say - they don’t have any favourites among their children. That said there are some places I definitely prefer to others. I continue to be fascinated by China and its people, and the dramatic changes that have taken place over the past 20 years. Most leisure time is spent in the beautiful Highlands of Scotland.

When you were a child, what was your ideal job? Why did it appeal?

Growing up in a large extended Italian family I was mainly exposed to life in fish and chip shops, cafes and restaurants. My early ambitions probably lay there as it was what we were very good at. At school at St Mungo’s Academy in Glasgow I was blessed with some outstanding teachers who had a profound impact on me. That became the motivation for me to spend 18 years of my career in secondary education the first half of which mainly as a Religious Education Teacher.

What was your biggest break in business?

In 2001 I was seconded to the SQA from my job as depute head teacher in Castlemilk, Glasgow. I was brought in to help deal with the 2000 exams crisis. Two years later I was made CEO. I am 20 years as a CEO and leading my third organisation. The lesson from my original secondment is that you never know where a chance conversation may lead, so give everyone your very best 30 seconds!

What was your worst moment in business?

There have been a number of bad days at the office over the past 20 years. Most of them proved to be significant moments of learning for me as a leader. I feel it most when I or we miss the opportunity to do the right thing, or to provide the best care and service to our people or clients.

Who do you most admire and why?

My mother. She brought four of us up on our own. Despite adversity of all kinds, she never stopped loving us and giving us hope for the future. She gave me a great example of the sacrifices needed to be a good leader.

What book are you reading and what music are you listening to?

I have just finished Ken Follet’s Pillars of the Earth. It is historic fiction but a compelling insight into the building of Gothic cathedrals. Yet many of the architects never lived to see them completed - a profound lesson for leaders to keep their eyes on the potential longer term impact of what they do. This morning my next book arrived: Positively Energising Leadership by Kim Cameron. I have been fascinated by some of his recent articles on positive relational energy and leadership. My music interests are very eclectic. The usual choice is to press Shuffle. When I get the chance I do enjoy playing the guitar and writing my own music.