Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
K&L Gates Middletons have just merged to form a truly global law firm, with over 2000 lawyers
sitting in 47 offices around the globe, and joining me to discuss is Peter Kalis, who
is the Global Managing Partner and Chairman, and Nick Nichola who's the Managing Partner
of Australia for K&L Gates, gentlemen thank you for your time.
Thank you.
You're welcome Kate.
Now gentlemen you're both leaders of a truly large global ship, what do you think makes
a good leader in today's business world?
What I see in leaders who others might describe as being reasonably effective at what they
do is the ability to be able to surround themselves with people that actually make them look good,
and certainly I've always tried to do that, I always figure if I can have the people that
can actually do the job for me, that makes it so much easier. But it's really just a
question of being disciplined, being able to articulate the vision if you like, you
know the journey to ultimately some sort of goal, then being – being in a position where
you can be disciplined enough to ensure that everybody in the organisation continues to
remember that that's what we've all agreed – that's what we've all signed up for.
And Peter looking at the Asia Pacific Region, are you seeing any trends or challenges or
issues that your clients are facing?
Well although Australia has largely not felt the brunt of it in the last five years much
of the rest of the world, not so much Asia, not so much China and south, have had a tumultuous
time with the Global Financial Crisis and I'd call it a roller coaster except we're
still waiting for the – the uptick, so it's been – it was a collapse followed by a plateau
with some trending up, then our clients faced the sovereign debt crisis and the impact on
financial markets, largely centred in Europe. So the question we have is not to take too
much for granted about the splendid growth that the last five years have seen in the
Asia Pacific market. Our clients are being cautious, the client community has taken great
instruction from what happened in the rest of the world, they're being cautious, we have
to position ourselves cautiously, conservatively, not lean too far over our skis as it were.
Peter where do you see Australia and Asia over the next decade as the global economy
continues to evolve?
I'm old enough to remember 1992 when the UK threw in its lot with Europe, which must have
been very disorienting for a lot of Commonwealth countries including Australia. Australia I
think brilliantly redefined its self-view, redefined its external image as part of the
Asia Pacific Region and it's worked out I think very, very well. I mean how many years
of consecutive positive GDP growth, to what extent was the Global Financial Crisis felt
in Australia, it was mainly a headline in the newspaper that related to other parts
of the world. This is all traceable back to this re-orientation of Australia toward the
Asia Pacific region. And I think sometimes people in Australia don't feel as positively
about that historically profound shift, that paradigmatic shift, it was aligning public
policy in Australia with the realities of the emergent 21st Century. Now to answer your
question, it's not just the next 10 years, I may not subscribe to the view of the Asian
Century any more than I subscribe to the view that the 20th Century was the American Century.
The world is too integrated, too interdependent, but let's just say at the Asia Pacific region
will be along with one or two other parts of the world, the key dynamic and how we succeed
as peoples in the 21st Century along a whole spectrum of behaviours, innovation, economic
growth, urbanisation, health care, the environment and the impact on global climate. A lot of
both the challenges and the solutions will be traceable to the Asia Pacific region and
it should be.
Peter are there any worries and concerns that are common to a number of your clients?
I wouldn't say that there's a single overarching item. But one – one aspect that you tend
to hear time and time again, and again I'm not expert on Australia, but you certainly
hear it in the US, I spent a good deal of time in Europe, you hear it in Europe, and
that is it would sure be nice if our politicians at the very least got out of the way to genuine
economic growth and instead of obstructing clients from doing what they do best, growing
their businesses actually promoted that behaviour, that would have beneficial impact on clients
from all sectors, beneficial impact on the unemployment rate, beneficial impact on our
future prospects in all of our, both mature and emerging nations. So I hear a lot of complaining
about politicians. We as the lawyers, our clients who are in
business, we can't control necessarily what governments will do. What we do know though
is, and this is a phenomenon I think that is a global phenomenon, governments are increasingly
intruding on trade, increasingly intruding business' ability to perform its functions
and that is not a phenomenon that will go away any time soon. If anything and if history
is anything to go by it will just increase. So part of what we as legal advisers need
to be able to do is navigate through – through the legislation, through the regulations,
through that whole maze of government intervention on business and we see that in the region,
not just in Australia but certainly in the Asia Pacific Region, if you look at India
and if you look at China, you know Korea, Indonesia, all of these economies are very,
very heavily regulated economies.
And Nick of course we've got the Federal Election fast approaching, what would you like to see
in a new leader, regardless of which side of politics they sit on?
I would just like to have someone who demonstrates some leadership I think. Look it's a difficult
question to answer, my personal view is that the level of political debate in this country
frankly Kate has been just appalling in the last few years. I mean I don't think it's
political debate at all, and they don't appear to debate the issues, they don't appear to
be concerned about the issues, this sort of 24/7 news cycle sound bit grabs that everyone
seems to be – seems to be concerned about, you know, these endless polls. I mean I would
just like to have a Government in Canberra that actually leads and it actually has the
interests of the business community, you know the social fabric of the nation genuinely
at heart and can demonstrate some true leadership and say look these are our policies, this
is why we have these policies and paint some sort of vision for us.
Nick increasing innovation and productivity are challenges for Australia's future growth
and prosperity, how do you see businesses meeting those challenges?
If anyone really had the answer to the question I think they'd be ordained or something. I
suspect that for businesses in particular in our region, this is going to be challenging
times for quite some time yet. I think we've seen as a result of the Global Financial Crisis,
I think we've seen a lot of businesses reset their expectations, we've seen tensions certainly
within Australia, between employers as such and the workforce, we've seen the problems
that our Government – I hate to keep harking back to the sort of the political sphere as
being – as being such an issue for us, but I think it is. We have a minority government
which is never a good thing, it therefore is a little impotent, as you know we have
an election that was announced some weeks ago now, it's on September 14, it seems a
life time away, our experience is that a lot of our clients, a lot of businesses in the
business community, not so much paralysed but they're not actually doing a great deal,
because people just don't know what the landscape will look like post – post the election.
I think all of those challenges are – make it very difficult for businesses, in particular
in Australia at the moment.
Nick I'd like to get your view on the economic outlook for Australia and Asia.
I think most commentators are of the view that we are in the Asian Century and that
there are tremendous economic growth opportunities throughout the Asia Pacific Region, and we
see as a result of this merger with – with K&L Gates we see that the firm is now wonderfully
well positioned to take full advantage of whatever the next 50 to 100 years brings upon
us.
Well Nick and Peter some really interesting insights there, thank you so much for giving
me your time today.
Thank you.
Thank you.