AI Magazine Issue 9 2018

14 Acquisition International - Issue 9 2018 YSC is the world’s premier independent leadership consultancy, helping organisations to achieve sustainable success by releasing the power of their people. We invited Susannah Yule, Head of YSC Hong Kong, to talk us through the firm and how it has achieved its success and reputation, in the APAC region and globally. ounded in 1990, YSC is an independent firm that draws on over 25 years of experience to partner with clients across their leadership and talent agendas. They have lasting impact on organisations and their leaders through their deep psychological insight, broad impact and the value they place on relationships. They are global in reach, partnering with iconic multinational, regional and local companies, as well as government bodies and not- for-profit organisations. YSC strategically partners with clients internationally and across sectors, offering cutting-edge consulting and thought leadership, including Board and CEO development and succession planning, executive assessment, executive coaching, leadership development, leadership frameworks and culture change, diversity and inclusion, executive team development, emerging talent and identifying potential. “Here at YSC, we do our best work when we start by engaging with the CEO and Chairman to understand their strategic objectives and leadership expectations,” Susannah comments. “As part of our approach we spend time with key stakeholders to understand the ‘DNA’ of the organisation: the culture, success factors, history of the firm, distinctiveness in the market and external trends or threats affecting the business. Having a meaningful understanding of the organisation’s context helps us to link the leadership strategy to the business strategy, to enable performance. Our work typically centres around gleaning an in-depth understanding of individual leaders, to understand their unique drivers, behavioural patterns and barriers to change. Our distinctiveness lies in our ability to go beyond the surface in applying psychology in Key Contact: Susannah Yule (Head of YSC Hong Kong) Company: YSC Hong Kong Address: 9/F. Central Building, 1-3 Pedder Street, Central, Hong Kong Phone: +852 6893 3700 Website: www.ysc.com Premier Leadership Consultancy F 1805AI55 a practical and insightful manner. We co-create interventions with our clients that drive profound transformational change at the individual, team and organisational level.” “We are now seeing more big firms moving into the leadership consultancy space, either through M&A or talent acquisition, which results in clients having a choice between independent specialists, of which there are now very few true global players, or scale providers of human capital consulting services.” “We work with clients across their entire people agenda,” she explains. “This involves helping organisations to select the right people into critical roles, benchmarking and developing capability. We help leaders and HR to identify potential in their people and accelerate people’s growth to build stronger succession pipelines. Their model of potential ‘JDI’ enables leaders to differentiate performance from potential, and tailor the development of their people. Also, we help our clients develop high performing teams, implement leadership development programmes and embed the values and culture necessary to achieve their business goals.” YSC’s regional and global team of consultants have a wealth of expertise that helps them to forge strong partnerships with their clients and tailor solutions to fully meet clients’ needs. YSC seeks to have long-term, sustainable impact rather than chasing quick wins. As a result, Susannah believes in the power of staying true to YSC’s core focus and only engaging in work where they are confident it will have real impact in the organisation. Having started her career working for a psychometric testing distributor, she understands how to get the best from tools while using them flexibly and knowing their inherent limitations. “Often the discussion and the individual’s reaction to their results can be more insightful than the results themselves,” she explains. As specialists in the Executive space, YSC has longstanding partnerships with many of the largest and most renowned global companies. This means that YSC is well positioned to understand the “...we help our clients develop high performing teams, implement leadership development programmes and embed the values and culture necessary to achieve their business goals.”