In the past, we've called attention to some of the brutally boring interviews that Deloitte bigwigs have done with various outlets. Joe Echevarria. Barry Salzberg. Deb DeHaas. We read these so you didn't have to. You're welcome.
Today, however, we read an interview with Deloitte Chairman Punit Renjen that wasn't half bad. It was done by FINS reporter Julie Steinberg who is great and while there are plenty of the loaded C-suiter questions, some of Renjen's answers were surprisingly honest and possibly unintentionally hilarious.
Let's begin with the 50-year-old Mr Renjen physical prowess that some of you younger gents wish you had:
One day I ran down the hill, one and a half miles down, same distance up. I saw this younger person overtake me and I kept running, it was the best thing that ever happened to me. Halfway up that hill he was panting and I overtook him. I made it a pact: "I'm not going to let this guy overtake me." I knew he was trying to overtake me. It was the highlight of my year.
His earnest description of the firm's less than democratic election process:
Our elected positions, chairman and CEO, are just that. They're not appointed. We go through a very rigorous nominating process. We've got about 3,000 partners and all of them are polled. We spent five months polling the entire partner-directorship, about 5,000 people, to identify the destination they'd like to take the firm in and the characterizes they're looking for in their leaders. Out of that comes a slate of individuals that are vetted and then an independent body nominates a slate of candidates and the chairman and CEO are voted on.
This is where he starts getting funny:
[T]itles don't really matter.
Which is just warms you up for this:
It is harder to get into Deloitte than it is to the University of Pennsylvania.
Speaking of popularity, Renjen mentions that tons of people inside Deloitte (and probably outside too) want this:
I get emails nearly every day from someone asking me to be their mentor.
And finally, just in case you wondered how cool of a person he is:
I don't own an iPod.
Too cool for you, obviously.
