Or it could be that when young associates were asked to present their thoughts on inspirational leadership, they cited Powell as a great example, for the way he 'connected with everyone in the room' at an Edinburgh office strategy presentation. Or that he delays his trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos each January, so he can personally thank PwC's pantomime cast.
According to Gaenor Bagley, executive board member and head of people at the 16,366-strong UK organisation, it is his "down to earth, open and authentic style" that makes Powell a popular and inspirational leader.
His vision is that PwC "does the right thing for its people" and he invests much time building relationships - whether that's by joining team meetings and conferences, talking about strategy at regular executive board roadshows or office visits, or taking the time out of his day to record video messages for broadcast purposes.
This year, Powell was involved in an FT debate on diversity, generating feedback from employees, particularly women, across the firm. He responded individually to this feedback and also attended a PwC Women network event to talk openly about diversity and listen to people's views and experiences.
The benefit of Powell's 'people' approach on the business is apparent. Retention of high performers stands at 90.3%, people engagement is 4.03 out of 5 and client advocacy 8.63 out of 10. Against a challenging economic backdrop, financial performance in the year ended 30 June 2011 was strong, with overall turnover growing 6% to £2.46bn.
The shortlist in this category was developed in conjunction with workplace engagement specialist, Best Companies. Firms employing 5,000 plus people and that feature in Best Companies' database of more than 30,0000 organisations were eligible for consideration. HR magazine asked Best Companies to crunch data from its employee surveys based around leadership criteria, such as inspiration and confidence in the person leading the organisation. The names of the top-scoring leaders were provided to HR magazine and we then asked the CEOs to provide us with further information. This was sent to the judging panel, who ranked the list to produce the winner. The award is therefore based on both employee and professional HR feedback.
Finalists
• Oliver Benzecry, managing director, Accenture UK & I
• Andrew Brown, CEO UK and West Europe, RSA Insurance
• Jill McDonald, chief executive officer, McDonald's Restaurants
• Amy McPherson, president and managing director Europe, Marriott Hotels International
• Gerard Nieuwenhuys, group managing director, Sytner Group
• Michael Sherwood and Richard Gnodde, co-chief executive officers, Goldman Sachs International
• David Sproul, managing partner and CEO, Deloitte
• Malcolm Walker, chief executive, Iceland Frozen Foods
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