Evolving at a perfect pace: PwC EMEA products

TBR Special Report - TBR met with leaders from PwC’s core products team for EMEA, including David Padwick, Partner, PwC UK; Ralf Jaspert, Partner, PwC Germany, Advisory Digital Products Leader; and Nele Van Buggenhout, Director, PwC UK, Perform Plus Leader. The PwC leaders told a complete and nuanced story about products in EMEA, the emerging role of software and managed services sales, and expectations for near-term growth, describing in detail to TBR how the firm expects the next few waves of PwC products to play out. 

In this special report, ‘drawing contrasts between PwC US and PwC EMEA, Padwick noted that while PwC EMEA* adheres to the firm’s global advisory strategy, at least two differences stand out. First, the PwC brand in the U.S., according to Padwick, is more technology-centric than the PwC brand in Europe, which influences how PwC EMEA consultants tailor their go-to-market messages in the region.’

The report talked about, ‘Perform Plus platform evolves to meet client needs. The PwC EMEA team walked TBR through a couple of specific offerings developed organically within the firm’s Europe practices. As far back as 2016, PwC had been working with financial institutions on stress-testing their risk and asset management systems, an effort Jaspert said had been codeveloped with clients, lending the resultant solution greater applicability and credibility in the market. This stress-testing solution as a product was a start and is now one of 47 consulting-centric products that PwC EMEA clients license directly from the firm. Another solution, as described by Van Buggenhout, started with a 12-week coaching program encompassing a wide array of enterprise activities, such as sales and product development. Urged on by clients, PwC EMEA built a digital solution, Perform Plus, to capture daily performance information and ideas and employee well-being, enhancing clients’ internal teamwork.’ 

It goes on to say that ‘For TBR, PwC EMEA’s decision to codevelop solutions with clients and let the consulting engagements drive the technology solutions (not the other way around) reflects the global firm’s lessons learned from the last 10 years as emerging technologies have permeated nearly every consulting engagement and clients have come to expect a technology-enabled solution to their business problems.’

The TBR Special Report also says, ‘On technology, Padwick noted that EMEA clients initially “expect service, then get the technology and ask for more technology,” a pattern TBR has seen across the management consulting market as digital transformation has become the near-universal framework for advisory engagements.’

In TBR’s view, ‘the evolution of PwC over the last five years has created opportunities for individual member firms, and regional clusters, to shape their strategies around products while simultaneously adhering to PwC’s global strategy — essentially combining the strength, scale and depth of a global firm with local knowledge and culture and attention to local clients’ needs.’

David Padwick, Partner, PwC UK, said, ‘A well performing business starts with well performing teams. With Perform Plus we’re helping organisations to support wellbeing, drive ongoing connection and maintain productivity across teams as hybrid ways of working become the new normal. Perform Plus delivers profound improvements within our clients and their organisations, the data insights and trends we're able to access provides one of the best ways to drive business transformation.’

*PwC EMEA refers to the PwC member firms located in the EMEA region, each of which is a separate legal entity. Please see www.pwc.com/structure for further details.

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