Editor's Note: Ideas and Innovation Take Center Stage

In both our cover story, "EY's Transformative Age", and our Trend Watch story, Eric Krell's "Doubling Down on R&D", Consulting focuses the spotlight squarely on innovation this issue. In EY's case, the firm has a new Americas Vice Chair of Advisory—Hank Prybylski—and we caught up with him in one of the firm's17 innovation hub centers called  "Wavespaces."

These Wavespaces are a global network of growth and innovation centers to help clients catch the next wave in radical breakthroughs in business transformation by tapping into innovative thinking across EY disciplines, experience and industry sectors. "This is the future of brainstorming and the future of business," Prybylski says. "It's completely interactive and the deliverables are built as you go. It's bringing together different types of people, a diversity of thoughts and styles. It's what we call 'suits and jeans integration,' and it works."

EY's hubs are part of a larger effort and fresh approach complete with a new branding campaign, but it's hardly alone. There's no shortage of firms opening up innovation hubs to meet clients' growing demands.