EY Gets Strategic with Jacques Mulder

Mulder: The Advisory market is growing pretty rapidly and I expect as we move forward we're going to see a slightly different flavor. I think the days of Strategy and Advisory consulting being only in the wheelhouse of the smartest people in the room may not necessarily be the case anymore. I think firms are moving towards the executable portion of strategies rather than just a well-written PowerPoint deck that ends up on a shelf. I think the implementation and execution of the strategies are becoming much more important and more emphasized. That evolution is going to continue and I think the growth of the advisory market will be on the back of that transformation. I see a continual growth but I also see a shift in the emphasis a bit.

Consulting: What are EY's plans for growing its strategy practice?

Mulder: We're hiring pretty aggressively. I think the firm has fantastic genetics; our history and legacy on the Accounting side but also in Advisory, Risk and a number of other areas are critical building blocks for the growth and evolution of the Advisory business. Then of course growth, both organic as well as inorganic, as we move forward. We have bold ambitions with dramatic growth expected leading up to 2020, which is one of the milestones we've set for ourselves.

Consulting: What are the clients demanding?

Mulder: Clients are demanding more practical executable strategy. They're demanding a vision and a contribution from advisory partners like ourselves. If you followed the recent announcements we made at World Economic Forum at Davos, many organizations have been focused on the bottom line, some double bottom lines. We're starting to see an evolution of organizations that are really focused on the purpose, the reasons they're in the businesses they're in in addition to the expectations of the street, shareholders, etc. I'm seeing and fielding a lot more requests for things that serve both purpose as well as growth possibilities.

Consulting: What are some of the biggest challenges facing clients?

Mulder: I think increased globalization and the influx of development of emerging markets. There's a lot of activity and questions being asked about not only how do I enter but how do I do profitable business in those markets. We're seeing a rapid evolution of companies protecting themselves and being more proactive about cybersecurity. Underlying all of those the themes of growth and innovation really are the dominant part of the requests we're getting right now.

Another example is the convergence of multiple industries. Using healthcare as an example, five years ago it was all about hospitals, providers of care and insurers of care. Patients or consumers were in the equation but did not have a dominant role. I think we're seeing a convergence where for instance the abilities of large telecom companies and other types of businesses are coming into play and we anticipate them playing a significant role in the evolution of healthcare.

If you think about Google or Amazon or any of those businesses that have become very successful by a deep understanding and intimacy with the customer, those industries are starting to converge around different sectors and industries where we may not have expected it 3 to 4 years ago. There are a lot of open questions like 'how can I potentially be disrupted?' and 'what are the plays and capabilities and competencies I have to develop to reclaim my position of dominance or presence in those markets as I go forward?' So it's a dramatically shifting landscape. Many of the things we took for granted five years ago are no longer the rules by which the game is played.

Consulting: What are your goals for the Strategy practice as it fits into EY's overall strategy?

Mulder: I want to see the Advisory business but definitely Strategy become one of the key components in the future of EY. Size-wise we've outlined our growth aspirations, which are aggressive and significant. I want to see us evolve to a future where the Strategy and Advisory practice become such a powerful and important part of the way we engage our marketplace that no matter where you sit inside of EY and no matter which of our clients you are you're going to want that to be woven into the core fabric if not the dominant part of the reason we get engaged by our clients.

You cannot fire a cannon from a canoe. I think the type of change and type of intervention and partnerships that our economy and clients are looking for is something that's only developed by significant scale and breadth and reach. That's a little bit of the reason why my role is both industry and market; internally focused as well as on market development.

The strength of our firm lies in its breadth and diversity and really bringing the entire firm and all of its capabilities to bear is what makes us a formidable partner. It's really on the back of that platform that we're going to continue building and enhancing this focus on strategy, but understanding it's a combination of all those things that brings us real strength.