Crowe, a public accounting, consulting and technology firm, recently named Josh Cole as managing principal of the consulting team at Crowe, a convergence of the firm's former Performance Improvement and Risk consulting teams. In this role, Cole leads the new business unit, which includes some 1,200 personnel and generates about $325 million in revenue. The unified consulting team combines Crowe's talent across the entire portfolio of consulting solutions. The organizational change makes it easier for clients to take advantage of what the firm has to offer, Cole says. In his more than 25 years with Crowe, Cole has been instrumental in the growth of the consulting team at Crowe and its industry specializations. The move took effect April 1, the beginning of Crowe's fiscal year. Consulting caught up Cole to discuss the new role and the impact the combined consulting business will have on clients.
Consulting:You took over the position on April 1, so you've been at it for a few months, can you talk to me a little bit about the new position and your role?
Cole:My new role is to lead the unified Consulting practice within Crowe. This practice is the combination of two former units that segregated our consulting business model into Risk and Performance-based solutions. Our former Performance Consulting practice was built around helping our clients improve through the use of enabling technology, data, and innovative solutions for very focused industries. Our Risk practice was focused on risk-oriented services, such as internal audit, third-party risk, regulatory compliance and cyber security, among others. We brought them together because market needs and expectations for risk and compliance services were merging with needs for performance improvement solutions. Both demanded industry specialization, and both expected our solutions to protect them while delivering value. So, our risk services, for instance, at one time might have been about checking the regulatory box but it's been moving to where companies were looking for a return on risk; they not only wanted to mitigate their risk, but they wanted to improve their businesses as well. Companies wanted to improve their performance without incurring new risks, so the market was demanding such safeguards with any innovation. Bottom line, by bringing them together we really simplified how the market can do business with Crowe.
Consulting:So, what have you been focused on day-to-day since taking over the new role?
Cole:Since we've moved to a single, unified Consulting practice, our leadership team has been involved in all aspects of helping make that happen. We re-invented our structure to further focus on our industry specialization. We have seven primary industries we serve: Financial Services, Healthcare, Public Sector, Manufacturing and Distribution, Life Sciences, Technology-Media-Telecommunications and Insurance. And what makes us unique is that we're actually structured by industry, so those seven industries represent our primary market units. Having the proper leadership in that structure was a big, initial focus and that led to a more strategic discussion about the business plans and serving clients.
Consulting:Right. So can you talk a little bit about the strategic significance of the new structure and how it will be a differentiator for Crowe?
Cole:There are many large competing firms that lead with their brand recognition. They invest in television ads, host a sporting event or put their name on an athlete's shirt, but our investment strategy is centered on providing very specific, innovative value to our targeted industries and sub-sectors. It's not just about our brand; it's really about our offerings and demonstrating this value to our defined markets. That's really at the heart of our growth model and innovation model—focused offerings for focused markets. We're now more than three months into our fiscal year, and as we operationalize the model we are seeing very positive traction in the market.
Consulting:How does this restructuring impact Crowe's clients?
Cole:It dramatically simplifies doing business with Crowe and our Consulting industry practices. If you're a large healthcare provider, for example, we've simplified the ability to engage Crowe in our industry leading finance, reimbursement and revenue cycle performance solutions, with risk solutions (internal audit, cyber-security, etc.) designed to protect and provide additional value. These solutions do not require our clients to navigate through different offices, structures or leaders—we have a one-stop-shop for hospitals and health systems to protect and improve the business of healthcare.
Consulting:Where do you see the most opportunities for Crowe right now?
Cole:We see incredible opportunities all over. Like any industry today, we're entering this Fourth
Industrial Revolution and we have an attitude and a philosophy that you have to embrace the uncertainty. We have trained our people to thrive in uncertainty and to view the chaos and pace of change as an opportunity. Most CPAs and consultants are trained their whole lives to remove uncertainty, but today the only certainty is uncertainty. We spend a lot of time thinking about how we plan for 'Next' and how we want to navigate 'Next.'
Consulting:So, in terms of growth, where do you see the business going over the next several years?
Cole:We have a growth plan where we feel like there will be exponential opportunities to bring new ideas and solve new problems for all of our industries. Also, if you look at our Consulting practice as a whole, we have a significant portfolio of innovative technology offerings we provide to our industries and clients. In addition to once traditional services, we have a growing share of our revenue that's licensed Crowe IP technology designed to create specific value for the industries we serve.
Consulting:How about challenges? Now that you're more than three months in, anything you didn't anticipate?
Cole:I don't think we've had any unforeseen challenges, but what we've done is re-affirmed our focus on our specialization and "One Crowe" differentiation. The goal is really to make it very easy for clients to do business with Crowe. We've designed a structure and construct that doesn't create any barriers for us to pull the right talent, the right people, the right leaders and the right technology to solve problems.
Consulting:How have clients received this new structure?
Cole:The market has been very receptive to it. We've been careful; sometimes when you bring worlds together like this the tendency is to want to bring this to a client all at once, but we've been very conscientious of that. As we progress, it's going to dramatically simplify their understanding of what we do for their industry. I think the lines between our legacy offerings are going to continue to be erased, and clients will begin to see solutions that merge both of those worlds for their benefit. This move truly positions us for what comes next.
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