| | When I attended Top
Consultant’s Careers
Fair at Earl’s Court
last October it was so
crowded I found it
difficult to get past
the candidates to talk
to the representatives
of the firms there.
Particularly mobbed was
the Ernst & Young stand,
after Steve Varley, head
of the firm’s advisory
services, gave a
stirring presentation on
the firm’s return to the
consultancy market.
As if to underline
the firm’s commitment to
work-life balance,
Varley went on paternity
leave immediately
afterwards, but I was
able to track him down
recently and talk about
his plans to
re-establish a venerable
name as a consultancy
brand. One thing is
immediately clear: even
though the big
accountancy firms are
back this is not a
return to
business-as-before.
However much they may
have enjoyed the wild
ride that saw the Big
Six, and then Four
become a dominant force
in systems integration,
once is clearly enough.
“Consultancy has
failed to demonstrate
the value of the
one-stop-shop approach,”
says Varley. “The
business we’re creating
is client-side
advisory.”
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| | “new” Ernst & Young
builds on advisory
capabilities the firm
retained after selling
its main consultancy arm
to Capgemini. The
non-compete agreement
arising from that sale
expired last year, but
Varley believes the way
forward is not to take
on old colleagues but to
focus on areas that the
industry has neglected.
None of the big
players has a very
strong change management
practice any more,” he
says. “A lot of their
partners have joined us,
because they see us as a
high-performance people
practice.”
The “new” Ernst &
Young consultancy will
rest more strongly on
the firm’s professional
services culture, and
will have a stronger
integration with the
rest of the practice
than the old consultancy
arm.
“If you look at our
strengths, we as a firm
are very good at
understanding how
business works,” says
Varley. “We understand
money, and money is a
big part of business.
We’re a multi-service
firm—we can go in and do
M&A work, or audit—we
understand
transactions.”
Varley sees Ernst &
Young steadily
encroaching on the
higher level work | |
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| | associated with
transformation projects.
“There’s been a
steady retrenchment of
the big systems
integrators from
high-value work,” he
says. “If you want to be
a big star in one of
those firms, you have to
pull in the
billion-pound projects.
There’s always a degree
of pre-sales in their
consultancy and that can
lead to a conflict of
interests. Talent in
those companies goes to
where the gravity of
reward lies, but it’s
also walking out the
door.”
As a result, says
Varley: “I’ve had no
trouble recruiting great
people—and I want lots
more.”
Advisory services
currently employs 160
people in London, but
Varley says he wants to
get this figure to 250
by the end of the year.
The fetter on growth is
not money—Ernst & Young
is investing heavily in
this project—but the
constraints of team
building.
“We spend a lot of
time debating what the
limitation is,” say
Varley. “We do a lot of
team-building, a lot of
events. I’m trying to
keep a familial feel to
the business.”
It is also, he says a
very diverse team,
especially at partner | |
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| | level: “People who think
the same bond on day
one—but it’s very
limiting,” he says. “We
are diverse by company
heritage, by knowledge
and by consultancy
styles.”
Similar initiatives
are taking pace in other
Ernst & Young locations
around the world.
“I wouldn’t go so far
as to say it’s a global
co-ordinated effort,” he
says. “We’re a global
brand, but we’re moving
at the pace of local
markets.”
Varley characterises
the new consultancy as
“diamond-shaped” rather
than pyramidal, with the
centre of gravity at
senior level. This is
where he is focusing his
recruitment efforts,
whether taking people
from other firms or
bringing in sector
experts from industry.
“One of my themes is
that as PwC and KPMG
also rebuild there’s
going to be a war for
talent at senior partner
level,” he says.
“There’s a shrinking
pool of top talent.”
It’s a war in which
Ernst & Young has
successfully fired a few
opening salvoes. It will
be interesting to see
how the rest of the
industry responds.
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