Steph McGovern
Marco, it's lovely to grab you for a chat because I know you're super busy. You've had you know, a very busy few months. What's it been like and how are you feeling now you've taken over as senior partner?
Marco Amitrano
Yeah, well, first of all, it's lovely to meet you finally, Steph as well. What's it been like? Well, it's been great. I mean, I've described it as a real privilege to be elected as senior partner of an organisation like PwC with its reach and its brand strength and reputation, not least in our 175th year of existence. So, the process itself was demanding, exhausting. Necessarily so because it’s designed to get you ready for the job.
Steph
Your vision in all of this, that got you elected, is this idea of the preeminent firm. What do you mean by that?
Marco
So it's a concept, isn't it? Preeminence. But an important one to bring to life in that the preeminent firm stands above everybody else, stands above all others in professional services. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean you do everything for everybody, but it does mean that everybody looks to you for leadership, insight, advice, and that was my vision ultimately, in its simplest form for PwC, we become that. So it doesn't mean we don't have competitors. It doesn't mean, again, that we're always the first choice, but it does mean we're always a choice.
Steph
And as you say, in 175 years now, you’ve weathered many a storm. It has been a tough year, this past year. What's it been like from your perspective in terms of the market environment and the challenges and how have you risen to that?
Marco
In the UK in particular, we've had a tougher year, a tougher market, and that's representative of the economy that our clients operate in. Actually, as a multi-disciplinary professional services firm, your challenge, if you like, your job, is to mirror the world of your clients, so that's what we've endeavoured to do. We grew our revenues by around 3% in the UK this past year. That wasn't what we planned but our planning was done with the anticipation of a stronger economy and a stronger market for what we do. And actually, there's been a mix of opportunities or challenges in what we do. Again, that's the beauty of the multi-disciplinary firm and portfolio so we're able to be agile. And the neat trick in there is to spot the trends, focus on the things that are going to be more in demand for your clients. We've managed everybody's expectations through that. We've managed our cost base. So actually, even though we didn't grow by more than 3%, actually, that growth has felt solid. And the margins in our business have felt solid.
By contrast, the Middle East firm, which is part of what we call our alliance, and what I'm responsible for, is a very different market with a very different economy, with much stronger growth. We've seen near record growth across all of what we do across the Middle East business. So again, it's been pleasing to see that and take advantage of that. And actually we've been able to give our people in the UK more opportunities because of that as well. And actually our Middle East firm has learned from the long history and disciplines of providing high quality professional services that the UK firm represents.
Steph
And from a kind of technology perspective, as well, has that been an important part of what you've been doing?
Marco
As a professional services firm, we have to equip our people with skills and technologies to help them develop, make them part of being a leading organisation. And disruptive technologies in particular, AI, generative AI being an obvious example, although not the only one, has accelerated at a pace that we never imagined over the last 12 months.
And, we've tried to get ahead of that. We’re investing in things like ChatGPT Enterprise, which we have a very unique deal with Open AI to be their exclusive partner in taking Enterprise to market. It's really exciting, exciting for me, very exciting for all of our partners and all of our people and actually for our clients, crucially.
Steph
We've heard a lot already about how the government's going to focus on growth and productivity, wealth creation, all of these things which are music to the ears of business people. What are your thoughts on where growth is going to come from in the UK then?
Marco
Well, look, first of all, conceptually, growth is critical to everything. For our country, for sure, for business and organisations like mine, it's growth that actually makes everything else possible. It's lifeblood, it's fuel. It creates opportunities for promotions, new careers, growth in different ways, growth of skills. So, you know, there’s similar challenges but perhaps different in the detail. I think for our country, growth will come from where we are a leader in the world's eyes - energy and energy transition, in particular, and innovative new technologies.
One of the challenges for our country is, we tend to be right at the start of finding new technologies, but they tend to go elsewhere to be built upon and scaled. And that's a challenge for all of us in business, and for the new government is how do we keep hold of them for a bit longer? How do we generate the economic growth here rather than them go to somewhere else in the world? So technology is a big driver. What we do, professional services is one of the priority sectors for the government to create that growth. And that links back to how our government sees the likes of PwC being genuinely present in the regions, as being an employer in the regions and therefore contributing to regional economic growth.
Steph
Linked to that and linked to people, you guys are really big on social mobility and that's something I care a lot about. I've done some work with PwC on social mobility in the past, and you must have been delighted when you got the top spot on the Social Mobility Employers Index. That's quite a big deal, isn't it?
Marco
It's a huge deal. We're completely delighted. I'm personally delighted. Like you, it's in my history and, and therefore, it's something I feel passionately about. It's one of the things that sits under the umbrella of inclusion as a challenge. Are we really able to be representative of all of the talent out there of society as a whole? So to get that award again and to get the top spot is a major achievement for us. But actually it's a step along the way in the ongoing commitment of we will be a social mobility employer.
Steph
Yeah, I guess this is about agility as much as anything else then.
Marco
Ultimately yes, agility is what protects everybody. If you can find new opportunities from challenges, you know, that's a form of agility. And again, within a multidisciplinary firm with a portfolio of things that our clients need, and an organisation of smart people, it makes that possible.
Tough decisions around agility come along every now and again. Without wanting to make it sound overly simple or unemotional, you know, it's business as usual to be reviewing the shape of your business against the demand that comes from such a diverse client base. And over periods of time, you know, some things will accelerate in demand and some things will slow down and even begin to be eliminated. Now, your priority is through that agility to find ways of taking people who might be in an area that's slowing down or coming to the end of its tenure - its life, if you like - reskilling, retraining, moving. And we can do that as a global organisation. We can do that in the UK. We can do that across the UK, Middle East and even further and more broadly in our global network. That's a real strength. That's a reason why people want to work here. Sometimes it's not always possible and actually that means that you have to take, you know, harder action to reduce headcount, even go as far as voluntary severance. And we've had to do that in the last 12 months. It's never easy. And it wasn't easy this time.
Steph
You strike me as an optimist. You’ve had 175 years. But what's next for PwC? What are you thinking about for the 176th, 177th and so on?
Marco
Well, hopefully it is at least another 175 for us. I definitely won't be around for all of those.
Steph
You never know, AI might make this happen.
Marco
Well it could. I'll come back to my comment about how we mirror the world, the business world, our clients' world. We have government clients and beyond the private sector. But, our job is to mirror that world; it's to spot trends, keep up and be relevant to our clients. So actually what's next will be where our clients take us. And, that's been a successful formula for us for the last 175 years.
And again, as I say, for at least the next 175, I hope.
Steph
Well good luck. And thank you very much for telling me all about it. It sounds very exciting, and will be great to see what PwC does next.
Marco
Good. Thank you Steph. Thank you.
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