PwC is Ireland’s largest professional services firm, with over 2,800 staff. Managing partner Feargal O’Rourke explains why addressing the organisation’s culture is his main priority
Like its Big 4 peers, business is booming for accountancy and consultancy giant PwC. Against a strong economic backdrop, the firm is enjoying double digit growth and its 2,800 staff charged out €446m fees in 2017. In the core offering of assurance, expansion is linked to increased business complexity and a tougher regulatory and compliance environment. With US and international tax reform, trade disputes, digital tax proposals and Brexit, PwC’s FDI, Tax, and Customs & Trade practices are also kept busy.
Managing partner Feargal O’Rourke (pictured) says PwC’s advisory practice has seen “exponential” growth in the last number of years. “The pace of digital transformation is driving significant demand for technology and security solutions,” he explains. In addition, clients turn to PwC for assistance on HR matters, their business models and effecting transactions.
O’Rourke (54) became Managing Partner of the firm in 2015 and PwC members recently extended his term to 2023. The son of former minister Mary O’Rourke, the PwC boss is as engaging as his mother, an outgoing individual who might have progressed in politics too.
O’Rourke credits former PwC luminary Tom Grace with steering him away from public service. “A long time ago Tom said to be that one day I might lead the country or lead PwC, but I couldn’t lead both,” he recalls. In PwC, O’Rourke has been leaving his imprint and for the rest of his term he’ll be promoting a disruption agenda, as he explains in this interview.
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What has it been like leading PwC for the last four years?
At one level I’ve been very fortunate. The ball has bounced my way on nearly every occasion in the four years so far. In the organisation, we have managed the retirement of experienced partners and brought in bright new partners who are pulling up trees.
The second thing is we spent a lot of time on culture and values, and we’re seeing that played back to us now in the PwC global people survey scores. We’ve driven up the Irish score significantly in relation to diversity and staff engagement, and in relation to pride in the firm.
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On the technology side, there’s a bit done and more to do. One strand is just increasing the breadth and depth of our offering in areas like data analytics, technology implementation, and cyber security. In relation then to our own systems and how we run our business, we’ve moved to Google mail and other Google products in the cloud. We’ve also moved to Workday for our HR system, and we’re adopting Salesforce for CRM this summer.
When it comes to technology it’s about broadening our offering, digitising our business and up-skilling our people. My aim is to make PWC the most tech-enabled professional services firm over the next couple of years.
What does your ‘One Firm’ alignment programme involve?
Historically people tended to think in terms of their specialism: I’m an auditor, I’m a tax professional, I’m a consultant. They tended to deal with the client within the prism of that mindset. What we’ve tried to do is get people thinking holistically, so that rather than being in their silos they’re working in teams and approaching problems from a broader perspective.
We’ve also spent a lot of time on mental well-being and physical well-being, and now staff are much more open about being able to talk about the issues they face. Culturally I think we’ve empowered our people to change the organisation. People feel a lot more comfortable now talking about mental health, sexual identity, and diversity generally. I believe we’ve empowered the organisation to take ownership of those issues and to challenge leadership and to talk about it.
How important are these work environment culture issues when you’re competing for recruits?
When I was in college, you learned that Drucker quote, ‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast’. To be honest, I didn’t quite know what that means, but when you’re running an organisation you really do understand it. When I took over this role four years ago, initially I was thinking that if I work 25 hours a day then I’ll get tonnes of things done. I realised very quickly that if I could help shape and change the culture of the organisation to empower people, and make them proud to be a member of PwC, then that would be a much more productive outcome.
I still do some interviewing and over the last year or 18 months the candidates are asking about our values, our CSR programme. Why are you still here? What has kept you here? When I joined PwC, they were the sort of questions you didn’t ask.
In a people organisation like ours, the only thing we have to differentiate ourselves is our people and our culture. The reason we have a record head count and record turnover and profit is because of the people. It’s not because of me. It’s because we’ve put a flag on the hill around culture and values and systems, and our people have bought into that.
How do you prod staff out of their comfort zone?
I continue to challenge our people to be naturally curious and to do things differently. I tell the new graduates to ask questions the whole time. If the answer is, well we’re doing it this way because we’ve always done it that way, that’s the wrong answer. We have to keep reviewing everything we do and see is there a smarter way of doing it.
One of my priorities over the next four years is to foster a level of internal disruption that will cause us to constantly question ourselves. We can continue with the model we have for the next couple of years and we’d do really well. However, two or three years out and our model will start running into the sand, so we’ve got to disrupt ourselves and our business.
Disruption is about transformation, automation, outsourcing, it’s about different business models. In areas of the business, we’re doing more training in data analytics and ways of dealing with data. My aim in June 2023 when my term is up that there will be a constant questioning of the way we do things. We’ll be even more technology enabled and I’m hoping we’ll have even larger revenues and more people, but that the revenue growth will exceed the headcount increase.
You’ve been with PwC since 1986. How has the organisation and the business world changed since then?
I took a sabbatical in 2003 and as I travelled around the world with my wife for two months I was not contactable. There were a couple of calls I had to do but the idea of being always on just didn’t exist in 2003 in the same way it does now.
Even since I ran the tax department back in 2010, the environment has accelerated. The ability to change and reinvent yourself and broaden and deepen and change the services you’re offering has become paramount.
If I brought back a partner who retired in 2000, I think their basic client handling skills would not need to change. However, the complexity and the multifaceted nature of business today would probably astonish them. I had a cup of coffee recently with a partner who retired two years ago and who’s gone back to college. He said you don’t realise how fast the merry-go-round is going until you get off.
Is there a compulsory retirement age in PWC?
You must retire on the 30th of June following your 60th birthday. There are some partners who leave and you wish they would stick around for another couple of years. But the majority are ready to hang up the boots and do something different.
I’m 33 years in the office so I’ll be 37 years with PwC when my second term as managing partner concludes. I’m going to give this hell for leather for another four years and then I know my time is up. It will be time to take off the jersey and give it to the next man or woman.
You can only run an organisation for so long before you get stale. In PwC the limit is two four-year terms and I think that’s perfect. After a period of eight years, whether you’re the US president or Taoiseach or head of PwC, it’s very hard to keep reinventing yourself. The organisation is relentless and it will need a new voice and a new leader. My successor will do things differently and they’ll be right to do so.
Pix: Conor McCabe
