PwC Africa has announced six key focus areas that will support the execution of its new global strategy that was announced on 15th June 2021, known as The New Equation. PwC Africa’s commitment to quality service delivery unites these key focus areas and remains the foundation of the strategy.
At the heart of this strategy is quality and investing in further enhancing quality and expanding capabilities. PwC Africa’s six key focus areas for The New Equation strategy are trust, growth, and value creation, ESG, digitisation, international development, and workforce. Audit and assurance remain a critical aspect of PwC Africa’s business and, as such, the firm will continue investing significantly in this area of business, including investment in technology, and upskilling of our people to be more digitally enabled.
The New Equation focuses on two interconnected needs that organisations face in the coming years: building trust across a wide range of areas that are important to stakeholders and delivering sustained outcomes in an environment where the risk of disruption is more intense than ever before. PwC Africa’s six focus areas will help to address these needs among clients, communities, and other stakeholders in Sub-Saharan Africa.
“The New Equation will shape how we help to build trust, as well as how we deliver sustained outcomes as a community of problem solvers,” says Dion Shango, CEO for PwC Africa. “PwC has been in the African region for over 70 years, and we continue to be optimistic about the opportunities on the continent.”
In response to technological disruption, climate change, fractured geopolitics, and the continuing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, amongst other challenges, many organisations need to refocus and that’s where we can help with The New Equation.”
1. Building Trust
The New Equation is about helping organisations to build and sustain trust in their people, products, services, operations, and the communities in which they operate. PwC Africa says it will continue to support and sustain quality through internal processes, controls, and the support teams that monitor and enhance quality. In addition, it will focus on transparently communicating matters of importance and engaging with stakeholders including regulators.
With clients and other stakeholders, PwC Africa will focus on helping them to build trust. Trust can be difficult to earn and harder to maintain, particularly during times that are characterized by uncertainty and change. PwC Africa helps organizations to manage more complex scenarios, engage and listen to a broader set of stakeholders and act with courage through uncertainty. In areas like financial reporting and cybersecurity, PwC Africa supports clients to build trust in their operations, products, and services.
“Trust is absolutely top of mind in today’s world, for PwC Africa and amongst our clients and other stakeholders,” Shango says.
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Growth and value creation
The COVID-19 pandemic and related economic and social challenges have had a significant impact on African economies, businesses, and communities. The New Equation strategy informs PwC Africa’s commitment to quality, expertise, upskilling, tools and technologies that improve resilience and support productivity and sustainable, equitable growth.
“Optimising workforce productivity, seeking competitive value in deals and other transactions and deploying integrated digital solutions are all ways of delivering sustained outcomes within organisations. These are some of the areas that we’re focused on, as part of executing The New Equation strategy,” Shango says.
3. ESG (Environmental, Governance and Social)
Aligned to The New Equation, PwC Africa’s specialised teams are equipped with industry knowledge to support clients with their Environmental, Governance and Social (ESG) objectives that help to build trust and achieve sustained outcomes. Good governance supports sustainable outcomes in terms of business performance, and also through systems, processes and standards that deliver quality results.
By coupling the power of technology with expertise in specific areas such as strategy, risk, deals, management consulting and tax strategy, The New Equation helps deliver sustained outcomes.
PwC will invest in additional resources and tools to assist clients with embedding ESG from strategy to execution and ultimately delivering impactful transparent reporting. PwC supports organizations in their renewable energy transitions, net zero commitments, and sustainable financing, as well as their social commitments in the communities in which they operate. In addition, the firm is mobilizing on its goal of reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions, in line with science-based targets, by 2030.
“Our Net Zero commitment rests on the progress that we will make towards measurement and disclosure, emission reduction, supply chain decarbonization and renewable energy and carbon offsets,” Shango adds. “It’s part of what we see as our greater societal purpose, which we take very seriously.”
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Digitization
Technology and digitization will continue to drive PwC Africa’s strategy. By coupling the power of technology with expertise in specific areas such as strategy, risk, deals, management consulting and tax strategy, amongst others, The New Equation helps deliver sustained outcomes and value for PwC Africa’s clients.
“The New Equation is about a future that is human-led and tech-powered. It’s about how human ingenuity combines with technology innovation and experience to deliver faster, more intelligent and better outcomes while building trust and ensuring quality across the value chain,” said Shango.
5. Partnering to achieve international development goals
By executing The New Equation strategy, PwC Africa will expand its capabilities to help address some of the continent’s biggest development challenges. PwC’s aim is to build trust by improving the effectiveness of development assistance through promoting innovation, reducing costs, assuring accountability and establishing results- and impact based management.
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“Working with multilateral and bi-lateral funding agencies, governments, international NGOs, foundations and the private sector, we can help these organisations to deliver sustained and meaningful outcomes. Our objective is to build trust by improving the effectiveness and quality of development assistance,” commented Shango.
6. Workforce
The New Equation strategy helps to empower PwC people to work together as a community of problem solvers to deliver high quality services. For many organisations, the COVID-19 pandemic has amplified the need for agile, resilient workforces and the importance of tools, skills and systems that support workforce productivity and sustained outcomes. Through integrated service delivery platforms like New World, New Skills, PwC Africa helps clients to reimagine the future of work, leadership, technology, and training.
The New Equation strategy will also lead PwC Africa to build an even more inclusive and diverse workforce as well as develop new skills sets through recruitment, training, and technology.
“Through The New Equation, we commit to purpose-led work and opportunities for career development for our people, as well as empowered flexible working arrangements. By embracing all aspects of diversity and inclusion, we keep our PwC values and purpose top of mind and inspire our people to deliver quality work. Our people are our most valuable asset, and through them we are helping other organisations to maximise the value of their workforces, too,” concluded Shango.
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