Hear from our leaders about some of the challenges and achievements our people and clients have worked on together - and priorities for the year ahead.
Managing Partner Consulting
The nature of consulting has evolved in recent years. While the work is advisory at its core, it is now much more about co-creating with our clients and alliance partners to achieve positive change, add value and make an impact that matters. At the same time, we want to ensure our clients have the skills and training they need to sustain that change.
Demand for consulting services increased across all sectors, but especially in Financial Services. In the Public Sector, engagements transitioned away from COVID-19 response-related programmes towards broader technology enabled transformational change.
Getting ahead on what matters most to our clients and society means that we grow better businesses. We continue to be market leaders in areas such as Enterprise Resource Planning and delivering major programmes that involve complex change in digital and data transformation.
In addition to advising a client to adopt a certain technology to solve a problem, we also implement and operate these technologies for them. This is key to enabling our clients to deliver the value they have promised to their own stakeholders, whether that be customers, shareholders or wider society. From cloud technology, to building an ecommerce platform or adopting an AI tool, our capabilities continue to evolve.
By focusing on our clients’ biggest issues, we support them in delivering meaningful change, for example, achieving digital transformation ambitions, meeting sustainability and climate commitments, or adapting business models in response to the geopolitical and regulatory landscape.
We remain committed to driving the kind of transformation needed by our clients, society and the planet.
Our Financial Advisory practice is supporting FIFA’s work to help build financial sustainability in women’s football.
Our Consulting practice has supported Earthshot-prize-winning SOLshare’s work to power Dhaka’s fleet of electric rickshaws with solar energy and reduce emissions.
Managing Partner Financial Advisory
Financial Advisory performance this year has been a tale of two halves; we saw the tail end of exceptional M&A market activity followed by more challenging economic conditions, which have impacted the transactional areas of our business.
Our response has been threefold. Firstly, we have continued to grow our corporate turnaround business, which focuses on restoring financial stability and accelerating recovery. These skills are extremely relevant in today’s more difficult markets.
Secondly, our Transaction Services and Value Creation Services businesses have been collaborating to bring value enhancement opportunities to Private Equity portfolio companies.
Thirdly, we have supported large corporates in transformational M&A where healthy balance sheets and changes in the competitive landscape have led to incremental value-enhancing opportunities.
We have also continued to advise clients with developing and implementing their real estate strategies, where we’ve seen ESG become a hot topic for builders, owners and occupiers. In Forensic our skills have been in high demand, supporting clients exposed to risk from financial crime, as well as claims and disputes. Our specialist advisory businesses have assisted our clients in making their most important strategic decisions.
We are proud of the work we have delivered this year. Projects like working with FIFA to help women’s football achieve its full potential, helping companies tackle financial crime globally, or supporting the City of Manchester in developing sustainable buildings, demonstrate the impact we create for our clients, people and wider society.
Managing Partner Risk Advisory
Organisations are constantly facing new challenges – and this is consistent with what we saw in FY23. They ranged from digital transformation and the difficulty of governing and protecting the vast amount of information now available, to the growing scrutiny on businesses to operate in the best interest of both people and the planet. There is also the global economic and geopolitical uncertainty.
Helping our clients build more resilient, future-proofed businesses that can grow with confidence in a complex and changing world is the common purpose uniting the diverse teams across Risk Advisory. We are proud that the work we do contributes to a more sustainable, ethical and secure future.
This year saw continued demand from organisations looking to navigate regulatory requirements, not only in Financial Services - where change continues at pace - but increasingly from other industries. We have advised on the internet, data privacy, resilience, controls and ESG regulations, working closely with finance, risk, technology and data leaders as well as control functions to transform, build trust and drive efficiency.
Cyber security remains a hot topic. Digital transformation is driving wholesale change in how controls are embedded within new technologies and in how data privacy and security is managed when moving to cloud-based services and solutions and exploring the practical and ethical uses of generative AI.
ESG, of course, is another priority for our clients. Our expertise in sustainable supply chain strategies and establishing ESG data and reporting has become increasingly important as organisations seek to address emerging risks and embed resilience and ESG within their wider networks.
Managing Partner Tax & Legal
Tax and legal systems are central to society and ensuring they are effective and easily accessible continues to be a priority for us. Over the past year we have supported thousands of clients with their tax compliance obligations, transactions and investment activity, and through transformation in areas such as sustainability.
We have focused on creating smart solutions to today’s problems using a multi-disciplinary approach across tax, digital, regulatory and legal. Alongside this, we are proud to have helped many people throughout the UK as part of our ongoing work with Tax Aid and Tax Help for the Elderly.
Our legal team assisted GoHenry with its institutional funding rounds and international expansion, supporting its work help more families around the world with financial wellbeing.
As ways of working change, expectations and practices like remote and hybrid working evolve, and so do the tax implications. In response, we created the Remote Work Assessment Tool so clients can ensure employees remain compliant when working remotely and travelling on business. We also introduced Go Verify, a technology solution that allows employees to self-authorise their right to work, in line with government guidelines, removing the burden on employers and HR teams.
In the coming year, our team of over 4,300 tax and legal experts across the UK will continue to assist clients as they respond to changes in society, while helping to shape the future of tax, legal and regulatory systems.
Our BrightStart apprenticeship scheme is one way into a fulfilling career in our Audit & Assurance practice.
Deloitte Legal has supported GoHenry's expansion into the European market.
Managing Partner Audit & Assurance
The topics dominating this year’s headlines – geopolitical uncertainty, rising energy prices, the escalating climate imperative and the emerging power of artificial intelligence (AI) – highlight the ongoing challenge and changing risk landscape faced by global markets during FY23.
The audit and assurance profession must remain resilient and agile and, through its independent rigour and quality, enhance trust and confidence in business, and protect the public interest.
I am pleased with the overall audit quality scores we received this year from the Financial Reporting Council, with 82 per cent of audits inspected requiring no more than limited improvements. We continue to invest in audit quality and our people, including through training and skills, and our scores in recent years have demonstrated this commitment.
We now have over 6,000 people in our UK Audit & Assurance business.
A personal highlight this year was the appointment of our first partner who had progressed through the Deloitte BrightStart Apprenticeship programme. I hope this inspires more young people to explore the audit profession and the varied and interesting opportunities it brings.
As we navigate the changing landscape ahead and evolve and innovate for future audit requirements, we need to make the most of the industry expertise we have across the whole of Deloitte. Our multi-disciplinary model allows us to do just that – and better serve our purpose of protecting the public interest.