Now. Next. Beyond.: EY’s road map for moving from current to future

TBR perspective

Norman Lonergan, EY global vice chair, Advisory, opened the EY 2019 Global Analyst Summit with an outline for a new strategy called Now. Next. Beyond. Having executed extremely well against its earlier strategy, EY needed to raise its own bar. In a way, it is adhering to a strategy that it likewise seeks to use to assist its key clients in adopting and leveraging technology to enter the digital economy as a stronger and more vibrant operating business.

Achieving these objectives does not happen overnight, nor will it occur without false starts and shelved proof of concept trials. From TBR’s perspective, Now. Next. Beyond. broadly translates into the following:

• Now: The point in time where the heavy advisory lifting takes place to establish the foundational business rules required for further automation on the way to becoming a truly digital business.
• Next: Obtainment of the low-hanging fruit in quick operational enhancements to cut costs (and prove value) and to enhance the overall customer experience. This phase likewise lays the foundation with anchor ecosystem participants to harden the automated or smart contract pieces necessary for the network effect at scale.
• Beyond: The aspirational objective that in some ways could be entirely different business models made possible through atypical partnerships with business entrants from radically different business domains.
  
  

The EY construct is not necessarily groundbreaking or unique, but it is the strategic framework and corporate language the firm intends to deploy as it moves forward in the industry evangelizing its best practices and promoting the tight working relationships it has built over the past decade with enterprise technology stalwarts such as Microsoft and SAP.

Appropriately, EY hosted its annual Global Analyst Summit at a working cruise terminal at the water’s edge of Boston’s Seaport District, in a facility that served as an EY innovation hub before turning back into the assembly area for an oceangoing cruise ship. The venture-forth vibe in the physical facility amplified the sentiments expressed by EY’s leaders, particularly around making the firm more global, including global engineering across service lines and developing IP in a more industrialized way. As one EY professional explained, “When we solve a problem through applying tech, and thus creating an asset or tool, we want to productize and commercialize and globalize.” Like a ship making course corrections while still navigating toward a desired destination, EY has adjusted its business model, folded asset-based consulting and managed services into traditional consulting, and committed to emerging technology.