EY’s Strategy and Transactions practice: Long-term value in the post-pandemic world

Investing more than $1B in technology, people and ecosystems  

According to EY Global Vice Chair for Strategy and Transactions Andrea Guerzoni, the firm is investing $1.5 billion in technology and people, with four specific goals. First, EY aims to improve the breadth and depth of its skills and expertise and accelerate innovation through a comprehensive learning program and acquisitions. Second, the firm seeks to prioritize reusable assets and technology tool kits across Tax, Assurance, Consulting, and its Strategy and Transactions practice. Guerzoni described this effort as focusing on “new client-facing technology” designed to help EY “get closer to and bring more value to clients.” Third, the firm works to establish strategic alliances, including a robust startup ecosystem and enhanced engagement with academia. Finally, EY spotlights the 25-plus wavespaces globally that provide an “immersive digital intense experience,” where clients can “rethink business, connect dots and look at reality differently.”

In TBR’s view, encompassing technology assets and ecosystems of people and partners as part of the $1.5 billion investment reflects the firm’s broader evolution to a more expansive player in the digital transformation space. EY also boasts a million-person alumni network that it can tap for ideas, introductions and opportunities, boosting its ability to influence the market.

Differentiating in an urgent, critical and complex space

At different points during the virtual Strategy and Transactions: Enabling CEOs to Navigate the NextWave event, members of the EY team presented their view on the firm’s differentiation in a professional services strategy consulting market, including new entrants such as investment banks, which stood out to TBR as an indication that EY views placing the transactions advisory component inside its overall consulting practice as something uniquely differentiated in the market.

Additionally, EY leaders specifically mentioned clients choosing the firm for holistic strategies with enterprisewide impact focused on long-term value and grounded in reality, sector and functional expertise, and the ability to both advise and enable change. Speaking directly about why clients seek out EY-Parthenon, EMEIA EY-Parthenon Leader Falco Weidemeyer said the firm brought experience and scale and delivered results. He cited a number of characteristics, such as outside-in sector experience and a focus on delivery, with the most significant and differentiating, in TBR’s view, being EY’s emphasis on transformational leadership “in urgent, critical, and complex situations to help [EY’s] clients create, preserve and recover value.” Combining strategy, leadership and expertise around transactions – and recognizing that long-term value will depend on optimal resource allocation – strikes TBR as an approach not frequently taken or delivered by EY’s peers.

Strategy and Transactions: Enabling CEOs to Navigate the NextWave — EY’s three-hour analyst event featured senior leaders from the firm’s Strategy and Transactions practice, including Global Vice Chair Andrea Guerzoni and Deputy Vice Chair for Strategy and Transactions Nadine Mirchandani. This assessment draws from presentations made during the event, as well as Q&A and breakout sessions between EY leaders and TBR analysts that took place immediately after the event.