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PwC has announced that it will invest $ 12 billion worldwide over five years in a variety of strategic initiatives, including $ 3 billion to double its Asia-Pacific business during the reporting period.

The commitment is part of a newly introduced strategy called “The New Equation,” which will see a quarter of the $ 12 billion in the Asia-Pacific region. In addition to improving the skills of its existing employees, the company’s latest strategic investment aims to recruit 100,000 additional skilled workers, an increase of more than a third of the existing workforce of 285,000 in just five years.

Although PwC is being promoted as a new strategy, it continues to emphasize “building trust in society” as a central component of its focus and argues that, in view of growing social expectations, it has never been more important or more difficult for companies to gain and maintain trust Variety of current topics that are important for those involved. The second, interconnected pillar is achieving sustainable results at a time when competition and the risk of disruption are more intense than ever.

“Success depends on fundamental changes in the way managers think, the organizational culture, the systems and the ambition,” explains the company on the first point of trust building and adds on the second topic of commercial sustainability: “Companies have to change faster and stronger, to attract capital, talent and customers. But all too often, narrow transformation initiatives fail to deliver the results they promise. It takes a new approach. “

The $ 12 billion injection is a sharp increase from the $ 7.4 billion invested in the five years since 2016 (according to the Financial Times), incidentally, the year that rival Deloitte PwC considered global largest professional service company overtaken. Since then, Deloitte has continued to move forward, with a $ 4.6 billion gap versus PwC’s $ 43 billion in 2020 sales, with the fast-growing Asia-Pacific region proving to be a major battleground.

Still contributing less than a fifth of the company’s revenue – or around $ 8 billion last year – PwC plans to pump $ 3 billion into APAC with a stated goal of growing its regional business up To double in 2026, with the focus on significant scaling in the strategic area, areas such as ESG, digital transformation and mergers & acquisitions. As part of the investment, PwC will also set up an Asia Pacific Leadership Institute to promote the increasingly needed soft skills.

“To achieve what we set out to do, we are mobilizing multidisciplinary teams that are technology-driven and have deep expertise,” said Bob Moritz, Global Chairman of PwC, who also joined the position in 2016. “We will continue to develop the way we work and expand our skills in the areas most important for the future, while remaining true to our commitment to quality.”

In the audit area, PwC will invest $ 1 billion in accelerating audit technology and developing models to accommodate an evolving audit landscape. In addition to leadership institutes in other regions, a large part will also be used to set up a global ESG academy and to expand the competence centers for ESG specialists, while the company’s use of the cloud, artificial intelligence and virtual reality is to be rapidly expanded and other new technologies.

“PwC’s global network strategy is focused on growth, which is very much in line with our Australian company’s strategy,” said recently installed Australian CEO Tom Seymour. “As part of PwC Australia’s digital transformation strategy, we are investing heavily in growth to meet the growing need for capabilities in cyber, cloud and assurance services, and increasing our capacity on land to address data sovereignty and security concerns.”