PricewaterhouseCoopers firms link up across the region

Nine member firms of PricewaterhouseCoopers in the Caribbean have signed a Memorandum of Understanding that allows them to collaborate more closely and combine resources in servicing local, regional and international clients across the region.

The MOU links the skills, expertise and industry knowledge of approximately 78 partners and 1375 staff located in 15 countries in the English- and Dutch-speaking Caribbean. These countries are: Antigua, Aruba, the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Bonaire, Cayman Islands, Curacao, Jamaica, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, St. Maarten, Trinidad & Tobago, and the Turks & Caicos Islands.

The memorandum does not create a single firm with a single management structure. Although there is a regional leadership team to ensure a high level of regional coordination, each firm remains a separate legal entity with independent management.

Professional services firms can be far more flexible, decisive and responsive to the needs of clients by being part of a well-connected network, rather than by forming one large, centrally managed firm. Client service leadership remains in the home territory of each client.

The memorandum clarifies how the firms work together to provide seamless service to shared clients such as the large, pan-Caribbean companies that continue to expand throughout the region.

PwC firms in the Caribbean have been collaborating in one way or another for many years to service clients, but now we are able to do it consistently and on a much larger scale. Such is the level of service that big companies in the region now expect.

The tightly knit regional network created by the memorandum is a model that PricewaterhouseCoopers has embraced the world over.

The resources available within such a network hugely enhance our ability to create value for our clients. Ultimately, we are seeking to optimize our client service delivery through greater connectivity of our people – not only within the natural economic region of the wider Caribbean, but between the Caribbean and other regions of the world.