Purpose, drive and a large dash of courage: the “secret sauce” recipe for innovating in a global organisation

A multifaceted response

PwC’s global community of solvers have risen to the challenge, coming together in new and unexpected ways to deliver on our global strategy of helping clients build trust with their stakeholders and deliver sustained outcomes.

PwC’s response has taken many forms. One is our commitment to bridging the global skills gap, not only within our network but across society. Another is our pledge to achieve net zero carbon emissions globally by 2030. Our determination to tackle big problems is clear in our Global Innovation Challenge – our annual competition to celebrate and showcase innovators from across the PwC network, share knowledge and inspire others to follow their lead.

This year’s Challenge was bigger and better than ever. It involved more than 5,500 of PwC’s solvers from 74 countries and territories driving the creation of 470 commercial solutions, all powered digitally. Every single one of these innovations is having a positive impact. But any competition needs winners. And ultimately our judging process settled on the three Global Innovation Challenge Champions for 2021.

Diverse innovations, shared focus

The three Champions reflect PwC’s global diversity in terms of territory, line of service and skill sets. However they all share the drive and energy of the PwC innovation culture – and a common focus on fostering and furthering sustainability in its broadest sense, supporting various aspects of the environmental, social and governance (ESG) agenda.

So, who are PwC’s Champions this year? In alphabetical order, the winners were: PwC Netherlands’ Environmental Footprint Insights, providing real-time insights into workforce carbon impacts to encourage sustainable behaviours and empower sustainable mobility choices; the ESG Reporting Tool, from PwC China, providing organisations with visibility into their ESG performance through smart use of data analytics and data management; and PwC Belgium’s Government Incentives Scanner, putting information on government incentives – including those to reduce carbon emissions -– at the fingertips of clients of all sizes.

Perspectives from the front line

So, what does it take to create ground-breaking innovations and get solutions to market in a global organisation like PwC? Our Champion teams are ideally placed to answer this question. Asked what makes for effective innovation, the team behind Government Incentives Scanner highlight the need for courage, together with the drive and sense of ownership needed to see the project through.

'First, I'm a big believer in owning your product, so that when there are decisions to be made you can make them immediately,' Sizwe Mashao (Senior Associate, PwC Belgium) explains 'PwC enables teams across the network to do this by providing us with permission to challenge convention. The second thing is to not analyse everything too much at the start to get the perfect design, but just start building the solution so it takes shape along the way. I think that’s the best approach – especially with digital products.'

But what provides the drive to keep up the momentum? For Viviana Voorwald (Parter, PwC Netherlands) and Debby Jannink (Partner, PwC Netherlands) of the Environmental Footprint Insights team, it was the power of shared purpose – and, again, courage. 'Everyone was so excited to be working on this project because they knew they were doing something good,' says Viviana. 'They weren't thinking about the effort they were putting in, but about the eventual outcomes. So purpose was really important, together with courage – because we were putting a lot of hours on the clock without knowing exactly what the return would be.'

Like Viviana and Debby, the team behind the ESG Reporting Tool were also innovating at the heart of the ESG agenda. And team members Allen Zhang (Senior Manager, PwC China) and Andy Law (Senior Manager, PwC Hong Kong) say this demands a particular approach. 'The whole ESG thing is moving very fast right now,' comments Andy. 'Opinions are basically changing every week or even every day. So rather than just looking to solve the current problems, when you’re developing a product in this area you have to be a fast mover, stay ahead of the trends and think about the future potential for stakeholders in the market.'

Staying future-focused

As well as thinking about the future, our Challenge Champions are also creating it. In doing so, they’re inspiring a vast global community of creative minds across and beyond PwC to do the same. To find out more about how PwC is leading the way, visit our dedicated innovation website.

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