PwC bolsters digital transformation consulting offering with Tom Adams
PwC has continued to bolster its end-to-end digital transformation offering, hiring a new Experience Centre Leader for its UK operations. Tom Adams will work to strengthen and grow PwC’s Experience Centre, which works to combine design capabilities with the Big Four firm’s consulting services, as clients look to overhaul their operations and offerings amid digital disruption.
In 2014, PwC launched what was then a new service line, in the hopes of purchasing a foothold in a lucrative market which consulting firms had made little headway in. PwC rolled out its own digital services line, employing creative directors, strategists, designers and engineers, and the firm forged digital design teams in 31 countries, serving more than 200 clients globally, generating a revenue of $750 million in revenues after just one year.
As the rest of the consulting industry has similarly forced its way into the digital design and marketing industry by way of extensive acquisition campaigns, and organic growth, PwC has continued to bolster its own services in the sector. Most recently, this has seen the Big Four firm hire Tom Adams to lead PwC’s UK Experience Centre, as it expands its consulting wing to better assist clients with their digital transformation ambitions.
Adams’ appointment follows that of Roger Gagnon earlier in 2018, which saw the former Capco and Cognizant consultant take up the newly created role of Chief Experience Officer (CXO) in the consulting practice, to evolve the firm’s approach to business transformation by bringing in experience strategy, design, and user experience (UX) capabilities. As Experience Centre Leader, Adams will lead human insight, co-creation and design capability that forms a critical part of PwC’s approach to transformation based on the integration and acceleration of business, experience, and technology (BXT). PwC’s Experience Centres around the world work with clients to combine people, co-creative processes and a collaborative environment to reframe, visualise, offering an agile and holistic service geared toward reinventing how a company operates or launching an entirely new business.
Tom Adams brings over 20 years’ experience in brand consulting, digital strategy and marketing communications having worked with some of the world’s largest brands and businesses. Prior to joining PwC, he was President and Chief Strategy Officer at FutureBrand Worldwide, following over two years with SapientNitro, where Adams worked as Global Head of Digital Strategy and Vice President for the firm’s European Marketing Strategy wing. During this time, he worked with clients in the FMCG, public sector, telecommunications and travel segments, among others.
Speaking on his new challenge, Tom Adams commented, “In the context of unprecedented disruption across sectors, organisations need rapid change which depends on combining multiple perspectives, reframing problems and working in more agile ways. The answer no longer lies in business strategy, digital technology, customer experience or design alone but bringing them together to imagine and build the future of a business with the people to whom it matters most.”
Commenting on the appointment, Colin Light, Digital Services and BXT Leader at PwC, added, “We believe that accelerating digital transformation depends on this combination of business, experience and technology understanding and the ability to bring ideas to life. The Experience Centre is a successful and proven model across the PwC network and we are delighted to have Tom on board to lead the practice in the UK and realise its full potential.”