 "Deloitte's 'biggest reorganisation in decade' to simplify business: Report")
Deloitte will trim its main business units to four from five in a bid to cut costs ahead of an expected slowdown, the Financial Times (FT) reported about the accounting giant that employs more than 455,000 people worldwide.
It is Deloitte’s most significant reorganisation in a decade, said the business newspaper. The units that will continue are audit and assurance; strategy, risk and transactions; technology and transformation; and tax and legal.
Deloitte's advisory business would be cut to three divisions from four. Its consulting, financial advisory and risk advisory divisions will be brought into two new units: Strategy, risk and transactions; and technology and transformation. The new structure is likely to be in place by June 2025 and it would "modernise and simplify" strategy, according to the company.
The consultancy did not comment on whether this exercise would include layoffs. "Partners will be taken out of management positions," a former partner was quoted in the report as saying about employees who have a stake in the business and get a share in Deloitte's profit.
The changes are likely to take up to a year to implement in more than 150 countries Deloitte operates in. Deloitte's global chief executive, Joe Ucuzoglu, sent an email to partners earlier this week, saying the reorganisation would reduce the firm's "complexity" and "free up" more of them to work with clients rather than manage staff internally.
This comes at a time when reports suggest that the consulting market in the United Kingdom won’t grow this year, a first since 2020.
Deloitte's rival EY also attempted to separate its audit and consulting business but abandoned the plan in April last year. Ucuzoglu had last year publicly rejected the possibility of breaking up Deloitte.