Finding the right balance

Strategic context

If anything has become clear over the past year it is that the world has become more unpredictable than ever. In this complex world, organisations are searching for the right balance between managing current challenges and investing in the future.

This is also reflected in the latest annual CEO Survey that PwC conducts worldwide to discover the insights and expectations of executives. An important outcome this year was that CEOs realise they need to transform and invest in sustainability and digitisation to make their organisation future-proof.

Our community of solvers

We cherish the power of our people, who are at the heart of PwC’s global The New Equation strategy. This strategy makes our purpose concrete: helping clients build trust with their stakeholders and realise sustainable outcomes. It is achieved by leveraging on the passion and commitment of the different perspectives found within the community of solvers. The foundation for realising our strategic priorities consists of continuously striving and delivering high-quality services and realising sustainable growth.

What our stakeholders want

We engage continuously with our stakeholders: our colleagues, our clients and representatives of society at large, such as supervisory bodies, government, youth organisations, NGOs, professional and investor associations, politicians and academics. These dialogues help us understand what stakeholders expect from us and allow us to refine our strategy, our societal role and our work with clients

To live our purpose we invest in partnerships and alliances

Collaborating is not just something we do with our colleagues, clients, stakeholders and amongst others technology alliance partners. We also invest in our partnerships, for instance with Boijmans van Beuningen and World Press Photo. In addition we have partnerships and alliances with a number of organisations active in the area of social entrepreneurship, the environment or other sustainability topics (like equality of opportunity).

Next to that we have a community programme in which we strive to contribute to society by sharing our knowledge and skills – pro bono and in working hours – with impact-first organisations. Making our services available in this way has the greatest impact for these

organisations. We also share our knowledge and skills with our partners and learn from them in return.

How we help the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration restore trust

The Dutch Tax and Customs Administration’s Fraud Notification System (Fraude Signalering Voorziening or FSV) was closed in 2020 after failing to comply with European privacy legislation. Arjan Dikmans was given the challenging assignment of regaining the trust of the people registered in the FSV. Working on the programme together with PwC partner Selwyn Moons, Dikmans is clear about the importance of transparency. 'Restoring trust is only possible if you express it yourself.'