Our progress

Emeric van Waes, our Corporate Strategy Officer, on where we stand in realising our ambition, our focus during the last year of our 2020-2023 Connect for Impact strategy and his vision for the upcoming year. 

Where do we stand on realising our ambition?

‘The unprecedented events in the last two years with COVID-19, Black Lives Matter, the transgressive behaviour discussion and the war in Ukraine made us realise more than ever that it is vital and important to take responsibility as an organisation and make an impact on large societal challenges. It accelerated the execution of our purpose-driven Connect for Impact strategy 2020-2023, which is moving into its final year. We are well on track for many of our ambitions. At the same time, we need to realise that we are still in a highly volatile environment with increasing geo-political tensions, uncertainty and unrest concerning how we should tackle our impact on the planet, and the risk of stagflation or even a severe recession. I believe that as Deloitte we have a sound strategy and a robust organisation to weather these storms, but they could significantly impact the pace of the realisation of strategic objectives.

I am proud of the progress we’ve made on our ‘Embrace quality and responsible business’ imperative. Not only have we become a responsible business ourselves, by reducing our CO2-footprint and contributing via the Deloitte Impact Foundation projects, we’ve also supported many of our clients to transition to a more responsible and sustainable business model. Great examples are our contribution to the NortH2 project with the Future of Energy, and our initiatives in the transformation of our food ecosystem with the Future of Food, and the launch of the Financial Health index.

We’ve made good progress on our ‘Strengthen engagement and inclusiveness’ imperative. Diversity has been a top priority and we are now close to achieving our ambition for gender diversity. And we made a leap forward in focusing on other dimensions, including cultural diversity and neurodiversity. While we still need to develop ourselves further, we are now a much more mature and inclusive organisation. Deloitte is driven by people and talent. And it is our job to support our people to be their true selves and become successful in life.’

‘What drives me, is that Deloitte is a leading powerhouse with a wide range of talent, knowledge and strength, tackling major societal problems every day. It is a true privilege to work together with so many talented and motivated people.’

- Emeric van Waes, Chief Strategy Officer

What will we focus on during the last year of the 2020-2023 Connect for Impact strategy?

‘We want to realise the ambitions we set three years ago and finish what we started. Our primary focus will be on continuing innovation of our own business. This will include providing more and more Operate Services, through which we support our clients with their day-to-day strategic, tactical and operational needs. We combine these Operate Services with innovative software solutions which provide analytical insights and resilient digital platforms. Our second focus area is further strengthening the delivery of our multi-disciplinary growth platforms: SAP S/4HANA®, Cloud, Sustainability, and M&A, and expanding our collaboration across businesses and industries.

But most important of all, is our focus on leadership development.  As the world and its dilemmas become ever-more complex and difficult, and as recessions and geo-political tensions loom on the horizon, we need strong people leadership to help our employees navigate the challenges and build an inspiring, safe and strong Deloitte organisation. And of course, we will be formulating a new strategy for the coming four years.’

What is your vision on the future of our strategy?

‘I believe Deloitte is an exceptional organisation with tremendous global reach and impact. In our future strategy, we will continue to differentiate ourselves through  our collaborative working style, our ability to bring all the required disciplines together, our deep understanding of technology, and our passion to connect and make an impact.’