Deloitte Australia has changed its structure a lot in order to succeed in a crowded marketplace. Under the Deloitte Australia brand, thousands of professional organisational consultants collaborate across a network of offices in Australia to provide audit, economics and financial advice, plus human capital, tax and technology services. Many professional services firms come and go through the fast-paced changes of today. To sustain and grow in this environment, Deloitte continues to reinvent its partnership structures with innovative new services, products and people, while expanding through acquisitions, alliances and organic growth. Established in Sydney in 1891 as Yarwood Vane and Co, the partnership evolved constantly and merged with others. Structural shift accompanied name changes for the organisation in Australia, including periods under the banners Dulhunty Grant and Co, and Irish Young and Outhwaite. It was in 1980 that yet another change led to the name Deloitte Haskins and Sells. In 1989, the organisation became a member firm of Deloitte Ross Tohmatsu International and the Australian firm became known as Deloitte Ross Tohmatsu. There followed other mergers in Australia with Duesburys and BDO Nelson Parkhill and Haly and Co (1994), PKF (2005) and Horwarth’s NSW (2006). Now under the Deloitte Australia brand, the company is allied with the global brand, Deloitte. The pandemic years required agility, resilience, and a reliance upon diverse staff and expertise. By 2022, Deloitte Australia was investing further in skills, leadership development, and growing a diversity agenda. Around the world, the ubiquitous Deloitte organisation constitutes over 310 000 people in 150 countries and territories resultant from many years of partnerships, mergers, acquisitions and collaborations.
Question
In Australia, and other countries in the competitive professional services market, the only way to survive is to be structurally fluid and prepared to shift and change. These are the hallmarks of Deloitte’s overall approach. Consider the various ways that partnerships seek to merge, look to acquire others and let collaborations lead to other opportunities for the cycle to repeat.