Almost a half of global CEOs don’t think their companies will be fit for business in the next 10 years
PwC’s new legal executive leadership programme is seen as playing an essential role in supporting legal leaders of its large global clients as they develop the transformational leadership skills needed to operate in a radically changing business environment.
Almost a half of global CEOs don’t think their companies will be fit for business in the next 10 years
PwC’s new legal executive leadership programme is seen as playing an essential role in supporting legal leaders of its large global clients as they develop the transformational leadership skills needed to operate in a radically changing business environment.
Bridget Uebel, Clients and Markets Strategy Director, EMEA, Legal Business Solutions, PwC
bridget.uebel@pwc.com
Q. Tell us a little about PwC’s new legal executive leadership programme for general counsels and legal operations and leaders?
Our recent CEO survey reported that almost half (45%) of CEOs around the world think their companies won’t be fit for business in the next 10 years unless they transform their operations. We think general counsels and legal leaders have a pivotal role to play in the transformation journeys facing every business. We built our programme, Accelerate Legal Leadership: Beyond 2025 - together with our global consulting colleagues - to support legal leaders of our large global clients in both developing the transformational leadership skills needed to operate in a radically changing business environment, and to support their companies with transformational change.
Q. Why now? And what do you hope it will deliver?
We have had an overwhelmingly positive response from all our clients - demonstrating the need for leadership skills that go above and beyond what’s available in today’s market. I am excited and privileged to have been able to work with our talented Legal Business Solutions/NewLaw leaders, Yana Zoloeva and Olivier Chaduteau, our Strategy& consulting partners, as well as my co-director, Svetlana Kruglova, and our broader EMEA team to develop this programme. Through a series of interactive in-person, tech-powered workshops, we hope it will deliver a cohort of next generation legal leaders who understand what ‘good’ looks like and are equipped with the practical tools and insights to be transformative leaders and effect the changes needed to support their organisations into the future.
(l-r) - Patricia Manca Diaz, Partner & NewLaw Leader, PwC Spain; Yana Zoloeva, Partner & EMEA NewLaw Leader, Bridget Uebel, and Cezary Zelaznicki, Partner & EMEA Legal Business Solutions Leader
Q. Can you give us a flavour of the speakers who’ll be joining the PwC team?
At PwC, we have such an incredible wealth of talent and experience across our global organisation - with leaders from our consulting, workforce and legal service lines - who can provide insights that are so much broader than any traditional legal view. We are also lucky to have an amazing client base - and we will be joined by CEOs who share insights into their transformative leadership journeys.
Q. We’ve had a collection of crises in the past few years and these have shifted ways of working, priorities and trends? This is clearly of vital importance to every one of us?
Absolutely. We must think differently about the way we show up as leaders in our organisations. Culture - and our responsibility as leaders to instil and live the values and behaviours we want to see across our teams and our organisations - plays a huge part in this and was one of the big discussion points in our first module.
“Our recent CEO survey reported that over 45% of CEOs around the world think their companies won’t be fit for business in the next 10 years unless they transform their operations. We think general counsels and legal leaders have a pivotal role to play in the transformation journeys facing every business”
“Our recent CEO survey reported that over 45% of CEOs around the world think their companies won’t be fit for business in the next 10 years unless they transform their operations. We think general counsels and legal leaders have a pivotal role to play in the transformation journeys facing every business”
Q. Centrum has covered, more than once, the question of what the future of the legal function will look like. Clearly none of us have a crystal but do you, at PwC, see common themes and challenges?
Yes - definitely. We outlined our vision of the legal department of the future in our report, Accelerate GC: Reimagining the Legal Function of the Future to unlock broader business value (link to the report here) which we published earlier this year in conjunction with the Financial Times and RSGI (I have to give a big shout out to Reena SenGupta and Tom Saunders as well as our EMEA Legal Business Solutions team). We included some practical takeaways in the report and it’s been really rewarding to gain such positive feedback from clients. The report has resonated strongly with legal leaders across the world.
Q. We devoted our last issue to AI – the good, the bad, and the ugly - and it’s obviously a topic to which we’ll return and on which many of us have an eye. How is PwC guiding its clients?
We work in partnership with a few fantastic technology alliance partners and have been working hand in hand with our clients to help them develop strategies to solve their business challenges with the support of technology. It’s also important we all understand how technology can support the business - we walk the talk at PwC. For example, in the UK, we all use HarveyAI (we were the first global consulting firm to form a global alliance with the HarveyAI team) as well as our proprietary AI and tech tools in our everyday work.
Q. And, finally, we’re all having to transform in some way. What does the journey for legal leadership transformation look like?
Now that would be telling! What I will say is legal leadership transformation is a journey and some of our clients are further ahead than others. It doesn’t have a finite end - the process of reinvention will continue and each client’s journey (as well as our own) will take time and look different, depending on the challenges each leader, and their organisations, face. Personally, I’m looking forward to walking the path with a wonderful and diverse group of legal leaders over the next year.
You can download the CEO survey here: https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/ceo-survey/2024/download/27th-ceo-survey.pdf.