The “Big Four” are resetting their old ways of hiring. Thanks to the moves made by the likes of Accenture.
Starting 1 September, Accenture’s former Americas CEO Manish Sharma is the new global chief services officer heading “reinvention servicesAccentureAccenture Changes Growth Model to Reinvent Itself for the Age of AI” for the tech-consultancy firm. For many there, this signals more layoffs to come.
But for professional-services firms such as EY, Deloitte, KPMG, and PwC, the news only reinforces their plan of hiring “outsiders” as partners in their firms.
According to an analyst, more than half of new partner hires at the Big Four now come from “industry” backgrounds—including tech-services companies like Accenture and IBM, Indian IT majors like TCS and Infosys, and even product giants like Microsoft and Amazon. At PwC, one partner estimates partner hires from industry are closer to 80%, up from just 5% two years ago.
This includes over 15-year veterans at Accenture and IBM such as Jayanthi Mohanram, Heerak Dutt, Tanuj Talwar and many others, who’ve joined the Big Four partner-track since 2024.
Deloitte has even poached IBM’s domestic-market global capability centre and cybersecurity teams over the past few years.
This as the Big Four move from their traditional focus on tax, audit, and advisory into the unknown territory of tech implementation. And all this “industry” talent is supplying them with skillsets they didn’t have or need before.
Turns out, hiring from outside is faster than building tech capabilities in-house.
“Industry folk bring practical knowledge of implementation. They know what challenges to expect, how to pitch projects to clients, and who they need in the team,” said a senior leader at Accenture, earlier with Deloitte. Plus, the Big Four are scaling new businesses exponentially, expertise for which doesn’t exist in-house.
That’s where tech-focused delivery companies such as Accenture and IBM come in. “Around 70% of Accenture’s revenue is from tech implementation and managed services,” said a senior leader at the company. For IBM India, it’s an even higher 85%, said one of its former senior executives.