ARE WE LOOKING AT REIMAGINE OR IS IT MERELY REIMPOSE?
After two years of international border closures and enormous changes to the workplace and workforce, some global advisory firms are spinning the same old narrative.
At a time of increasingly tribal views on a range of issues, obtaining consensus on anything is difficult. However, I think most of us can agree that the two years we have endured during the COVID-19 pandemic have irreversibly changed the workplace and workforce as we have known it.
Disruption creates an opportunity to refresh and revitalise traditional business models which may no longer be fit for purpose. Why then are some of the large professional services firms spinning a reimagination of immigration when in fact it’s a reimposition of the same tired delivery model?
I’ve learnt to become very wary of the term “reimagine”. To me, the term has increasingly morphed into the same lazy metaphor category as “the new normal”. Some providers may call this transformation, but in my view it’s a shameless attempt to pivot the post-COVID narrative back to the aging immigration advisory business model rather than around the client's business and their future strategic direction.
Critically, I believe that the future of immigration and its impact on the global workforce will redefine the workplace – its role, its purpose, and its place in attracting, retaining and incentivizing talent.
I accept that there’s a place for transactional immigration services – the preparation and lodgement of visa and work permit applications by external providers. This service provides a useful support for human resources and mobility teams who don’t have the time or expertise to manage this area of their business.
Having stated this, in an environment where over 95% of corporate immigration matters lodged with the host country government authorities are approved, does it make sense for business leaders to invest almost 100% of their immigration advisory spend in transactional support?
Clearly the answer is an overwhelming no.
The policy shift driving the attraction and retention of talent requires a rethink of business operating models which support cross-border movement. Mobility professionals are increasingly taking a “whole of business” lens to design an integrated cross-border ecosystem. Vendors need to adapt their support to meet the new cross-border workforce challenges.
For example, the shift in thinking of the future role immigration plays for business has not matched the seismic shift in the role global talent plays in delivering profitable growth in a highly disrupted world. The scale of disruption to the workplace and to the workforce requires service delivery systems to be built around the unique needs of each business.
In my experience, this type of bespoke service delivery approach is not the preferred approach favoured by global professional service firms. The reason for this is because a service delivery model built around the business requires a greater level of investment from the vendor.
It will come as no surprise to business leaders that vendors prefer to deliver their services at the lowest operational cost possible, whilst maximizing their profit on each client engagement. I am observing a shift in business leaders focussing more on delivering a tangible return on investment in their cross-border vendor relationships.
With this as a backdrop, I anticipate that we will see a significant shift towards a co-design business experience which incorporates the following elements:
Client Experience - Build quality controls to assess how vendors deliver a measurable improvement in the service experience of the business and its workforce
Return on Investment - Shifting the measurement of success from transactional support to one which is built around insights and advice linked to business performance
Strategic Relationship - Build service relationships which encourages the vendor and the business to co-design the future global workforce of the business
The launch of Vialto Partners (the former PwC Global Mobility business) is an interesting inflection point which could truly disrupt the delivery of immigration and cross-border advisory services. Not since the creation of Accenture (the former Anderson Consulting business) in 2001, which arguably shifted the way consulting was delivered to the global market, has there been so much interest (and I anticipate angst with PwC competitors) in how talent mobility can evolve to the future.
The burning question for many business leaders is can Vialto Partners convert its first mover advantage from its Big 4 accounting firm competitors into something that is truly transformative?
In my view, first mover advantage is only realised when the move disrupts the market being serviced in a positive way. Vialto Partners can truly disrupt the talent mobility market, but this will not be achieved by simply lifting and shifting existing services to a new business model.
Peter Clarke, the CEO of PwC Global Mobility Services recently observed that “the future of mobility services will require a swift, bold and significant investment in technology to modernise the delivery of services.”
The traditional Big 4 Professional Services model often does not respond in an agile way to meeting the fast-changing cross-border needs of the market. Vialto Partners can break free from the Big 4 accounting firm operational constraints to deliver their expertise in a high quality, risk averse and agile manner which is more aligned to the challenges facing global business.
Underscoring this point, Peter Clarke further noted that the investment in technology will drive the mobility services business and that the large accounting firms prefer to make investments in other parts of their business which results in suboptimal technology solutions.
Clearly technology will be an important foundation of the Vialto Partners offering, as it will with their global competitors. My view is that a disruption to how talent is attracted, retained and incentivized requires fresh thinking, not merely new technology.
I'm sure that the Vialto Partners leadership will be formulating its plans to deliver its suite of services differently which will be designed around the emerging cross-border environment, and in the process, I hope Vialto Partners will build a compelling proposition for business leaders to be part of co-designing the future of work.
Simply “reimagining” cross-border services under a Vialto Partners brand will be a lost opportunity.