The case describes the unique strengths of member-firm organizational structure at Deloitte, the largest professional services firm worldwide, in 2013. Deloitte Europe’s 25 country-based member firms provided a strong presence in each country and created a resilient structure that was very well adapted to local needs. But with continued growth in cross-border business, clients started demanding greater levels of global service and coordination among individual member firms. Deloitte’s 15-person executive committee of the EMEA Collaboration Agreement (ECA) needed to respond. How should they organize so that the country-based member firms could better collaborate to meet the demands of their clients and also create significant value for Deloitte? They considered three major initiatives: i) the expansion of Deloitte University Europe; ii) the growing importance of client and industry initiatives to create cross-border market segments by industry; and iii) the growth of multi-country member firms – single firms that spanned multiple countries. Which option would best serve Deloitte to build a culture of cross-border collaboration?
Learning Objective
1) Understand the underpinnings and value of a member-firm organizational structure. 2) Discuss the role of a corporate university as a mechanism for building cross-border collaboration. 3) Identify industry verticals spanning across countries to add to the organization structure to build and share industry-specific expertise. 4) Recognize the challenges in building a culture for collaboration among cross-border member firms.
Keywords
Corporate University, Organizational Culture
Settings
Europe
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Business Management Services, Professional Training and Coaching
2013
Available Languages
English
IMD case studies are distributed through case clearing houses. In order to browse the collection and purchase copies please visit the links below.
Copyright Information
IMD retains all proprietary interests in its case studies and notes. Without prior written permission, IMD cases and notes may not be reproduced, used, translated, included in books or other publications, distributed in any form or by any means, stored in a database or in other retrieval systems. For additional copyright information related to case studies, please contact Case Services.
