PwC revamps U.S. advisory unit, plans thousands of hires

PricewaterhouseCoopers is rolling out a major reorganization of its U.S. advisory division as it responds to growing demand for tailored consulting services and recovers from recent rounds of layoffs, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

Effective July 1, PwC will double the number of advisory “platforms” it operates in the United States, expanding from four to eight in order to deliver more specialized, industry-focused offerings.

The restructuring also involves embedding managed services, where PwC oversees ongoing operations like IT or HR for clients, within each advisory group, moving away from treating it as a standalone unit.

New organizational structure

Currently, the firm’s U.S. advisory business is divided into four segments: deals; cyber, risk and regulation; technology and business modernization; and managed services. Under the new structure, the cyber and risk unit will split into two separate areas: cyber privacy and tech risk, and general risk and regulatory services.

The technology consulting arm will be divided into five distinct areas: customer-facing services such as marketing; industry-specific strategic advice; supply chain consulting; back-office functions like finance and HR; and cloud/data analytics. The deals segment will remain unchanged.

The new configuration will cover the approximately 36,000 professionals in PwC’s U.S. advisory practice, including 15,000 employees based in India. The firm says no job cuts are planned as part of the changes. In fact, it is hiring for thousands of new advisory positions to support anticipated growth.

Turbulent period

The overhaul follows a turbulent period for the firm, which in the past year has conducted two major rounds of layoffs. About 1,800 jobs were cut in fall 2024, followed by another 1,500 in May, with reductions affecting audit, tax and advisory staff. PwC, like other large professional services firms, also uses performance reviews as part of its workforce management strategy.

The goal of the restructuring is to sharpen PwC’s consulting capabilities in high-growth areas like e-commerce and digital transformation, especially in partnership with tech giants such as Microsoft (MSFT), Salesforce (CRM) and SAP. As part of this shift, the firm plans to introduce a new layer of industry leadership to guide long-term strategy, supplementing its current sector heads who manage day-to-day business, the Journal reported.

PwC’s advisory arm remains its largest revenue generator, surpassing both audit and tax. However, global advisory revenue grew just 3.1% in the fiscal year ending June 2024, the slowest rate since the pandemic, due to clients tightening spending on some consulting services.

As part of the changes, managed services will be more closely integrated into the other advisory platforms, and will no longer operate with a separate profit-and-loss structure. Staff from that unit will now be embedded within client-facing teams, helping with tasks like digital transformation or financial operations.

Leadership changes are also underway. Tim Canonico will take over as head of managed services following the retirement of Nikki Parham at the end of the month.

The revamp is part of a broader modernization push led by U.S. managing partner Paul Griggs. Since taking the reins just over a year ago, Griggs has restructured product and tech functions, streamlined business services, and overseen the return of tax as a standalone division, reversing a previous decision to consolidate tax and assurance into a single “trust solutions” business, the Journal reported.