“Building a Better Working World” - An Interview with Imogen Hudson from Ernst & Young

Imogen Hudson started her working life as an insurance broker, before moving into management consultancy with Ernst & Young or EY 2 years ago. After moving through a number of roles, she found herself seeking a new challenge and was inspired when her brokerage firm worked with a consultancy, so much so that she decided to make a change. We talked to her about the challenges of changing your career, the value of networking in the management consultancy sector and the ideas behind Ernst & Young's “building a better working world” principle.

Tell us a bit about working for Ernst & Young.

Working for a big brand has its challenges and rewards. Having a brand stamp on you and being endorsed by a real global player is both a privilege and a responsibility. The company challenges and stretches staff greatly, and provides a difficult but stimulating environment to work with.  So it’s a balance; there are rewards and intellectual interest on one side, with the inevitable stress on the other.

Why do you do what you do?

I started working with a consultancy that came in to help the brokerage firm I was at and was inspired by them, the culture and the issues they were tackling. I like solving problems, fixing things and understanding how things work. And I guess I like helping people to make their businesses better.

What are your opinions on the value of networking in your sector?

In my specific sector, the biggest value that consultants can give is a third party perspective on a problem. The more perspectives you have, the easier it is to give advice and see a problem on the wider scale. Essentially, I need to be able to think about a problem more broadly, which comes a lot from talking to other people about their industries to broaden my own knowledge. Networking also helps with learning how to talk to a wide range of different people and learning to understand other industries quickly. It also provides me with loads of different reference points so that I can do my job more effectively.

EY talks a lot about 'building a better working world'. How do you feel businesses like EY can best work towards this goal?

That strapline has to fit for EY within a really broad range of business activities, covering the entire breadth of what EY does, such as both the consulting and audit sides, etc. It's about asking how can we make you function better as a business? How can we make your contribution to the world better? Improvement and change never happened without people talking to each other. Making big things happen, making big companies move, change and grow takes a lot of collaboration and understanding on all sides. It's about perspectives – how can we learn from other people to make you as a client better by helping you?

And finally, what was your biggest challenge when changing career paths?

I went from having a small team and responsibility to being stretched, pushed and challenged every single day. The better you get, the more and more you stretch and learn. It doesn't get more comfortable. However, I get to solve some really intricate and complex business problems and work with a broad range of clients on a frequent basis.

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Our next event will be this week at TateHindle on 12th October. We hope to see you there!

Company Spotlight – Ernst & Young

Ernst & Young or EY is one of the so-called 'Big Four' audit firms. Founded in 1989 through the merger of Ernst & Whinney and Arthur Young & Co, the multinational professional services firm is the third largest in the world by aggregated revenue (2014), after PwC and Deloitte. The organisation operates as a network of member firms which are separate legal entities in individual countries.

In 2016, Fortune magazine ranked EY as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For and it is now the 11th largest privately owned organisation in the United States. It has at least 212,000 employees in over 700 offices around 150 countries in the world. It provides assurance (including financial audit), tax, consulting and advisory services to companies.

EY Global

EY is the most globally managed of the Big Four firms. EY Global sets global standards and oversees global policy and consistency of service, with client work performed by its member firms. Each member is organised as part of one of four areas, whereas most other professional services networks are more centrally managed.

The four areas are:

• Europe, Middle East, India and Africa
• Americas
• Asia-Pacific
• Japan

Each area has an identical business structure and a management team, which is lead by an Area Managing Partner who is part of the Global Executive board. The aim of this structure is to effectively cater for an increasingly global clientèle, who have multinational interests.

“Building a Better Working World”

EY aims to create what they describe as “a better working world”, by asking #better questions, such as “how do we inspire future entrepreneurs to bring their ideas to life”? For them, this better world looks like increased trust and confidence in business, sustainable growth, development of talent in all its forms, and greater collaboration. This includes using their global reach and scale to start conversations about the challenges facing economies and the capital markets. They believe that “when business works better, the world works better”.

EY Entrepreneur Of The Year®

As part of it's goal to recognise, celebrate and nurture the power of entrepreneurs to make a difference and bring fresh ideas to create positive social change, EY started their Entrepreneur of the Year awards programme.

The first programme took place in 1986 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the United States and by 1987 it was held across 11 US cities, expanding internationally in 1993. The programme celebrates entrepreneurs, giving them the chance to share their stories, inspire others and receive the recognition they deserve.

Over the last five years, more than 6,500 entrepreneurs have become Entrepreneur Of The Year alumni, a veritable “who’s who” of both developed and emerging markets. Over half of today’s top 100 NASDAQ companies have won Entrepreneur Of The Year, and most received the award before they achieved top 100 status.

Click here to see our membership packages or here to subscribe to our mailing list. Leave a comment below to let us know your opinion on this week's company spotlight.

Our next event will be at TateHindle on 12th October. We hope to see you there!