Press release

22 Nov 2021 London, GB

EY announces acquisition of Tao Leadership Limited to accelerate behavioral change capabilities

LONDON, 22 NOVEMBER 2021. EY announced today the acquisition of Tao Leadership Limited (Tao), a consultancy, which focuses in driving fast-paced organizational transformation and culture change in businesses – from startups through to multinational corporations.

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Emile Abu-Shakra

EY Global Media Relations and Social Media Associate Director – Tax and Assurance

Corporate affairs professional with rich experience across government, retail banking and professional services. Loves photography, music, current affairs, mentoring and exploring the world.

EY announced today the acquisition of Tao Leadership Limited (Tao), a consultancy, which focuses in driving fast-paced organizational transformation and culture change in businesses – from startups through to multinational corporations.

Tao’s technology platform combines organization network and behavioral science with analytics to help businesses around the world implement sustained and rapid behavioral change using a 12-week accelerated approach. 

Tao brings three technologies to the EY organization – a dynamic organization network analysis and cultural analytics visualization engine; an analytics and behavior change platform that helps to reinforce positive workforce behaviors through heightened self-awareness; and a mobile app that captures anonymized feedback, which is then used by change practitioners to develop behavior-based action plans.

The acquisition – which closed today comprises a 100% share purchase of Tao by EY Global Services Limited. As a result of the acquisition, Tao’s team will transfer to the EY organization.

Tao was founded in 2013. The company is headquartered in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, and following the acquisition, services will be offered by EY teams to businesses across the world, in a range of sectors, including global corporations and listed businesses.

The acquisition will further accelerate the growth of EY People Advisory Services by strengthening the already highly respected tech-enabled transformational leadership and culture change capabilities.

Liz Fealy, EY Global People Advisory Services Deputy Leader, says: “This is a hugely exciting acquisition for the EY organization. Supporting clients by putting humans at the center of transformation is a growing part of EY work, and behavioral change is a critical component of any transformation. Tao’s innovative products complement the EY broad capabilities in this area and bring a new dimension to the service offered to EY clients. We are delighted to welcome the Tao team to the EY organization.”

Haider Imam, Tao Founder and Director of Adventure, says: “Tao’s market-leading tools provide behavioral analytics, wide-ranging insights and data-rich visualizations to power even the most complex change programs. Combining technology, social science research and coaching is an incredibly effective methodology, and the Tao platform identifies key organizational influencers to help drive change organically, from the ground up. Tao’s approach is focused on accelerating outcomes and engineered to provide tangible business value and return on investment while putting people at the center of the change journey.”

EY People Advisory Services teams include more than 15,000 people in 120 countries around the world and help global businesses manage their people and workforce transformation needs. 

 

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About Tao

Tao brings three technologies to the EY organization through its ”Analyze. Listen. Sprint.” methodology - a dynamic organization network analysis and cultural analytics visualization engine; a mobile app that uses AI to turn anonymized feedback into culture-changing microbehaviors; and an Agile Sprint-based behavior change platform that helps to reinforce positive workforce behaviors through heightened self-awareness.