Strategy consultancy EY - Parthenon launches in Africa, Frank Mwiti to head East Africa
10 AUGUST 2021, NAIROBI, KENYA - EY has launched EY-Parthenon across Africa, in a move that brings its specialist strategy consulting arm and connected corporate and transactions strategy offering to the continent for the first time.
In East Africa, EY-Parthenon will be led by EY’s current Eastern Africa Markets Leader Frank Mwiti who has extensive experience advising Boards, CEOs, C-Suite and Government executives in Africa, UK, US, Europe and Russia.
In this additional leadership role, Frank will collaborate closely with Paul O‘Flaherty, a well-known EY business executive based in South Africa who will lead EY-Parthenon across Africa.
Prior to joining EY in June 2019, Frank spent some 20 years (including approximately 15 of those years in the UK) managing strategy, mergers and acquisitions, restructuring and transformation engagements in UK, US, Europe, Russia and Africa.
EY-Parthenon (shortened to EY-P) is one of the largest global strategy consulting organisations with more than 6,500 professionals. It is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts and has 40 offices in 45 countries worldwide, including three in Africa; in Johannesburg, Nairobi and Lagos.
Says Frank: “Boards and CEOs must focus their maximum effort on transformations designed to break down silos, increase agility, improve innovation and leverage data to become closer to the customer in a post-pandemic world oriented to long-term value. They must therefore acquire or evolve a new DNA for this future.”
He added that before the pandemic, many organisations delayed responding decisively to new value drivers and imperatives. That is no longer an option. COVID-19 hastened the full-force arrival of trends already on the CEO agenda – from digital transformation to changes in consumer behavior to a growing focus on long-term value. The stakes are now existential: the pandemic has accelerated the trajectory of organizations, and CEOs must seize this opportunity to transform and leap ahead or risk being left behind.
Paul O’Flaherty adds: “With so much pandemic driven uncertainty in the world over the past eighteen months, nearly every organisation is now facing huge strategic challenges. The pandemic has prompted a new world to unfold at breakneck speed. Leaders are grappling with the changes to doing business such as a more distributed workforces, the rapid shift to digitisation, sustainability and challenges to supply chains.
“But these disruptions bring opportunity across Africa. African business now has a very rare opportunity to use this crisis to take a leap forward and redesign their longer-term ambitions.”
Ajen Sita, CEO of EY Africa, says: “CEOs are no longer just running companies; they are also managing complex ecosystems as the pandemic has brought home to so many businesses.
“They need to rapidly reset their strategies and implement them in double quick time. Our overarching purpose is to help business avoid the pitfalls of short termism. Business that think and plan for the long term attract the best people, the most committed investors and are the most beneficial to society.”
Frank emphasizes that businesses working with EY-P in East Africa will have access not only to African consulting expertise but also global experts from wherever they are based. In this way, EY-P will help Boards, CEOs and business leaders design and deliver transformative strategies across the entire enterprise, to help build long-term value to all stakeholders.
EY-P consults across all sectors of the economy and works with the private and public sectors.
