Business in Focus PwC UK

How do you compete and win as a manufacturer in today’s challenging environment? For mattress manufacturer Sleepeezee, doubling down on quality and purpose has been their continued route to growth. Host Quentin Cole is joined by Sleepeezee Managing Director Steve Warren alongside Cara Haffey, PwC UK Industrial Manufacturing Sector Leader, to explore how purpose and brand factors into productivity, net zero and the sustainability agenda as well as recruiting and retaining talent in our latest In Conversation With episode.

How can a broader view of resilience not only protect your organisation but support taking advantage of opportunity? We explore how elevating resilience - to a mindset and culture that cuts across your organisation - goes beyond managing risk and empowers you, your people and supply chain to collaborate for better outcomes for all. Join host Emily Khan and special guests Elaine Bucknor, PwC strategic advisor for cyber, technology and enterprise resilience, and Elisa Moscolin, Sage Executive Vice President for Sustainability as they explore how doing the right thing for your resilience is often also the right thing for business.

Digital and data offer insight into changes around how your customers shop, their needs and expectations. And when harnessed with the right blend of creativity and innovation, there are real opportunities to forge brand loyalty. Host Rowena Daines is joined by Tom Adams, our Experience Consulting and Marketing Transformation leader and Sam Tomlinson who leads our Customer Marketing and Media Insight team to explore how brands can carve out distinctive experiences for their customers.

Flexible working, talent and capability gaps, challenging decisions around pay and reward - how can business leaders unpick these complex issues to move forward in a way that works for their people as well as their bottom line? Host Emily Khan is joined by economist Nabil Taleb and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion consulting director Katy Bennett to examine what the findings of Women in Work Index mean for society and the competitive position of both businesses and the UK as a whole. When an 18 year old woman entering the UK workforce today will not see gender pay parity in her working lifetime, are there unexpected areas that could create a more equal workplace?

Energy security and the societal impact of rising prices amid a cost of living crisis have added to the pressure facing the energy, utilities and resources industry as set out in our recent ten point response plan. How has the impact of recent events - from the geopolitical to the economic - affected the progress of a transition to a greener, Net Zero future? And where do we go from here?
PwC’s Head of Industries, Quentin Cole, is joined by Energy UK’s Deputy CEO, Dhara Vyas, and PwC’s Leader of Industry for Energy, Utilities and Resources, Drew Stevenson, to unpick a complex set of issues affecting many in different ways. And together they uncover where the pacesetters and power of purpose are pointing a way forward.

Whether driven by a shift to digital, the ESG agenda or changing regulation, transformation has been a major theme of 2022. And the scale, pace and expectations seem to keep increasing. But delivering that degree of change is a different challenge - especially as resource pinch points, cost pressures and inflation put budgets and scope under scrutiny. This episode, we go behind the scenes of how that change works in practice - and the importance of relationships and trust in making sure everyone feels part of the journey.

Host Rowena Daines is joined by Richard Bailes, PwC UK’s national leader of governance, risk and compliance and Mercedes Bermejo Alverez, Global Head of Internal Audit for Ferroglobe to use their recent work around internal audit and SOX reporting as a case study for ‘human-led, tech-powered’ transformation.