Case Study – PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP

PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP (PwC)

Healthcare IT Practice – Market Re-Entry and Practice Build

Gaines Baty Associates (RGBA) was first retained by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in 2010, as PwC re-entered the IT Consulting market following its decade-earlier divestiture to IBM. After having committed its growth resources to the Healthcare sector, PwC’s Healthcare IT Practice encountered stiff competition from numerous IT Services organizations, as well as several reputable boutique and major advisory firms. These organizations, enjoying a huge head start, had already established strong market traction and broad offerings in Healthcare, which greatly steepened PwC’s climb toward the top.

As an agnostic advisory firm, PwC relied entirely on the quality of its people, and their performance, for its success; however, not only was PwC late to the game, they were vastly short on expertise. The new HIT Practice lead partner faced a monumental challenge; and, not only was PwC’s ultimate success on the line, but his career as well.

Early on, they had utilized and been disappointed with the results of several big brand search firm projects. However, after vetting additional options, and witnessing impressive results with their first RGBA search projects, PwC’s Healthcare IT Practice partners returned to R. Gaines Baty for 16 additional searches. These projects included Director, Partner and Practice Lead searches for Provider IT, Payer IT, Pharma IT, Analytics, Physician Executive and Higher Ed/Workday practices, among others.

Gaines Baty helped to build PwC’s leadership team of the future. These new Healthcare Consulting executives have already generated multi-millions of dollars in annual revenues…a healthy return on PwC’s search investment. And when the HIT Practice lead partner retired, he left with pride in the legacy of leadership talent and momentum that will propel PwC well into the future.

“We did business with R. Gaines Baty for one reason…you are the only firm that could complete our challenging searches. And we like you.”  PwC Executive Talent Acquisition Lead

Conclusion:

Such blue-chip organizations can opt to work with any search firm in the world, and are constantly pursued by same. However, they have consistently returned to R. Gaines Baty for good reasons — trust, and better service. It is no accident that RGBA enjoys a 98% Repeat/Referred Business ratio and 40+ years of success. In our firm, as well as our clients’, “Failure is Not an Option.”