Leveraging PwC’s expert experience

Going it alone

Seeing few synergies between the industrial and mining and construction arms of its business, Atlas Copco, a world-leading provider of sustainable productivity solutions, spun off the latter in 2018 into a new firm known as Epiroc.

Explains Ronnie Leten, former head of Atlas Copco and currently Chairman of the Boards of Ericsson and Epiroc, and a board member of SKF, "The mining and construction division was big enough to stand alone and it was believed that it’ll be able to develop further and faster on its own.'"

Epiroc is a global firm with operations in all mining centres around the world.

Measuring up again the competition

Epiroc opted to work with PwC to totally transform its supply chain to enable it to improve service levels, reduce inventory and decrease transportation costs. From a strategic viewpoint, we’re also helping Epiroc increase both its top- and bottom-line growth, and strengthen and extend its market position.

Working with PwC offers Epiroc access to the skills it requires to move its business forward. "PwC works with different companies in different sectors all around the world. Partnering with PwC offers companies embedded benchmarking, it shows trends and what’s happening in the market to help you prepare your business for the future," Ronnie Leten says.

"Companies also can’t afford to have all experience in house or it comes too late, that’s why it’s important to leverage the capabilities of your partners," he adds.

The importance of trust

For companies to work effectively together, there needs to be trust.

Ronnie Leten considers there to be two types of trust: "There’s trust on a personal level, whether or not two parties can work together, if their values are aligned. You also have to have trust in your partner’s capabilities and experience, that they’ll be able to support you in the way you need."

He believes that you find both kinds of trust, with PwC.

Embracing the value of values

As a recent spin-off from Atlas Copco, Epiroc is characterised by the same culture and shares the same values as Atlas Copco. Having people within an organisation embrace the same values is something that Ronnie Leten believes is pivotal to its success.

"Culture is enormously important," he says. "People have to be passionate about what they do, they have to be connected and feel involved. As well as benchmarking traditional criteria like brand perception and market share against our competitors, at Atlas Copco, we also gauged how culture is embraced. This enabled us to help people really feel connected with the firm and want to do their best, which in turn helps create shareholder value," Ronnie Leten recalls.

A reputation for reliability

Making the choice to work with PwC is all about people according to Ronnie Leten. He notes, "As a known brand, you don’t need to do your due diligence with PwC. You know the brand and that it stands for quality. You can be sure that you can trust it and that it’ll bring the right capabilities to the table. Firms don’t want – and don’t have time – to train consultants, you need the skills straight away."