The common thread

eolas Magazine sits down with Conor O’Dwyer, Partner and Government and Public Sector Lead in Grant Thornton’s consulting practice, to discuss common challenges shared by clients across the public sector, the evolution in professional services, large-scale transformation programmes, and ambitions for 2025.

Overlooking the River Liffey and the key landmarks dotting the Dublin quays, there is an anticipation in Grant Thornton Ireland headquarters that the professional services company is standing on the precipice of a new world.

Discussing the much-reported merger between Grant Thornton’s US business and Grant Thornton Ireland, O’Dwyer reflects on the “exciting period of evolution and of growth” over the past 16 months.

“Our Chief Executive – Steve Tennant – is driving fundamental structural changes within the business,” he says, adding: “Our unification with Grant Thornton’s US business will open a whole world of opportunities for our people and additional value for our clients.”

Experience

Having joined Grant Thornton as a partner in August 2023, just ahead of Tennant’s appointment, O’Dwyer has spent the entirety of his career delivering challenging projects in the public sector domain. Approaching 20 years of service, he has immersed himself in most spheres of the public sector.

“I have always worked within the confines of the public sector,” he remarks, adding: “My remit has spanned a range of areas from revenue and customs to health, justice, policing, shared services, utilities, social welfare, transport and local government.

“I spent three years working in a similar space in the UK, though on a larger scale, given the different demographic context. This provided an international perspective in terms of how government works beyond this island.”

“The common thread of my career,” O’Dwyer observes, “has been the successful delivery of large-scale public service transformation projects; guiding clients through those challenging, often multiyear endeavours in both Ireland and the UK.”

Move

Asked why he opted to join Grant Thornton just over one year ago, the Government and Public Sector Lead emphasises the “exciting growth phase” which the company has now entered, allied to an opportunity to shape its public sector business “in the way it should look and feel, and serve clients”.

“For me, the opportunity was clear. Grant Thornton’s government and public sector business was in an early phase of development, with exceptionally talented people, real ambition and imminent plans to pivot to an industry-led approach. As such, there was a compelling opportunity to lean into the market and offer something different.”

USP

Discussing Grant Thornton’s USP, O’Dwyer opts to relay “what our clients consistently tell us”. The single greatest distinction, he says, is how Grant Thornton works with its clients.

“We are known in the market for being easy to do business with. We are down to earth and do not take ourselves too seriously. We will bring and welcome constructive challenge and always work towards solutions that achieve equilibrium between our insight and that of our clients.”

“The common thread of my career has been the successful delivery of large-scale public service transformation projects…”
Conor O’Dwyer, Partner, Consulting, Grant Thornton

Grant Thornton knows that the best results always come from working closely with clients. “We work in the spirit of partnership with public sector organisations to deliver differentiated solutions. Unlike our competitors, who will often try to do everything, we regularly partner with other firms where we believe it best serves our clients’ needs. This means we offer a client experience that is different and feels different,” he reasons. Grant Thornton’s hands-on approach means that every solution is designed to be practical and fully aligned with clients’ objectives.

Common challenges

Revisiting the common thread theme, O’Dwyer has established that many of the challenges experienced by Grant Thornton’s government and public sector clients share at least three major commonalities when attempting to deliver large-scale transformation programmes. This trend has emerged most strikingly, he observes, over the last 24 months, in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Firstly, aligning with trends in the wider labour market, Grant Thornton’s public sector clients are struggling to attract and retain talent. “Even in scenarios where clients are managing to attract talent, the proportion of new joiners is often greater than desired, with high numbers of experienced personnel moving on, resulting in a deficit of tacit and institutional knowledge. Investing in becoming more process-driven, and less dependent on key individuals, and proper succession planning are the best mitigants,” the Government and Public Sector Lead notes.

This, O’Dwyer explains, is a result of the ‘job for life’ mentality receding, even in a public sector context. “Many young people want a one- or two-year experience on their CV and then they want to experience something new. As such, creating the right employee value propositions to combat this new reality is really important,” he says.

Secondly, our growing population is creating additional demand for the public sector, further exacerbating capacity challenges. Acknowledging that there is no lack of appetite or ambition to undertake large transformative projects in the public sector, O’Dwyer articulates that “sometimes the required capacity and capability is not there to deliver”.

“Continuing to deliver everyday services while getting a large project over the line is a real challenge. That is where Grant Thornton can play a specialist role; providing deep expertise to support clients through capacity and capability challenges.”

Thirdly, there is quite often a tension between delivery and oversight, which can be problematic and slow progress. Spending public funds on large, challenging projects of course brings the need for scrutiny to ensure value for money. While acknowledging the need for accountability and transparency, O’Dwyer believes that there is a balance to be struck to ensure that the checks and balances do not stymy delivery or place cost above value.

Fundamentally, he asserts, the Covid experience demonstrated that when given adequate support and empowered, public servants can and will deliver complicated change at pace.

“The emergency response that the public sector embraced in response to the Covid-19 pandemic debunked the myth that the sector cannot get challenging projects done quickly.

“I was hopeful that some of the practices and behaviours from this period would be sustained post-pandemic, but that has not been the case in my experience. Creating a real sense of urgency is too often a missing ingredient in large programmes.”

Large-scale transformation

Turning to large-scale public sector transformation programmes, O’Dwyer suggests that the most common misstep repeatedly taken by clients is putting too many projects or ambitions on the board – always with good intent.

In other words, very often, ambition can exceed capability and capacity within public service bodies, which tends to foment frustration when change cannot progress at scale, with agility, or at all in some cases.
“Very predictably, if everything is a priority, nothing is a priority. An organisation can only handle so much change at any one time, and only so much can be outsourced. That is the reality,” he insists.

Instead, he argues, internal talent must symbiotically ally with the external consulting support to unlock “real success”.

“When Grant Thornton’s public sector team applies its deep consulting expertise, whether in programme management, change, or organisational design, we need the client team to provide organisational insight and leadership buy in. When those two elements are in place, that is when transformation takes form. That is when the magic happens,” he notes.

Service evolution

Against this backdrop, and the catalytic impact of the Covid experience, public sector procurement has become more sophisticated in terms of its expectations. This contrasts with O’Dwyer’s early years as a consultant during which professional services were “typically limited to technology support and introducing new systems amid the advent of the internet”.

In contrast, today there is a common understanding that optimising a large digital investment, often necessitates change to organisational structures as new skills are required, and existing roles are radically changed.
“Obviously, new technologies are still being purchased,” O’Dwyer notes, adding, “however, wholesale transformation is being considered more holistically. Previously, it had been more piecemeal. Now, organisations are cognisant of the interconnectedness between technology, their teams, and how they structure themselves. That is a welcome development. Otherwise, the return on investment underdelivers.”

Across the market, he observes, there is a migration away from an “old school ‘time and materials’ way of thinking”. In its place is a healthy conversation around how to use consultants in the ‘right way’ versus the ‘wrong way’.

“Today, Grant Thornton commits to very specific outcomes. In that context, we are happy to accept some risk on our side. Once the client is clear about what must be achieved and Grant Thornton is clear about these expectations, then we can work together.

“Previously, consultants were used in a manner that was simply not conducive to the desired outcomes; burning off a budget, often with the deliverables not stacking up against the investment. Smart buyers are hooking consultants – including via fees – to very specific and tangible outcomes and Grant Thornton welcomes this,” he asserts.

Service evolution

Today, Grant Thornton has a rich audit, accountancy, and tax legacy which remains inhouse. Meanwhile, its consulting and wider advisory business is relatively new and has grown rapidly in the last five or six years.

First among the services provided by the professional services firm’s consulting business to the public sector is the delivery of large-scale transformation or what it calls ‘transformation excellence’.

Detailing recent successes in the public sector, O’Dwyer references Grant Thornton’s work with a large public safety organisation to modify its operating structures – which had existed for over a century – with the end outcome of making communities safer. “That,” he asserts, “is the apex of transformation excellence.”

Another example he alludes to is the fundamental modernisation and simplification of the systems that pay tens of thousands of public servants, ensuring correct and timely remuneration, with enhanced efficiency for the taxpayer.

The second pillar of Grant Thornton’s consulting service is digital solutions -applying a business lens to technology. “Grant Thornton is interested in assessing how technology can solve business challenges. That is our differentiator in terms of technology. While we will partner with many different technology and system integration companies, we always have a business perspective at the forefront and will challenge a ‘technology for technology’s sake’ approach.”

In addition, Grant Thornton has a leading suite of sustainability services, tailored to assist organisations with their reporting requirements which are rapidly expanding, including the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. As articulated above, public procurement is evolving all the time and O’Dwyer describes a steady increase in demand for services to review and rethink organisations and their supply chains to become more sustainable and climate friendly, and to deliver on the Government’s Climate Action Plan.

Finally, Grant Thornton offers strategy and economic advisory, whereby we help organisations with business cases and assess the cost/benefit summary of large-scale investments. At a local government level, for example, we collaborate with city and county councils to assess options in advance of significant investments, ensuring objective analysis of expected returns.

Trends

Reflecting on the wider trends in the professional services market, O’Dwyer assesses that the advent of AI is a significant disrupter, while the market has “gone stale in terms of the cookie cutter approach to business”.

“Technology is an area that requires significant investment just to keep pace with market trends and indeed to stay ahead of our clients’ expectations. I anticipate that the necessary finance will be unlocked to meet our appetite to lean into AI and indeed other emerging technologies,” he projects.

Simultaneously, O’Dwyer contends that the “old world of consultants retreating into a dark room and emerging three months later with a report is long gone”.

“Clients now expect much more bespoke and co-created service offerings. Increasingly, they are happy to do much of the work themselves, so teams are often blended. Ultimately, what they are seeking is specialist skills and experiences, including from different industries or geographies.”

In other words, public sector clients want to take ownership of the solutions they seek rather than simply outsourcing them. This is integral, O’Dwyer says, for large-scale transformation programmes where it is “impossible to have consultants design a change programme alone and still feel any sense of ownership”.

One of the positive changes O’Dwyer has observed among government clients specifically is a growing recognition that service delivery must be human-centric. “In DPENDR, for example, there is a tremendous focus on innovation, idea incubation, and grounding services in human centricity,” he comments.

US combination

Late in 2024, it was widely reported that, subject to regulatory approval, Grant Thornton Advisors LLC and Grant Thornton Ireland would merge in early 2025 with the deal backed by a New York City-based private equity firm, New Mountain Capital.

For O’Dwyer, the opportunities unlocked by this unification will reverberate among both Grant Thornton’s people and its clients alike.

“For our people, the integration is an exciting opportunity opening a whole world of new and challenging engagements. From a demographic perspective, many among our workforce are not yet tied to either a mortgage or a family. As such, they are keen to travel to the US and those opportunities will be open to those who want them.

“For our clients, there is a huge opportunity to seamlessly access information and expertise that was harder to retrieve previously. For example, Grant Thornton’s rich educational offering in the United States is something that we can bring much more readily to educational institutions across Ireland. Having that close integration will make a huge difference to the value, insights, and expertise that we can bring to clients on a daily basis,” he determines.

Journey ahead

O’Dwyer describes ambitious plans which will involve growth delivered organically and inorganically. “In the next year, therefore, we will determine what businesses can enhance our own –whether through bringing in new clients or new service offerings. Consequently, I expect that 2025 will bring multiple acquisitions, both in the US and in Ireland.”

Overall, O’Dwyer looks forward to 2025 as a year in which he and his colleagues can get to know their US counterparts.

While Grant Thornton is particularly strong in several sectors of government and public sector, not least justice, education, and health – and these will remain a key focus – there are spheres in which it would like to scale its presence.

For example, the Government and Public Sector Lead traces his company’s endeavours to expand its expertise and capability in housing and infrastructure, while leaning more into the utility space, and particularly energy.

“The energy trilemma – that is energy security, sustainability, and affordability – will be increasingly significant in a world that is experiencing both elevated geopolitical tension and climate instability.

“We work with many of Ireland’s utility companies already in some capacity, but we will deepen our footprint, drawing on the impressive expertise we have both in the US and other geographies in the Grant Thornton network,” O’Dwyer anticipates.

Purpose

Turning to the search for ‘meaning’ as a vehicle for ambition, the Government and Public Sector Lead emphasises the contribution his team makes to public service on behalf of the State and its citizens, and the intergenerational benefit unlocked by enhanced public services.

“Ultimately, what gets me and my team out of bed in the morning – and what has kept me in the public sector – is a sense of purpose; namely helping the public sector deliver better services on behalf of citizens.

“It is about meaning. That is what motivates us at Grant Thornton. Getting it right really matters and that is why we are always willing to go above and beyond to ensure that programmes and projects are successful,” he concludes.

Profile: Conor O’Dwyer Originally from Clontarf and now living in Glasnevin, Conor is husband to Louise and father of three girls. A devoted sports fan, he tries to get over to north London as frequently as possible to watch Arsenal FC. Otherwise, he spends much of his weekends “usually on the sidelines of multiple GAA pitches”. A proud northsider and member of Na Fianna, he also coaches one of his girl’s teams. Beyond that, he likes to travel and get to the gym.