PwC acquires ECS

In the din of PwC's Satyam troubles, this news kind of slipped under the radar. In a bid to match up with E&Y and KPMG's large ops and HR consulting practices, PwC's India advisory services arm has acquired ECS (earlier known as Eicher Consulting Services)

Ashwani Puri, executive director and India leader for Advisory practice, said “This acquisition sits very nicely with our strategy of providing brand-defining consulting services to our clients. ECS will help us accelerate the execution of our plans to build a strong, outcomes-focused, multi-disciplinary consulting business. ECS strong capabilities in lean management including lean manufacturing and lean services, Six Sigma, cost reduction and people & change management, are very relevant in the current business environment and as Indian businesses transform and globalise more rapidly. With this acquisition, we are now even better placed to globally service clients of the PwC network of firms.” The acquisition will add five partners and over 100 consultants, besides valuable intellectual property and key client relationships.

What needs to be seen is whether KPMG and E&Y will quake in their boots on this news. But PwC has reason to rejoice - if ECS's HR consulting capabilities gets transferred to it without much pain. The more interesting aspect would be to see if ECS's vision of transferring competence to clients would be maintained :-)