Letter from Our Leadership

Eugene Ho, Chief Executive Officer, Deloitte Southeast Asia & Philip Yuen, Chair, Deloitte Southeast Asia 

Financial Year 2024 (FY24) was a dynamic year of change and challenge. Businesses across the world continued to face the impact of economic and geopolitical uncertainties, while the accelerating development of game-changing technologies like generative AI added further complexity.

Amid this unpredictable business environment, Deloitte Southeast Asia (SEA) continued to help our clients build resilience and find opportunities for growth. This was made possible with our combined expertise of around 13,000 professionals from 47 nationalities across our 16 offices in Southeast Asia.

Connecting us all is an unwavering dedication to our Purpose: to make an impact that matters. This Purpose drives every aspect of our work, ensuring we put our people first, deliver value for our clients and support our local communities across the region.

Putting our people first involves a long-standing dedication to fostering an inclusive and diverse workplace where all individuals are valued. Inclusiveness has been an integral part of who we are for many years, and we continue to build on this foundation through our global diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) strategy. By embedding DEI into our policies and processes, we ensure that our culture of respect and empowerment grows stronger.

Beyond inclusiveness, we are deeply invested in helping our people build rewarding, long-term careers. Despite the challenging market conditions, we continued to recognise and reward our people, promoting more than 2,000 professionals in the region based on their accomplishments in FY24. Over the last 12 months, we expanded our focus on equipping our people with essential skills for the future, particularly in artificial intelligence (AI). By providing targeted learning opportunities in AI and emerging technologies, we empower our people to stay ahead in a rapidly evolving landscape. We also support career pathing and internal mobility, allowing our talent to explore new roles and grow within the organisation. Through mentorship programmes, challenging assignments, and access to global opportunities, we ensure our people continuously upskill and broaden their experiences.

Our commitment goes beyond professional development. We prioritise work-life balance through flexible arrangements and well-being programmes that support our talent's personal and professional needs.

FY24 also proved to be a year where we delivered value in key areas that matter to organisations in Southeast Asia. We helped our clients grow and lead in their markets by offering solutions that combined strategic insights, advanced technology, and industry expertise. We delivered tailored support to help organisations manage regulatory obligations, safeguard data integrity, and address risks from cyber threats and other fast-evolving trends. The urgent need to tackle climate change and social inequities also saw us collaborate with clients on solutions to reduce climate risks and adopt more sustainable, fair, and inclusive practices.

Our success extends beyond business wins. Throughout FY24, we remained steadfast in our dedication to WorldImpact, our global portfolio of initiatives focused on making a tangible impact on some of society’s biggest challenges and helping to create a more sustainable and equitable world.

A key component of WorldImpact is our WorldClimate programme, through which we empower our people to make climate-conscious choices and engage with the broader ecosystem to develop solutions for a low-carbon future. This also involves embedding environmental sustainability into our decision-making and operations. The past 12 months saw us continue to work towards our near-term greenhouse gas reduction goals, validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).

Another vital element of WorldImpact is WorldClass, through which we aim to empower young people with education, job skills, and opportunities. Through our various WorldClass initiatives, we were able to make an impact on more than 400,000 lives in Southeast Asia. This, together with other volunteering and pro bono efforts, enabled us to invest a total of more than USD 2.3 million in FY24, demonstrating our continued commitment to actively make a difference in the communities we live in.

Guided by our Purpose and Shared Values and fuelled by a spirit of collaboration and interdisciplinarity, we remain dedicated to achieving our global goals under WorldImpact. Our collective efforts across Southeast Asia drive meaningful change, creating a more equitable, sustainable, trusted, and prosperous world.

In FY25, we look ahead to a future shaped by evolving market dynamics, transformative technology, and new growth opportunities. Our four main business units – Audit & Assurance; Tax & Legal, Strategy; Risk & Transactions; and Technology & Transformation – strengthen our ability to leverage our scale through global interoperability and coordination. They also help us maximise synergies that deliver more success for our clients.

We remain guided by our Purpose and Shared Values, knowing that our collective efforts across Southeast Asia will continue to drive meaningful progress, deliver impact and help shape a better world for our people, our clients, and our communities. This will propel us towards our goal of being in a ‘Class of One’ – the iconic and undisputed leader in professional services in Southeast Asia.