Deloitte creates £25m fund to help its employees become CEO

Deloitte has today announced it will invest £25m to help its employees create and run their own standalone, start-up businesses. Employees will be given funding and allowed to work full-time on developing their business idea, whilst drawing on legal, risk, technology, brand, marketing and other support from within the firm to help turn their start-up ideas into strong businesses.  The initiative recognises the demands of a new generation of young professionals who aspire to a diverse and agile career.  The majority of businesses will be held in a newly formed business unit, Innovation Investments Ltd, with a reward model to ensure mutual benefit for the entrepreneur and the firm.

David Sproul, chief executive of Deloitte, said: “This is a first for our firm and a first for our industry. We know that an increasing number of people are attracted to the idea of setting up their own business and trying something different. We believe this initiative offers a unique opportunity to pursue those entrepreneurial ambitions whilst remaining an employee of Deloitte and benefiting from the strength of our brand, experience and expertise.”

Through the scheme, "Innovation Investments", any employee of the firm will be able to submit a new business idea for consideration. If they are able to demonstrate the feasibility of their business, they will enter a funded ‘incubation’ period where they will stop working on their day-to-day responsibilities to focus full-time on developing their business. The entrepreneurs will use Deloitte’s existing relationships to market their new business, and if positively received, seek further funding to move their idea from concept to reality.

Simon Owen, Deloitte’s managing partner for innovation, said: “This is a really exciting opportunity. Innovation Investments gives every Deloitte employee the chance to become CEO of their own company. Our aim is to develop new, standalone businesses that create future solutions for our clients in a world of rapidly changing technologies and shifting consumer demands. We have some of the most entrepreneurial minds in the country right here in our organisation and we want to give them the opportunity to develop in unique ways. Combining Innovation Investments with our existing external investment programmes should create something really powerful for our people, our clients and the wider market.”

Each start-up CEO will be able to identify and appoint an operational team and leadership board to help develop their business. They will be the decision-maker in choosing whether to spend their allotted funding on internal or external resource. With support of the wider firm, they will also be required to set out their business strategy, including a proposed business structure, the intended life time of the business, details of how they will create growth and the criteria they will use to monitor when their business will need to evolve to its next state.

Owen added: “Start-up CEOs acquire significant responsibility very quickly, bringing with it both risk and reward.  Whilst the businesses developed will initially remain owned by Deloitte, we will adopt a model to ensure the originator is rewarded appropriately.  In addition to being paid their full salary, they will also receive a bonus based upon the performance of their business and a share in the profit from any sale of the company.  This scheme is very different to anything that we have done in the past.  We are prepared to develop the concept as we roll it out and will undoubtedly have lessons to learn along the way, but we see this as a fantastic opportunity to grow and support Britain’s future business leaders.”

More than 50 new business ideas have already been submitted since the launch at the end of October. The Innovation Investments team are now working closely with each potential CEO to help develop those ideas.

End

Notes to editors

About Deloitte
In this press release references to Deloitte are references to Deloitte LLP, which is among the country's leading professional services firms.

Deloitte LLP is the United Kingdom member firm of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (“DTTL”), a UK private company limited by guarantee, whose member firms are legally separate and independent entities. Please see www.deloitte.co.uk/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of DTTL and its member firms.

The information contained in this press release is correct at the time of going to press.

Member of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited.