'Seeking connections is crucial to stay relevant’

Connecting goes beyond personal actions

For Agnes, connection goes beyond just personal actions. 'For me it also includes what organisations can do as a whole. Take climate objectives as an example. This is best achieved in collaboration with the parties in your chain. How do you ensure that you do the right things together with customers and suppliers and create a movement? That's also connection for me.'

‘I feel like these days it's more about collaboration', Agnes continues. 'I believe that organisations that work well together in an ecosystem, and think from a broader interest, flourish more, make more joint progress, and pay more attention to the environment.'

Contribute to a debate on business climate

'Our annual CEO Survey this year included a question for Dutch CEOs regarding whether they ever consider moving their operational activities abroad. This is about our business climate. I notice among our clients that they are occupied with that question. Am I still valued as a company? Is there still room for me to do business here? We should not underestimate the potential impact of these concerns.'

'As PwC, we are good at understanding facts and figures. That's exactly what we want to contribute to the debate on this topic. For instance, by calculating the tax contribution of the Dutch business community and determine the added value of the business sector to our society. This allows us to engage in a dialogue about these issues together, based on solid facts.'

Inclusion and diversity  

On the way up north, Agnes also discusses the importance of inclusion and diversity. She is proud of the steps that have been taken within PwC so far. 'We have been working on this for a long time and have set clear goals for it. I think it's great that three out of the five members of our Board of Directors are women. But at the same time, we still have a long way to go. At PwC, but also more broadly in our society.'