Daybreak - Why EY India's old guard is walking away

Episode Date: August 5, 2025

In just over a year, EY India has seen at least 10 partners from its tech consulting division quit. Many of them were pioneers of significant practices like data analytics, cybersecurity and SAP. What’s interesting is how they left. There were no public announcements, or farewell parties. It was almost like these senior partners vanished from some of the consulting giant's most prized divisions. And with them, they’ve taken full teams, clients and decades of institutional memory. Now, its not that senior people stepping down is out of the ordinary. It’s the fact that these resignations came in such close succession. They hint at a pattern. Tune in. 

Hi, this is Rohan Dharma Kumar. If you've heard any of the Ken's podcasts, you've probably heard me, my interruptions, my analogies, and my contrarian takes on most topics. And you might rightly be wondering why am I interrupting this episode too. It's for a special announcement. For the last few months, I and Sita Raman Ganeshan, my colleague and the Ken's deputy editor, have been working on an ambitious new podcast. It's called Intermission.

We want to tell the secret sauce stories of India's greatest companies. Stories of how they were born, how they fought to survive, how they build their organizations and culture, how they manage to innovate and thrive over decades, and most importantly, how they're poised today. To do that, Sita and I have been reading books, poring over reports, going through financial statements, digging up archives, and talking to dozens of people. And if that wasn't enough, we also decided to throw in video into the mix. Yes, you heard that right. Intermission has also had to find its footing in the world of multi-camera shoots in professional studios, laborious editing, and extensive post-production.

Sita and I are still reeling from the intensity of our first studio recording. Intermission launches on March 23rd. To get alert, as soon as we release our first video. episode, please follow intermission on Spotify and Apple Podcasts or subscribe to the Ken's YouTube channel. You can find all of the links at the ken.com slash I am. With that, back to your episode. In just over a year, Y, India has seen at least 10 partners from its tech consulting division, Quint. Many of them were pioneers of significant practices like data analytics, cyber security and SAP. Now, what's interesting is how

they left. There were no public announcements or farewell parties. It was almost like these senior partners vanished from some of the consulting giants, most prize divisions. And with them, they've taken full teams, clients and decades of institutional memory. Officially, of course, its business as usual. But beneath it all, EVEI's most valuable engine, technology consulting, is beginning to sputter. Its profit margins, which typically hover around 27 to 30%, have slipped to 21% in FY25. Now, there's no prizes for guessing what these senior partners eventually ended up doing.

Take Mazhar Khan, for instance. He is a 24-year tech consulting veteran and founding member of EY's SAP practice. He ended up joining rival Deloitte in July 2024. Or Burgess Cooper, a cybersecurity expert decamped to Adani enterprises earlier in 2025. Then we have got to Gorda.

Fatam Bhattacharya, the face of EY's data analytics practice for 15 years. He left in June and on 22nd July, he joined rival KPMG as partner and head of technology consulting, where he will now lead the India Division's digital transformation and analytics business. Now, it's not that senior people stepping down is out of the ordinary. It's the fact that these resignations came in such close succession. That's what hints at a pattern. EY's tech consulting division, which contributed a third of the firm's 13,400 crore rupee India revenue in FY25, is hemorrhaging talent. Tech at the end of the day is the biggest growth driver for the Big Four.

This high-stakes segment also makes it a musical chairs game, with generous offers, poaching, and entire client accounts moving with the music. Now, EY insists that all is well. It's normal. Attrition within the Big Four can be healthy. it even says that business hasn't taken a hit. Instead, it says it's been recruiting more than it has lost. But beneath all of that, lies the messier story. Welcome to Daybreak, a business podcast from the Kent. I'm your host Rahil Philippos and I don't chase the news cycle.

Instead, every day of the week, my colleagues Nikita Sharma and I will come to you with one business story that's worth understanding and worth your time. Today is Wednesday, the 6th of August. In the history of the Big Four, many a partner has come and gone. But what's unusual about the EY's situation is the frequency at which they're leaving. An employee at the firm told the Ken that otherwise, it's normal for one or two partners to leave with their trusted aids over the course of a year.

A lot of them do join rival firms. But this, the frequency that we're currently seeing, well, that's unprecedented. For instance, Gotham Bhattacharya, he built the data analytics practice at EY. India. He widened his focus to the global team in 2021. Multiple EY employees confirmed to us that the practice brings in close to 30% of EY's tech consulting revenue. But now, that advantage is across the street. Similarly, Shubho Bhattacharya, a former partner who pioneered the Microsoft practice in EY. He ended up quitting in April only to join PWC. And that ended up year stint. Some others who leave EY either join strategy or tech companies and many also go

independent. For instance, Pramod Sundra, partner of CX and design, resigned from EY and May drawing curtains to a seven-year stint at the firm. He's now senior vice president at Genpac, which is a services company delivering digital transformation. Each outgoing partner typically takes at least 20 to 30 team members with them, sometimes even more. And of course, clients move to. For instance, tech giant Dell's account was once a flagship EY relationship and now it largely sits with Deloitte. A similar situation has played out with several other of EY's clients. Take Unilever, HSBC, Barclays and even Deutsche Bank for instance. They have all rerouted major work. Now, while these companies still retain multiple consulting partners,

Deloitte has become the dominant player, especially for business and tech transformation mandates. That was what E.Y was once popular for. So now, EY is trying to deter exits. It's doing it the old-fashioned way by increasing notice period for partners leaving the firm, from six months to nine months. But the problem runs deeper than that. You see, one big reason for the churn is larger macroeconomic trends. Over the last five years, EY has grown at a compound annual rate of 30 to 35%.

The company, in fact, doubled its tech consulting business post-COVID. And anticipating sustained growth, EY went on a hiring spree. So much that there would be emails on recruits almost every week. But off late, markets have been stagnating and the firm has stepped into a trap of its own making. That's because growth doesn't just mean hiring more people. It's also about changing the way of working. A lot of older partners left E.Y because they, They believed they didn't get the space to expand their portfolios amid the overcrowding.

For instance, a partner with significant influence in a key tech practice quit after over 50 employees from a competing firm were brought into his division. The changing nature of the business also affected employee morale. One former employee said, back in the day, Evie sold value. But now it's all about selling manpower. They said it's become more of a staffing agency. Earlier, if a client wanted to run strategy programs, say, improve revenue, do cost takeouts and revamp the digital landscape, among other things, partners and their teams worked alongside stakeholders to design and shape the program.

But now, clients run projects and EY provides bodies. That's how one former partner put it. Some accounts like Unilever and HSBC, which used to be strategic partnerships, have fallen into this category. One former partner estimates that 25 to 5.000. 40% of EY's tech consulting revenue to come from deploying tech staff to GCC clients. The EY's spokesperson didn't

confirm the range, but said it varies every year. Classifying all of the company's GCC related businesses as mere staffing wouldn't be quite accurate either, he said. Financially, of course, it makes sense. Deploying people is profitable. It

increases the margin on bills without proprietary work. But ultimately, you're at the client's mercy. If a project employs thousand people and the client suddenly decides they don't need 300 of them, well, they're offloaded. And as a result, long-term careers are no longer nurtured. Employees aren't oriented to EY's values because they're hired to be placed at client sites and never really integrate into the firm. In that sense, EY has begun functioning more like an IT services company. Partners have become nothing more than glorified relationship managers.

A decade ago, the approach was clear. Everyone in the consulting game pick claims and stuck to them. The Big Four handled tax, audit and financial advisory, strategy firms like McKinsey did consulting, and IT companies like Tata Consultancy Services, took care of implementation. Today, those lines have blurred.

You see, now everyone wants to do everything because that's how they think they can stand out. The race to become a one-stop shop has turned the market hyper-competitive. And with it, the timelines have shrunk. Task that once took three months to complete are now being crunched to three weeks. The pressure point in the scramble is tech consulting.

The size of not only this division, but also the categories of practices within it have grown. Things like cloud and AI analytics are emerging fast. Now it's tech implementation and not strategy where the money is. So say the firm was carrying out an AI project for a client, strategizing would typically take two to three months. A chunk of revenue would come from building the AI portals and then maintaining it over the next five to ten years.

So if the project is worth $10,000, tech implementation would make up 90% of it. IT service firms are also upping their game. For instance, Cape Gemini suddenly acquired business transformation firm WNS. In the process, it ended up strengthening its offerings. The result of this environment is a delivery arms race, where firms compete not on thinking, but on staffing and speed. And that has changed the very role of partners.

Like one former EY partner put it, supplying manpower doesn't need domain expertise. Basic interviewing skills, asking clients what kind of people they want, scan through a couple resumes, and voila, you're done. That also means partners don't belong to a special category. They're easily replaceable. Another ex-partner we spoke to concurred with this. A lot of Eva's large accounts were built by old-time partners with very strong networks

and newer partners aren't enabled with access to the market to build their own books. So naturally, you need connections. Essentially, they're held accountable but not truly empowered. When a client needs a course correction in their business, most decisions have to go through higher-ups. For tech consulting, all matters are rooted through Rohan Sachdev, EYY India's consulting leader and the right-hand man of chairman and CEO Rajiv Mimani. Most partners elevated to the leadership level are close to both Satchev and Mammani,

including tech consulting leader Mahesh Mahjeeja, financial services consulting leader Pratik Shah and risk consulting leader Sudhaka Rajendran. EY, for its part, says the company is evolving. But still, the structural mismatch is hard to miss. With EY's old guard on the way out, and new partner, has yet to bring in significant revenue, the business rests on a pretty shaky foundation. Although, Eey is the market leader

among the big foreign India in terms of revenue, that gap is narrowing now. Deloitte has been on an aggressive expansion path, and it's been poaching teams left right and center ever since Romal Chetty took over as a South Asia CEO in 2023. KPMG also announced Project Himalya, which will consolidate its advisory arms across the US, UK and India.

The headquarters for this project will be in India. Now, the bottom line is, unless EY regains control of its own talent map, the next great tech consulting practice in India might not be built by EY, but from it. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of the Ken India's first subscriber-focused business news platform. What you're listening to is just a small sample

of our subscriber-only offerings. A full subscription unlocks daily load. songform feature stories, newsletters and podcast extras. Head to the ken.com and click on the red subscribe button on the top of the website. Today's episode was hosted by Rahil Filippos and edited by Rajiv Sien.