The Weekly Adjerian Bulletin Ep.6

Ex-EY and PwC executives launch Unity Advisory to challenge Big Four in UK: What It Means for the Industry

In late April 2025, two industry veterans - Steve Varley, former UK Chair of EY, and Marissa Thomas, ex-COO of PwC UK - announced the launch of Unity Advisory, a new consulting firm backed by up to $300 million in private equity from Warburg Pincus. The announcement sent a clear message across the consulting industry: the era of Big Four dominance is being actively challenged by leaner, conflict-free, and tech-driven alternatives.

In a strategic break from the traditional model, Unity Advisory has deliberately chosen not to offer audit services. This move is designed to eliminate conflicts of interest and sidestep the regulatory scrutiny that has increasingly plagued the Big Four. Instead, Unity will concentrate on tax, accounting, and M&A advisory work, delivering services through a combination of AI-driven insights and flexible, modern pricing structures.

Their launch comes at a moment of vulnerability for the Big Four. PwC, in particular, has faced a series of scandals across Australia, China, and the Middle East, prompting many clients to seek more agile and transparent alternatives. Analysts quoted in the Financial Times have pointed to this unrest as a prime opportunity for new entrants like Unity to offer a more nimble, client-centered model.

Unity’s leadership sees its approach as a direct response to growing client frustration with the bureaucracy, compliance burdens, and rising costs that have come to define the traditional consulting giants.

“Clients want a proposition that is super client-centric, has really low administrative cost, is AI-led rather than based on legacy infrastructure and, crucially, has no conflicts,” said Steve Varley, Unity Advisory’s chairman, in an interview with the Financial Times.

Unity is a rebellion. Their pitch? A firm that doesn’t audit. One that uses AI to power delivery. One that puts clients first by removing the conflict baked into traditional Big Four operating models. One that starts day one with capital, talent, and credibility, and a deliberate rejection of the 20th-century partnership model.

This is more than a new player, but rather, a signal of where consulting is headed next.

What’s Happening and Why This Matters for Smaller Firms

For firms under $100M in revenue, Unity’s launch might seem like a separate league, but its implications hit home in a big way. The same forces allowing Unity to launch with scale and speed (AI, specialization, disintermediation of audit, and private equity capital) are the same ones reshaping client expectations at every tier of the market. What's important is that, unlike the Big Four, Unity’s playbook is one smaller firms can actually adopt: becoming more agile, technology-first, and narrowly focused on client outcomes over legacy structures.

Simplicity: Unity is stripping consulting back to its essentials. No bloated audit divisions. No internal politics between partners. No half-measures with digital transformation. Instead, they’ve structured the firm around what clients actually want: focused advice, delivered efficiently, without conflicts of interest.

Varley and Thomas explicitly stated that Unity would prioritize a single leadership team with centralized decision-making, avoiding the matrixed, regionally fractured systems that bog down traditional firms. Without the burden of managing conflicting business lines like audit and advisory, Unity can move faster, price more flexibly, and scale services around client needs, not internal structures.

AI: Where many legacy firms bolt AI onto existing practices, Unity is designing around it from the ground up. From knowledge capture to delivery, their goal is to reduce the layers between consultants and client impact.

Steve Varley told the Financial Times that Unity is being built as an "AI-led firm rather than based on legacy infrastructure." This approach means using AI not just for surface-level automation but for core functions: rapid knowledge retrieval, proposal generation, financial analysis, and even parts of tax compliance work. By reducing manual work at every stage, Unity can deliver insights faster and dedicate more time to strategic conversations with clients, instead of administrative grind.

Private Equity: Warburg Pincus is betting on a new model of professional services: equity-funded rather than partner-funded. Traditional Big Four firms often operate under partnership models that slow innovation because decisions must serve dozens, if not hundreds, of partners' short-term income interests. Unity’s private equity backing allows it to prioritize growth and reinvestment over immediate profit distribution. Notably, Unity plans to offer equity-style incentives to attract top senior talent disillusioned with traditional firm politics, offering them both influence and upside potential without the administrative headaches.

Trust: By excluding audit services entirely, Unity sidesteps the regulatory headaches and reputational risks that often follow Big Four firms.

Recent scandals, including PwC’s leaks and conflicts in Australia, China, and the Middle East, have triggered massive fines and eroded trust in firms that simultaneously audit, advise, and sell technology to the same clients. By focusing solely on advisory work, Unity avoids these issues altogether. Clients no longer have to wonder if their consultants are also evaluating their financials for audit purposes or balancing internal conflicts.

Four Moves Smaller Firms Can Make Inspired by Unity

Double Down on Independence. Clients are increasingly skeptical of conflicted advisors. If your firm is free of audit or large implementation arms, say it proudly. Transparency builds trust, and that trust is an asset.

Build Around Technology, Not Over It. Like Unity, start with how technology can simplify delivery, not just make your website look better. Could generative AI help prepare your diagnostic workshops? Could you automate 30% of proposal creation? Every task you streamline is more time for client-facing work.

Think Like a PE-Backed Business. You don’t need $300M, but you do need the mindset. Are you investing in scalable systems? Are your services repeatable and differentiated? Can you deliver high-margin work without growing headcount linearly? Think less like a partner firm, more like a growth firm.

Find Your Strategic Niche. Unity is targeting high-value advisory (tax, M&A, tech strategy). What’s your equivalent? Clients are moving away from generalists and toward specialists. Define your lane. Own it.

Unity Advisory isn’t the end of the Big Four, but it’s likely the beginning of the end for the idea that only legacy firms can lead. They’ve proven that a new breed of consultancy, smart, tech-native, and unconflicted, can scale fast and attract both clients and capital.

The implications for smaller firms are massive. This is a moment to sharpen your edge, get clear about your value, and rethink your operating model. Disruption doesn’t just trickle down, it moves sideways, quickly.

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