PwC with BHGE

In 2017, Baker Hughes and GE Oil & Gas finalised a merger, creating the world’s first and only full stream (i.e. upstream, midstream, downstream) oil and gas company.

BHGE was positioned to create new sources of value – improving productivity and efficiency through integrated equipment and service offerings. As part of the merger, BHGE had announced to the market significant post-merger savings.

The separation of GE Oil & Gas from the wider GE business required the rapid creation of a standalone, world-class Finance function to both prepare BHGE for future separation from GE and to contribute to the sizeable savings target. Finance leadership had been challenged to achieve an overall saving of 20% – and they knew that incremental changes wouldn’t yield sufficient savings quickly enough. Full, rapid transformation was required, affecting the entire Finance function, as well as those who interacted with Finance both internally and externally.

PwC was engaged to spearhead BHGE’s finance transformation efforts – a transformation that would sit at the very heart of this newly merged industrial giant. From the very beginning, the project set out to achieve the seemingly impossible – not least the creation of a new global operating model for a Finance function of 3,600 people in under a year, as well as identifying an additional savings from a BPO contract tender.

This project and the collaborative partnership we developed with BHGE have set a benchmark against which future transformation projects will be measured. It stands as a perfect example of how to offer value-based/contingent fees to build strong relationships with our clients.

For PwC itself, this project has been a testament to the impact of truly outcomes-based pricing on client relationships, and has demonstrated the results that it can drive (e.g. pace of delivery). Over the course of the BHGE engagement, we have also developed new tools and methods – in particular, the business case and benefits tracking.

View the PwC company profile in the MCA Members Directory.