Quality and trust form the very core of our organization: deeply rooted in our long history, embodied in our work every day, and proudly safeguarded for our future. Likewise, our relevance for clients and society, our teams’ expertise and commitment, and our belief in our learning organization all remain constant, despite the seismic changes taking place around us. Against a turbulent global backdrop, businesses and organizations are navigating the twin transition (new window), with digitalization and sustainability revolutionizing how we live and work. Our own transformation is underway at KPMG N.V., spearheaded by our culture of ethics and integrity. From our business to our clients and to wider society, we are led by our values in driving change – for good, and for better.
I am pleased to introduce KPMG N.V.’s integrated report for 2023/2024 – a further year of robust growth for our firm. This is visible in our strong financial results, enabling us to continue delivering on our purpose of inspiring confidence and empowering change.
Read more about our financial performance (new window)
Read more about our business growth (new window)
Growth requires us to embrace the mindset we need to self-reflect, learn, and evolve. We recognize that trust – that of our clients and all other stakeholders, regulators, and broader society – is our license to operate. We are committed to earning and protecting that trust, focusing on the quality, values, and ethical behaviors that we, as well as our stakeholders, expect. Over the year, we therefore implemented a number of additional measures to prevent answer sharing in the future, which have proven to be effective.
Read more about our external reviews, inspections, and interactions with regulators. (new window)
But we had to dive deeper into our culture. We conducted root cause analyses (RCAs) on the cultural dimensions we must work on, moving forward with clarity and motivation, driven by our values. We also launched a new company-wide culture program called Values First, because we firmly believe that before we act, we must pause to consider, assess, and reflect on whether every action and behavior is rooted in our values first.
Leading Change, Values First
Accordingly, with 2023/2024 marking the end of phase 2.0 of KPMG’s global Trust & Growth strategy, we are embarking on Trust & Growth 3.0 under the theme of “Leading Change, Values First.” This reflects our commitment to our five values – Integrity, Excellence, Courage, Together, For Better – as we undergo and enable the transformations that our clients, our society, and our planet demand.
Read more about our strategy
While these transformations start with strong leadership, “values first” applies to everyone, at all levels of our firm. We are therefore driving positive cultural change within KPMG N.V., ensuring high engagement and energy among our people. It is important that people of all backgrounds feel safe, included, and valued, as well as able to learn and thrive in their teams. This is fundamental to our success as a high-performance business, where our people listen to and understand clients’ needs, continuously strive to deliver work of the highest quality, and want to take accountability. We listen to our people regularly and in multiple ways – such as surveys and face-to-face dialogues with our Works Council and our Young Board Now – with the relentless motivation to make our people’s experience at KPMG N.V. a deeply rewarding, deeply human one.
Read more about our values
Read more about our workforce
ESG as our watermark
Our cultural transformation goes hand in hand with our operational transformation, as we respond to the urgent need to build a more equitable and environmentally sustainable society. KPMG N.V.’s approach to the sustainability challenge is founded on prioritizing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) topics in all our decision-making, processes, and solutions – in short, in all we do – an approach we call “watermarking ESG.” We deliver most of our value through the work we carry out for and with our clients. Our own ambitions are outlined in our Impact Plan, through which we aim to drive positive impact in the areas of Planet, People, Prosperity, and Governance.
Read more about our Impact Plan
In 2023/2024, we focused particularly on the European Union (EU) Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and associated European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). We welcome the introduction of CSRD, which requires more companies to report on their ESG impact, risks, and opportunities - and how they are managed - in a more extensive, standardized, and comparable way. These more stringent disclosure requirements pose a new challenge for many of our clients. With demand for KPMG N.V.’s support with CSRD reporting processes rising fast, we are dedicated to ensuring we are equipped to meet the needs of our clients and increase societal trust in corporate reporting.
We also believe it is important for us to set a strong example regarding CSRD. This year, therefore, I am pleased to welcome you to our Integrated report which includes our first CSRD-compliant sustainability statement. This marks an important step forward in our reporting, pushing us to scrutinize our own sustainability performance, how we track it, and how we communicate transparently about progress and areas for improvement.
While we can be proud of developments in many areas – including how we have strengthened our audit quality, advanced our Values First program, and reduced our carbon footprint – we recognize that we still have work to do; for instance, on gender balance and air travel. I invite you to explore the disclosures in our sustainability statement for full details.
Read our General disclosures (new window)
Read our Environment disclosures (new window)
Read our Social disclosures (new window)
Read our Governance disclosures (new window)
Trusted digitalization
As the sustainability transition gathers pace, so does digitalization. With new technologies and tools come opportunities and challenges for us and our clients. Artificial intelligence (AI), in particular, has an impact on all of us, and all we do, at KPMG N.V.
Accordingly, a transformation is underway across our firm, as we put (generative) AI into the hands of our people, empower them to embrace innovation, and redesign our services and delivery models to better meet clients’ needs and expectations. This includes investing in growing the AI acumen of our workforce and collaborating with the global KPMG network on go-to-market tooling, thought leadership, propositions, and other AI-related assets.
At the same time, AI alone will not deliver prosperity if it is not trusted and based on values. For that to happen, AI must be equitable, human centric and transparent, with its use cases led by people with empathy, care, and commitment to the greater good.
In Assurance, our KPMG Clara platform is enhancing our audit methodology and, in turn, quality, increasingly empowered by robotics, algorithms, and AI. This is done in lockstep with our global network and backed by our sustainable investment commitment. In Advisory, embedding AI tools at the heart of our business means we can increasingly support clients with integrated implementation projects, thereby driving our own transformation as a trusted Advisory partner on larger-scale, more complex projects. In our Business Services function, we are recalibrating our target operating model to provide better services, enabled by smart technologies and digitalization projects.
Read more about audit quality (new window)
Read more about digital innovation and AI (new window)
All about people
I would like to thank all my colleagues across the firm for their hard work during a year of change. Our people inspire me every day, and their dedication to transforming our organization – while also enabling transformation for our clients and society – is a testament not only to their resilience, open-mindedness, and skill, but also to their commitment to upholding our values. With our Values First program, we are further strengthening our culture; ensuring our values are owned, deeply felt, and lived by our people in their daily behaviors; and making these values a driver for the continued success of our firm in the future.
I also want to thank my colleagues on the Board of Management and the Supervisory Board. In particular, I wish to thank our departing members Claartje Bulten and Gosse Boon for their contributions, and to extend a warm welcome to Pascal Visée, our new Supervisory Board member.
Finally, thank you to our clients for continuing to choose KPMG N.V. We can look back on outstanding work together, facing the enormity of the transformational movements underway. Your trust in our expertise and high-quality services reflects the value we create together for wider society amid social, geopolitical, and environmental unrest. We are more determined than ever to live up to this trust as we forge ahead. Thanks to the quality of our offering and the knowledge and commitment of our people, I believe we are strongly positioned to lead the change that our clients and society expect from us, putting our values first in all we do.
Stephanie Hottenhuis
CEO, KPMG N.V.