Very few PwC clients have weathered the financial and economic crisis completely unscathed. This is particularly true of PwC's 3,500 or so clients in the financial sector. Organisations of all sizes in all industries have faced tremendous challenges. To support its clients in these difficult times, PwC responded rapidly by publishing its ten-point "managing through the downturn" programme. The programme is a thought-provoking guide on how to steer successfully through the crisis, and outlines approaches to managing strategy, finance, operations, people and stakeholders.

It is a concrete example of how PwC is putting the PwC Experience – an initiative that aims to ensure that clients have a consistently positive experience in their dealings with PwC – into practice. From providing assistance with urgent matters related to daily business, or support in reviewing long-term business models, one thing is becoming increasingly important: listening to each and every client, and understanding their needs fully and correctly. Listening and understanding are elementary when it comes to working with clients to develop solutions that produce concrete results with real added value. To achieve this, PwC bundles technical expertise from its Assurance, Tax & Legal and Advisory lines of service to respond specifically to the concrete issues of each individual client.

In terms of client relationship management, last financial year also saw the following important developments:

• Engagements: PwC won new engagements in all lines of service in the 2008-09 financial year. PwC also observed growing demand among clients for multidisciplinary services.
• Client satisfaction: The structured client feedback process was applied to a broader client base. PwC polls the satisfaction of its clients by means of personal interviews and also, more recently, electronic questionnaires. The findings are represented in an index that PwC uses as a yardstick in its performance improvement efforts.
• Organisational structure: In the light of market demand for cross-disciplinary solutions, PwC has realigned its market organisation. The position of partners who have responsibility for the various industries has been strengthened, and the internal service organisation Business Development has been repositioned. These improvements in organisational structure enable technical and industry expertise to be combined even more effectively in specific PwC teams. The team-building process is supported by efficient internal services.

These days management at many companies is endeavouring to increase the solidity of their business. The focus is on loyal customer relationships, outstanding products and services, process efficiency, quality, reliability and service motivation. In other words, sustainable and strategically differentiated business models. This applies equally to international companies and SMEs. With the potential of the domestic market limited, many Swiss SMEs are highly dependent on exports and thus on the global economic situation. Even so, they also have strong local roots. In its role as a partner to SMEs, it is PwC's responsibility to leverage its regional presence and international network to support these companies through the difficult situation they face at present.

Other key issues on the agenda this financial year are as follows:

• To help companies prepare for the upswing, PwC is launching its "managing into the upturn" programme.
• PwC will be even more selective in building teams to ensure that each engagement benefits from the appropriate combination of technical and industry expertise.
• PwC will apply its structured client feedback process to a much broader client base as a systematic way of further increasing the level of satisfaction on each engagement.

PwC's most important goal is still to deliver sustainable solutions that help clients succeed and – especially now – build their confidence in their economic prospects.