PwC’s Take on Tomorrow podcast explores the critical intersection of business and society, examining the role that businesses can—and should—play in addressing some of the world’s most pressing challenges.
New in series 3, we welcomed broadcaster and journalist Femi Oke to the show. She joins podcaster and journalist Lizzie O’Leary, and together with industry innovators, tech trailblazers and visionary leaders from around the globe, they’ve led conversations that explore timely topics that intersect business and society - like how to lead a responsible business, how quantum computing will radically change our world, and the future of our food.
Our goal is to move the conversation forward on these issues critical to both the C-suite and the world, by hosting innovative conversations with not only our own PwC experts, but those outside of our walls for the most in-depth insights. This year we’ve achieved nearly one million downloads across our three-year series – and grew our follower numbers from 150,000 at the end of Series 2 to 460,000 – a more than 200% increase – and we’re only two thirds of the way through Series 3. We’re not reacting to what’s being said in the business world, but leading the conversation with world class experts while looking at the role of business in society from a unique angle.
There is a lot going on right now that impacts both business and society, and Take on Tomorrow does not shy away from tackling the big questions like: Is quantum computing about to radically change the world?, What are the opportunities when business takes climate action? and How can we secure the future of food? Some of our guests to help answer those questions included Caltech mathematical physicist Spiros Michalakis, Patagonia’s Board Chair Charles Conn, and Rob Cameron of Nestle.
Each episode centers around a core question important to the C-suite and their stakeholders - and brings together a wide range of global voices from both inside and outside of PwC, including business leaders, academics, and policy makers, to talk about challenges and solutions. While our goal is to create a show business leaders want to listen to, this podcast extends beyond that, engaging an audience that is interested in the cross section of business and society.
New this season, we also worked closely with our new production partner, Listen, to make sure we were putting out the most engaging podcast episodes. We noticed there were some episodes that had a lower consumption rate off the top, so we took a close look at what we could do to make subsequent episodes even more engaging as soon as listeners pressed play. We worked with our producers to craft quick-hitting host introductions, and reorganize the format a bit to get to the meat of the conversation sooner – ensuring that we keep a fresh and agile approach to a three-year-old show – while staying true to our audience.
We’ve continued to see success with our event-based episodes. These special recordings include both audio and video to tap into a wider audience and expand the podcast’s reach. To do that, we ramped up our schedule and turned these episodes around quickly, so the topic is timely and released as the event wraps up. This series, we’ve seen download numbers increase over last series for our on-the-ground episodes, filmed and recorded at places like Climate Week in New York City, and the APEC CEO Summit in Lima, Peru. Last season, our event-based episodes averaged nearly 14,000 downloads per episode – this year, we’ve more than doubled that number at just over 29,000 downloads per event-based episode. We find great engagement on the ground and this format allows us to bring the event – and insights through our Take on Tomorrow lens – right to our listeners.
We saw strong continuing series-on-series growth in our third season. This year, we set very aggressive targets and have already surpassed them, although the series is not yet finished. For example, after 6 episodes, we’ve achieved more than 320,000 downloads. Our original target was 420,000 downloads for the season, but on our current trajectory, we’re now expecting that series 3 – which runs 15 episodes – will achieve just over 532,000 downloads.
The strong interest in the podcast is also reflected in our subscriber numbers. We have around 460,000 followers across podcast platforms. Compare this to the 150,000 followers we had at the end of Series 2 – which represents a more than 200% growth, and we still have more than a third of the series left to complete.
Our most popular episode of Series 3 is Episode 2 Is quantum computing about to radically change the world?, which has more than 62,000 downloads to date.
We’ve also continued to create bespoke videogram assets to use on our social media channels. Our most-watched videogram in 2024 came in at 869,000 views on YouTube.
Take on Tomorrow works each day to bring insights, inspiration and guidance to our global audience – leaders who are dealing with an ever-evolving tomorrow. We are excited to continue the journey in this third series!
