This Month
From Seek to Wesfarmers, major audits up for grabs as firms circle
Some of the market’s most lucrative and long-held contracts are being fought over as professional services rivals try to nab millions of dollars in new work.
PwC Australia sells restructuring arm to Teneo for millions
The New York-based firm will create a new local financial services advisory business led by outgoing PwC partner Stephen Longley.
The advisory firms thriving on the big four talent exodus
With more than half their senior ranks coming from the big four consulting firms, FTI and Alvarez & Marsal are growing rapidly by targeting rainmakers.
KPMG feels the burn of $200m in public service consulting cuts
The firm once counted $500 million in revenues from government agencies. While it and its peers have fallen out of favour, one rival has doubled its business.
Who needs consultants in the age of AI?
Having made a fortune by telling others how to adapt to newfangled tech, from the internet to cloud computing, Accenture now faces the same predicament.
Judge references Oliver Twist, Goldilocks in EY win over defections
The firm won the right for a trove of documents over the defection of partners to a rival in a case likened to the expression “Please, sir, I want some more”.
Treasury prepares to crack down on audit firms, with or without ASIC
Officials are considering handing the corporate regulator the power to punish major accounting and consulting firms for the first time, among other options.
PwC’s global AI chief says firm has cut prices as staff time saved
PwC has cut prices for some services as clients raised the fact that the consultancy is using artificial intelligence to complete its work quicker.
June
Consulting downturn bites as big four partner exits speed up
Australian partner numbers across Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC are down 500, to almost 2900 partners, since the 2023 peak.
The new EY partner who’s not afraid to make a ‘captain’s call’
The new partner handles service delivery issues, connects her clients to global EY services and makes the “captain’s call” on what is pitched to clients.
PwC Australia’s profit slumps 17pc, inaugural audited accounts show
The firm is the first big four accounting group to publish an audited financial report, part of its reform process following the tax leaks scandal.
KPMG appoints 67 new partners, while almost 90 head for exit
The move means the consultancy group’s Australian partnership is projected to be 657-strong as of July 1, down from 676 a year earlier.
The three phone calls Gee made after becoming a new Deloitte partner
Gayathiri Balachandra is one of only 35 new partners at Deloitte Australia, an intake that is the smallest at the firm in more than a decade.
McKinsey leans on AI to do junior workers’ tasks
The firm is increasingly drafting proposals and making slides using artificial intelligence, as the new technology reshapes how consultancies operate.
May
The PwC scandal was bad, the cover-up is worse
The early conclusion to what was already a dubious exercise in scrutiny is exactly what we’ve come to expect.
Rest Super’s big rebrand spend with KPMG the least of its problems
Who says paying consultants to change the colour of a logo isn’t in members’ best financial interests?
‘Nothing independent’ about PwC’s reform assessment, MPs say
Independent monitoring of the consulting giant’s “commitments to change” will end almost a year ahead of schedule, but its CEO says there is more work to do.
Trump may be rare good news for the big four consulting firms
Uncertainty stemming from the US president’s unpredictable administration is pushing clients to re-engage with firms for advice on operations and strategy.
Why you shouldn’t be a consultant when the world is on fire
Historian Rutger Bregman says meaningful global change can come from entrepreneurs who tackle problems that are sorely overlooked, solveable and sizeable.
UTS pays KPMG $4.8m to tell it how to save money
The consulting firm is also on the hook for “a well-structured and compelling narrative” to help sell the job-cutting plan.