This Month
What the inquiry into the structure of the big four firms recommended
A summary of the key recommendations from the joint parliamentary inquiry into the structure of the big four consulting firms and what they mean for the sector.
- Updated
- Edmund Tadros
NAB tapped Bain & Company for its strategy refresh
Consulting firm Bain was called in to help National Australia Bank with its new strategy focusing on customers, it can be revealed.
- Edmund Tadros
October
World’s oldest consulting firm reopens in Australia
Arthur D. Little, the world’s original consulting firm, once again has a dedicated Australian operation that will initially aim to win work in the energy sector.
- Edmund Tadros
EY’s local strategy division appoints deals veteran as leader
Clients are willing to pay a premium for strategy advisers who are also experienced industry experts, says the new managing partner of EY’s local strategy arm.
- Edmund Tadros
September
Consulting firms hurt as companies treat change as ‘business as usual’
Companies are building up internal teams of consultants and technology experts, fuelling the rise of consulting marketplaces and cutting demand for big advisory firms.
- Edmund Tadros
- Opinion
- Chanticleer
Back to basics works for bombed out blue chips
Here’s a lesson for all the new CEOs; investors prefer it when you fix what you’ve got, rather than chase what you think you need.
- Anthony Macdonald
August
Strategy firm wins work by focusing on traditional advice
Kearney says it has found its “sweep spot” by assessing the “essential rightness” of prospective projects and clients.
- Edmund Tadros
AI curiosity is defying consulting slump: McKinsey
McKinsey is seeing an increase in the number of clients seeking artificial intelligence-linked projects, as faster adoption of the technology helps the consulting titan and its peers boost revenue following a period of tumult.
- Ambereen Choudhury
July
- Opinion
- Chanticleer
Why Australia’s No.1 hospitals business poached a supermarkets boss
Ramsay Health Care chairman David Thodey is trading in deep industry knowledge and expertise for a consultant’s mindset. Will it work?
- Anthony Macdonald
- Opinion
- Consulting
Is McKinsey a partnership? Court case, leadership battles stir debate
A former senior partner is suing McKinsey after he was fired for having “communicated about document deletion” relating to the firm’s advice to opioid manufacturers.
- Stephen Foley
Consultants face decade-low growth slump
Annual growth in the sector is forecast to fall to its lowest level – apart from the short-lived pandemic slump – since 2015.
- Edmund Tadros
BCG’s local boss Grant McCabe on why he has taken up pilates
Boston Consulting Group’s Australian chief, Grant McCabe, says rookie executives should “remove that baggage” about whether they are going to succeed.
- Lap Phan and Ciara Seccombe
June
Tough jobs market for consultants wanting to jump ship to industry
Advisers seeking exit opportunities or new roles after job cuts are facing fierce competition for ‘transformation’ and ‘strategy’ roles in companies.
- Edmund Tadros
Why pokies giant Aristocrat is doing a U-turn on computer games
Aristocrat Leisure went big into developing non-gambling computer games less than a decade ago. Now it is considering an exit, in full.
- Anthony Macdonald
- Opinion
- Consulting
The many-sided crisis in management consulting
Artificial intelligence can increasingly do the lower end of consulting work, meaning the profession may very well be in secular decline.
- Rana Foroohar
May
Consulting rookies: how to absorb the data deluge
Selina Liang has spent much of her first 15 months at consulting firm Oliver Wyman learning how cope with the reams of information typical of new projects.
- Edmund Tadros
April
- Exclusive
- PwC tax scandal
Burrowes wants everyone to move on from PwC’s tax scandal
“We feel we’re in a good position now to start to turn to a new chapter, look to the future and drive the firm with a new strategy,” the PwC chief executive says.
- Ronald Mizen and Maxim Shanahan
Big four consultants ‘commoditised’, says fast-growing boutique firm
Rennie Advisory has appointed former senior EY partner Tim Eddy as its new chairman, as small firms capitalise on client dissatisfaction with the big four.
- Maxim Shanahan
March
Why this strategy consulting firm avoids cutting staff during a downturn
Strategy consulting firms have to bide their time during recessions until clients have exhausted ways of quickly cutting costs, says a veteran of the field.
- Edmund Tadros
February
The dead diamond dealer, the Russian billionaire and the ex-Liberal Party strategist
Spanning transactions from Monaco to Switzerland, CT Group has been accused in the UK’s High Court of offering up forged bank documents in the family legal dispute of a deceased Israeli diamond dealer.
- Ronald Mizen