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Strategy consulting

This Month

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New Oliver Wyman partner Louise PortelliNew Oliver Wyman partner Tim JacksonNew Oliver Wyman senior advisor Jim Murphy

 Photo: Supplied.

Strategy firm hires former Scyne, PwC partner

Oliver Wyman continues to build up its government consulting practice with the hire of Tim Jackson, expanding the team to 25.

  • Edmund Tadros

November

Big four

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
Bain consultants assisted NAB executives with a strategy refresh.

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

Franco Santucci is leading the new Arthur D. LIttle operation in Australia.

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
Outgoing EY Port Jackson Partners managing directer Byron Pirola and new leader Chris Paxton.

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
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September

Kevin Sweeney is a former McKinsey consultant who now gets work through the Expert360 platform. Wednesday 3rd April 2024 AFR photo

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
Downer boss Peter Tompkins is on a mission to change the company’s organisational psychology.

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

Bob Willen says Kearney remains one of the few “pure play” management consulting firms.

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
Chief executive Jamie Dimon says AI can help JPMorgan Chase develop new products, drive customer engagement, improve productivity and enhance risk management.

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

New Ramsay Health Care boss Natalie Davis joins from Woolworths, where she runs its Australian supermarkets.

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
McKinsey’s global managing partner Bob Sternfels.

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
The big four firms have been hardest hit by the drop in client demand.

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

Ilan Leshetz and Asha Walsh, of Oaktree Talent Group, say lifestyle considerations are a factor in consultants wanting to exit their firms.

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
Aristocrat chief executive Trevor Croker is thinking about doing something unlike the poker machines group: sell an asset.

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
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Times are tough in the consulting sector.

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

Selina Liang

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

PwC Australia CEO Kevin Burrowes wants to draw a line under the PwC tax leaks 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
Former EY managing partner of operations Tim Eddy is Rennie Advisory’s new chairman.

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

UK-based Chris Outram, co-founder of OC&C, speaks to staff during a trip to Australia.

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

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/strategy-consulting-1mr3