Tuesday 4th Dec, 2012
Writing up some of our client research earlier this year, we estimated that as much as 15% of all consulting goes on what we called ‘validation’, an activity which ranged from genuine research and analysis around a particularly thorny issue to signing off on a decision already effectively made by senior managers.
Tuesday 20th Nov, 2012
It looks like a good match. Deloitte, like all the Big Four firms, would like to expand its footprint in the strategic consulting space, giving it greater sight of, and input to, the type of issues and decisions which drive organisations and their use of consultants. Strategy work continues to command higher fees so there’s important margin to be won here too.
Friday 16th Mar, 2012
It’s hard to distinguish between Big Four firms – at least that’s what we thought. But our recent research with 400+ clients tells us otherwise. There are certainly areas where clients do think these firms are hard to tell apart; “they’re all much of a much-ness”, was how one of them put it. Certainly everyone associates them with financial management and regulatory-driven work: no surprise there. And almost everyone says their people are “good”, though rarely anything more than good, even if their knowledge of specific industries tends to be rated highly.
Tuesday 12th Jul, 2011
Everyone in consulting knows that the Big Four accounting firms (Deloitte, Ernst and Young, KPMG and PwC) have all grown significantly in the last few years. Indeed, many of us have suspected that they may have out-performed the market, sometimes by a factor of two or three. But none of us could put a figure on what that means for market share.
Thursday 2nd Sep, 2010
The recent announcement that PwC is acquiring Diamond Consultants isn't – and is – a surprise. In the race to close the gap that Deloitte is perceived to have opened up between itself and the consulting practices of the other Big Four firms, technology is critical. Whether you like it or not, much consulting is driven directly or indirectly by IT changes. New systems don’t just create work for the software vendors and others who implement technology, but typically trigger a raft of changes to working practices and organisational structures.
Tuesday 27th Apr, 2010
Many of you will have noticed that there’s a boom in strategy consulting going on.
Having hunkered down for the duration of the (private sector) recession, companies are looking to see how to respond to the recovery. What has changed? How do they need to adapt? Not surprisingly, this leads to increased demand for strategy consulting: that’s happening at the moment, just as it happened after the last downturns in 1997 and 2002.
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