Yesterday
At this salon, services inflation is proving hard to trim
The average price of hairdressing and personal grooming services increased by 6.7 per cent last year. At one Sydney salon, it means a shampoo, cut and blow dry will cost $200 from next week.
- Ronald Mizen
This Month
Consultants banned from public service core work
A major revamp of public service outsourcing means consultants will lose out on lucrative contracts as federal agencies take their core work in house.
- Tom Burton
Deloitte UK staff raise alarm over talk by ‘anti-white’ academic
A professor who described Winston Churchill as a white supremacist set to speak to the consultancy firm’s UK employees about identity and “black excellence”.
- Steven Edginton
- Exclusive
- Deloitte
Strategy firm Bain delays new starters by up to 10 months
The consulting company’s Australian office has deferred the start dates of its roughly two dozen new employees until as late as October next year.
- Edmund Tadros
Hire us, not consultants, barristers tell government
The Victorian Bar says using “individual experts” would be cheaper and help overcome issues of accountability and breach of trust.
- Maxim Shanahan
- Exclusive
- Big four accountants
Big four partner alleged to have promoted tax exploitation scheme
A former partner at a major accounting firm is facing significant fines for allegedly promoting tax avoidance schemes to seven clients.
- Max Mason and Neil Chenoweth
Sayers explored selling PwC’s consulting business
Senators grilled PwC Australia chief executive Kevin Burrowes this morning before saying they were “astonished” at evidence from predecessor Luke Sayers. Here’s how the day unfolded.
- Updated
- Edmund Tadros and Nick Bonyhady
- Opinion
- Chanticleer
Telstra flexes M&A muscle to grow in consulting
The telco is always hard to beat when it wants something. This time it is cloud consulting business Versent, which has 500 employees.
- Anthony Macdonald
‘Toxic’ Teneo sued by recruiter Anna Whitlam
The recruiter sold her business to the New York-based firm in 2021, and according to her statement of claim, rarely slept a full night ever again.
- Updated
- Myriam Robin
September
PwC seeks absolution but can it really change?
The publication of two documents and a video apology for the tax leaks scandal this week was meant to be a circuit breaker. But it won’t be that easy.
- Edmund Tadros
The Shovel’s satirical take on the PwC affair
Has outsourcing public service matters fallen out of favour and should the federal government pivot for a quick win?
- James Schloeffel
One in five EY, PwC partners earns more than $1.3m
The top-earning 20 per cent of partners at big four consulting firms EY and PwC took home than $1.3 million each year, well above the top managing directors at Accenture who earned from $875,000.
- Edmund Tadros
The most powerful people in the consulting sector in 2023
Last year, the nation’s key players were from the top five firms. This year, they are all outsiders.
- Edmund Tadros
Consultants using AI do better, especially underperformers: study
A Harvard study of hundreds of Boston Consulting Group workers showed those using ChatGPT-4 can perform tasks significantly better than those who do not.
- Euan Black
The five things keeping consultants awake at night
Shrinking budgets, job losses, the end of the COVID-19 pandemic and artificial intelligence are all shaking up the industry.
- Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson, Silin Chen and Anjli Raval
Legal experts doubt PwC’s ‘rule of three’ would be enforced by courts
The restriction demands partners involved in a “group departure” to a rival firm pay back the fees they generated in the previous year.
- Edmund Tadros
One in eight Accenture MDs earns more than $1m
The average Accenture managing director’s pay worked out at roughly $630,000 in FY23 including base pay, bonus payment and equity vested in the financial year.
- Updated
- Edmund Tadros
Market uncertainty restrains Deloitte staff pay
Deloitte staff will receive a modest pay rise – and free budgeting assistance.
- Maxim Shanahan
Accenture opens the door on big four’s secret client ‘mapping’
The big four consulting firms have denied systematically tracking their relationships with public sector clients, but Accenture says it’s a common practice.
- Updated
- Edmund Tadros
Another EY partner pops up at Alvarez & Marsal
Street Talk understands Ernst & Young energy market leader Igor Sadimenko is out after almost 14 years with the firm.
- Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
