| | By Stephen Humphreys
... continued from
page 11
Nobody will be
surprised to hear that
McKinsey has once again
been voted the most
prestigious consulting
firm, for the 10th year
running. Indeed, the
whole of the top 10 is
unchanged, although
there have been some
movers this year. The
2011 Top 10 Most
Prestigious Consulting
Firms according to the
ranking are McKinsey &
Co., the Boston
Consulting Group, Bain &
Co., Booz & Co.,
Deloitte Consulting,
PricewaterhouseCoopers,
Monitor Group, Ernst &
Young, Mercer LLC and
Accenture. “McKinsey is
the consulting
industry’s gold
standard,” said Brian
Dalton, director of
research and consulting
at Vault.com.
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Finally, the story to
watch was broken by
City AM on its front
page on Thursday 27
September: the European
Commission has set out
draft regulations that
will force the Big Four
to “hive off their huge
consultancy arms or ban
them from cross-selling
services to their
(audit) clients.”
Although no timelines
have been set out for a
consultation period,
this is a story to keep
a close eye on as the
repercussions of even
the most minor of
recommendations in the
regulations would have
significant impact on
not just the UK, but the
global consulting
industry. EY and KPMG
have more to lose from
such a decision as they
have invested very
heavily recently in the
growth of their
consulting arms.
Furthermore, Deloitte
and PwC, which have the | |
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| | financial services.
Conversely, although
the gates are still shut
in central government,
the other public sector
markets are on the
uplift. I have even been
hearing of a number of
new projects in
policing.
Broader private
sector and work with
corporates remains
strong, with consulting
in manufacturing
environments leading the
pack.
Hiring trends
The
Top-consultant.com half
year hiring trends
report sees 81% of
consulting recruiters
expecting hiring in 2nd
half of 2011 to be equal
or up on the first half
of the year. I would
agree with this sense,
but lean towards
‘equalling’ as opposed
to much ‘up’. The | |
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| | recently ran with a
story on hiring in the
Big Four that said: “The
world’s two largest
accounting and
consulting firms are
bulking up with
acquisitions and combing
the globe for new hires.
Head-to-head in a race
for the title of world’s
largest private
professional services
firm, Deloitte and PwC
are on a major expansion
drive.” It will remain
to be seen what impact
the previously discussed
regulations have on this
news. Small firms are
winning large amounts of
work, the Big Four
continue to seize market
share and the strategy
firms are beginning to
move down the value
chain. However, the
doors are open across
the consulting industry,
and the talent war
continues to rage.
Until the next
quarter, enjoy the | |
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