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Big Four firms

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A two-horse race for the Big Four?

By ⋅ 16 March 2012 ⋅ Post a comment

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 [...]

Should we separate audit and consulting?

By ⋅ 3 October 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

The European Commission’s rumoured plans to force Big Four firms into separating audit from consulting are a classic case of barking up the wrong tree. The plans aren’t all bad. Mandatory auditor rotation strikes me as being entirely sensible and wouldn’t go amiss in some consulting relationships, too, but it will also have little practical [...]

The Big Four share of the European consulting market

By ⋅ 12 July 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

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 [...]

IT consulting and the Big Four

By ⋅ 2 September 2010 ⋅ Post a comment

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 [...]

What’s in a name?

By ⋅ 17 July 2010 ⋅ Post a comment

Quite a lot, apparently. Consultants have been grumbling about the word “consultant” since the dotcom boom-to-bust, when clients started to associate them with the type of champagne strategy which was all bubble and no substance. Consultants, alongside trendy technology companies, were held to blame for the millions squandered on unworkable e-business projects. Anxious to distance [...]

A Big Four boost to strategy consulting

By ⋅ 27 April 2010 ⋅ Post a comment

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 [...]

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