What to expect: ~650 words / 3 min read
👋 Hi and welcome to Boiling the Ocean, a new bi-weekly newsletter covering everything Strategy Consulting. We’ll be connecting the dots from the latest industry trends to productivity hacks and novel tech tools. If you’re looking to break into the industry or just make your life as a consultant easier, this newsletter is for you.
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News & Updates
Trending 📈
Sun, sex and scandal in Bondi
The news boiling away in the background this week: PwC has been embroiled in a massive tax scandal over in the land of Bondi Beach and Fosters. Australian authorities allege that the firm’s former international tax chief, Peter Collins, fed confidential information on new multinational tax laws to overseas businesses.
This comes at a time when EY’s Global CEO Carmine is retiring following the failure of Project Everest. These two issues are raising broader questions about the viability of the Big 4 model. Together, they raise serious concerns around conflicts of interest. Separate… well there doesn’t seem to be a path to separate.
This hasn’t stopped others entering the fray. BDO recently announced Gurpal Ahluwalia as the new Head of Deal Advisory, seeking to rapidly grow their recently-launched strategy practice. We’ll see how regulators look at this issue going forward and if there’ll be a repeat of the Arthur Andersen/Accenture split.
Side note: if you’re a recently out-of-work consultant, BDO strat might be one to ping.
A rare note of sympathy for leadership
There was some news recently about approval ratings for consultancies being among the worst for all professional services, which feels very similar to Glassdoor seeing company approval ratings plummet during layoffs as angry employees get their own back.
It’s not often that I’m advocating for a sympathetic view of leadership, they are partners after all, however a note here on the difficulties they’ve faced. Consultancies have been in one of the largest bull markets for years, before being hit by the uncertainty generated from the Ukraine war. As unanticipatable macro shocks go, this is certainly one of the clearest cut.
Combine this with year-in-advance graduate hiring timelines and you start to realise why it’s such a nightmare to run these behemoth organisations. You plan for your best view of the future a year in advance but that prediction is fast made obsolete.
Having said that… the only thing worse than being part of leadership? Not being part of leadership.
In The News 📰
Accenture a first mover in AI with $3bn investment, says noone
Side note: Rumours of further KPMG layoffs are in the wind
Working Effectively
Tech Tool 💾
Otter.ai - AI-powered real-time transcription, audio recording, slide capture and meeting summaries. Perfect for everyone except those who love writing KTAs at 1am by hand
Productivity Hack ⚙️
It may feel difficult further down the ladder, but Deep Work is the way to go
Keyboard Shortcut 💻
I don’t know who needs to hear this, but Double-click Format Painter to keep it active on multiple items
The coffee break ☕️
Interesting detours 🔗
NHS can use data to reduce deaths. Hardly groundbreaking, but important
Americans are scaling back their charitable donations, drastically
Coming up 🛣️
The Big Con - book review
H2 2023 forecasts
Promotions across firms
M&A in consulting
Making the best use of downtime
Have suggestions for future issues? Email me
That’s all folks. Don’t forget your timesheets.
[Insert Consultant Here]
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