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10 December 2024
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A quiet week as we wind down to the end of the year!
I know that you don’t have a team of BD analysts helping you navigate consultancy trends or your growth strategy, so if there are datapoints or angles that you'd like us to explore (on the house) then do let me know.
Ejaaz (Founder & Editor at KnowPro Market Intelligence)
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Here were the top Government Departments and Large Public Bodies that awarded consulting-related contracts, ranked by award value 👇
The Cabinet Office awarded 2 contracts, via Bloom Procurement Services, to PA Consulting for a strategic workforce plan & implementation, valued at £245k, and another to Affinity Digital for the support & maintenance of its “Public Appointments” web application.
Methods, a large digital transformation consultancy working in the public sector, was awarded a £6.3M contract by the DWP, for “identity and trust augmented resources”.
Digital transformation firm, Deltascheme (acquired by Transparity Solutions last year) was awarded a contract by the CMA to design and develop a bespoke a data management and eRFI system to manage their funnel, workloads & external requests for information, as they investigative and regulate corporate merger activity.
Of the contracts that were tagged as falling in the IT service contracts, they can be categorised as falling into software-related work, or system & technical consulting work.
Top Consultancy Providers in the first week of December
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Here are a list of interesting consultancy-related contracts that are due to close by the 23rd of December 🚀
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There wasn't much activity in the consultancy M&A space in the last week of November, but we did see a couple of notable deals:
BGF, one of the largest growth capital investors in the UK and Ireland, invested in digital transformation consultancy, Proventeq. The funding will support Proventeq's growth across the UK, US, Europe, and Middle East. This investment comes fresh on the heels of BGF’s investment (earlier this month) into MSP & consulting firm, ITC Service.
Qodea, a Google Cloud digital transformation consultancy partner, acquired tmc3, a cybersecurity solutions provider. tmc3 brings expertise in cloud-based cybersecurity, particularly in industries with high security requirements (Government & Security). Qodea, backed by Marlin Equity Partners, specialises in cloud solutions, data analytics, AI and cybersecurity. </aside>
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EY announced it will be laying off 150 consultants in the UK - primarily managers, senior managers, and directors. This follows a larger restructuring trend at EY: the firm’s annual accounts reported that the company’s head count was cut by 2,450 in the year - the first decrease in 14 years.
Also:
💡 Editor’s Thoughts
Layoffs = Golden Egg These layoffs present an opportunity to snap up blue-chip, high-performing talent. The context shouldn’t be ignored: the Big 4 are bracing for a slowdown in consulting revenues and want to maintain a strong PPP (Profit-per-Partner). These cuts are more financial and organisational, than performance-related. But most importantly - investing in blue-chip talent helps to strengthen your brand. Clients like blue-chip logos (key to building authority) and prospective employees want to be assured that they’re joining a firm with other top players.
Consulting Revenue Slowdowns Large firms are cognisant of lower levels of private sector work - hence the cuts. While the private sector is experiencing a slowdown, the Public Sector is a viable and alternative £BN market that requires an array of business, management, organisational and digital consulting services. With the MCF4 framework open to applications to join, it might be a good time to consider public sector work to diversify your revenue and workstreams. You’ll have to get used to bidding for work - but the MCF4 framework does make this a lot easier for approved suppliers. Do get in touch if you'd like to **explore this with me.**
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We regularly update our data sources for consultancy-specific executive moves and are adding more data streams weekly.
Executive Talent Flows (November)
We had previously reported on 30 moves made by the 22nd November - we have now seen an extra 36 moves reported since then, taking November's total moves to 66. November accounts for 7% of the year’s activity (so far).
Of the 66 executive moves and promotions recorded in November, 37 (56%) were promotions.
The firms that promoted the most (November)
Of these 37 promotions, Alvarez & Marsal was the highest-promoting employer in November with 20 promotions made. 7 of these promotions were to the "Associate Director" level, while the remaining 13 promotions were at Director-level. The average tenure of executives before their promotion was roughly 2.8 years (since they were promoted to their previous positions as Senior Manager or Associate Director).
Across all firms, 30 moves were reported at Director-level, with a further 4 being at Partner & MD level, and 3 at C-Suite level.
The firms that poached the most from other firms (November)
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