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Gossip roundup

• PwC Pittsburgh office head uses Father’s day as an excuse to praise PwC retiring leadership

• Post-MBA MBB exits are still getting ~$200-300K 

• McKinsey says half of electric vehicle owners don’t want to buy another one

• KPMG consulting is doing job cuts in Australia

• MBA hiring for McKinsey, BCG, and Bain expected to be a s*** show next year

Top story: Major consulting firms to lose ~$6 billion of UK government work over next five years

In a recent policy shift, both the Conservative and Labour parties have committed to halving the UK government’s expenditure on external consulting firms, a measure projected to save approximately £3 billion ($5.76 billion) over five years. This decision follows a surge in government reliance on consultants due to the COVID-19 pandemic, digital transformation projects, and civil service training, leading to record levels of consulting engagements since the last UK election.

The leading consulting firms, including Deloitte, EY, KPMG, PwC, McKinsey, BCG, Bain, and Accenture, have collectively secured £7.1 billion in public sector contracts since December 2019. However, this heavy dependence has attracted criticism from entities like the parliament’s public accounts committee, which argues that it undermines the development of in-house skills within the civil service and constitutes a waste of taxpayer money.

Notably, former UK government minister Lord Theodore Agnew highlighted the detrimental effects of over-reliance on consultants, suggesting it "infantilizes" the civil service. A parallel effort to curtail consultant usage is also underway in Australia, spurred by the PwC tax leaks scandal.

Both Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak have pledged to reduce consultant spending to reallocate funds towards frontline public services. Labour estimates that cutting consultant costs could save £745 million annually, totaling £3.73 billion over five years, while the Conservatives project a net saving of £3.04 billion by 2029. Additionally, the Conservative Party aims to slash spending on equality, diversity, and inclusion initiatives and reduce the civil service workforce to pre-pandemic levels, potentially cutting nearly 90,000 roles.

Despite these planned reductions, consulting industry advocates argue that external advisory firms provide essential expertise for complex projects, which is more cost-effective than maintaining such specialists within government departments. The "Crown Consultancy" initiative, an in-house consultancy arm, was previously scrapped after proving ineffective, as departments preferred external advisers. High spending since the last election has significantly benefited consulting firms, with Deloitte alone securing £1.9 billion in contracts.

Read more here.

Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Apple, and… Costco? Why is Costco included in this chart lol, it makes no sense to us. Here’s the original article we read.

• [NEW] Atticus Business Operations Lead, Legal Series-B, Remote, ~1-3 years of consulting experience, ~$130-160k

• Draft Kings Assistant Manager of Strategy & Operations, Sports Betting, Remote, ~4+ years of consulting experience, ~$85-126k

• NBA2K Commercial Strategy & Operations Manager, Gaming, Remote,~4+ years of consulting experience, $90-130k

• Placer.ai Strategy & Operations Senior Manager, SaaS, Remote, ~6+ years of consulting experience, $140-160k 

• Headway Strategy & Ops Lead, Mental Health Tech, Remote, ~5 years of consulting experience,~$120-150k

• PayPal Senior Strategy Associate, NYC / Hybrid, ~2-4 years of consulting experience,~$53-135k

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