Although consulting is having a bad year in Australia overall, it seems there’s a tiny bright spot glimmering from the swampy depths and it’s Deloitte cleaning up on PwC’s sloppy seconds.
Deloitte is on target to become the largest of the big four consulting firms this financial year thanks to the collapse in revenue at its once-dominant rival PwC.
The firm’s annual income jumped more than 14 per cent to $2.85 billion in the year to May. [Ed. note: Deloitte Australia numbers only, obvs]
While PwC is still the larger firm, the devastating tax leaks scandal of the last financial year means it will be a much reduced outfit in 2023-24.
Deloitte’s strong result, driven mainly by its powerhouse consulting arm, comes as sector leaders adjust to a political environment poisoned by PwC’s tax scandal.
Deloitte reported global revenue of $59.3 billion for its last fiscal year ended May 2022, fiscal 2023 numbers for the global body should be out in September. Like all firms around the world, Deloitte saw a drop-off in consulting toward the end of last year (Gregorian, not fiscal) so picking up PwC’s contracts and clients would be a huge help to the bottom line.
Of that $2.85 billion ($1.9 billion USD) in revenue, consulting accounted for 21 percent. That’s nearly twice as much as the next highest category, Financial Advisory.
Recent events in our profession have clearly demonstrated the value of our longstanding commitment at Deloitte to maintaining strong standards of governance, ethics and integrity in all that we do. This is what our people, our clients and our stakeholders expect and demand.
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While we always strive to do the right thing, we know that no person or organisation is perfect – there is always room for improvement. We need to have the humility to listen, to learn from others, to consult when we are uncertain, and to never put self-interest ahead of what is the right thing to do. And when issues do occur, we will take open and honest accountability for what has happened. So, as we look ahead to FY24, we reinforce our commitment to serving our clients with distinction and providing our people with a world class talent experience, while continuing to recognise that trust is at the heart of our brand and is fundamental to how we should act and carry ourselves every day with our clients, our people and each other.
PwC Australia revenue numbers are expected in a few weeks, last year they saw total revenue of $3.0 billion and growth of 17%. Deloitte was already stealing the consulting crown before PwC’s scandalous behavior came to the surface this year, any real effect from clients severing their relationship with PwC due to the tax scandal and the selling off of PwC’s public sector consulting arm for a measly dollar won’t really show until next year’s figures.
