Bain & Company 18% of opendoor, 50% of Twitter, 14% of stripe and 13% of Lyft all in 24 hours. In addition, Apple & Amazon have announced hiring freezes. Wondering what the sentiment is in consulting now. Anyone seeing potential layoffs or hiring freezes at their firms? EY Deloitte Accenture PwC McKinsey & Company Boston Consulting Group Bain & Company ZS Associates Oliver Wyman KPMG
We have more work than we can staff for
Pro
Our team also has more work than we can staff for, but it’s a pretty unique position to be in right now.
Rising Star
Fundamental differences between tech and consulting to the point that it's not even really logical to compare them.
Tech hires to create demand; it's all about growing the top line. Consulting hires to match expected demand and usually does it in a conservative way (meaning periods of high growth mean people get stretched thin); it's about growing top line but in a way that margin isn't impacted.
Rising Star
You really see this when you create pricing plans on proposals. They really emphasize having the least amount of employees they can lol
Twitter layoffs are due to a man named Elon
Twitter grew the company fast and well beyond practicality for the product it produces and the revenue it brings in.
Chief
Tech=/=consulting, for the most part consulting firms are private partnerships that don't have the same responsibility towards shareholders that the tech companies you mentioned do
@OP - the industry you service will likely be a bigger factor on how you’re impacted vs the function you consult in. For example, large ERP implementations in tech consulting tend to have fewer work stoppages during downturns given they’re difficult to pause. But if your clients are in the technology sector (eg Microsoft, Amazon, etc), then you may be impacted more.
We’re not hearing anything layoff related at EY, but that could change if our revenue against plan starts to slip dramatically. It’s all TBD at the moment.
I don't think Twitter layoffs are as a result of recession...
I think other tech layoffs might not even be recession based. They see that twitter’s cutting and increasing bottom line and investors are realizing that the bloat is unnecessary. It’s expected now that other big tech firms cut and start to act like the cash cows they are rather than fast growth startups (which they haven’t been for the last 5 years)
Consultants recommended the layoffs so consultants can pickup the work 😂
Very true!
Rising Star
Large consultancies are the most resilient to downturns. Strategy, transactions, marketing, and revenue side services typically are the first to trim. Operations, cost cutting, and technology implementations are usually more safe. Private partnerships are more resilient to swings than public. Boutiques and smaller firms which don’t have the diversification of sectors or services have significantly more risk.
No matter where you are, stay chargeable and you’re 99% safe.
No worries on layoffs at EY - understaffed in many disciplines.
Rising Star
EYP is underutilized. Assurance is always losing people, they only have Staff or Senior Managers so that’s why they’re constantly hiring.
Pro
Fortunately we actually make a profit
Consultants get a ton of work during this time. Not fun work (delayering / reorg stuff). But the cash will roll in.
Depends what industries your clients are in too
PwC is hiring. Just interviewed someone yesterday and have 2 more scheduled for tomorrow. Tech Strategy work.
And me
My group at ZS is still growing too much and we are all working at like 150% capacity and still hiring aggressively. This is an area of healthcare greatly changed by the past 2 years. Absolutely cannot keep up.
ZS2, one of our venture spaces
Old guy here - this is not unusual. Look at 2007- 2008 or the dot.com bust. With any move towards a more normal economy and towards a possible recession, the high flying tech companies (many of whom weren't making money to cover the kind of ridiculous hiring they have done in crazy growth times) are the first to drop people. This is a normal part of the cycle and nothing to worry about.
Agreed, they ballooned in 2021 and didn’t properly account for the fact that the growth would not be constant.
@alixpartners is hiring! DM me if interested in joining an amazing, growing firm with strong commitment to its people.
Messaged you!
I wouldn’t be surprised if our firms are the ones advising some of these companies to reduce their headcount. Most of them are bloated and overstaffed.
McK is in a hiring freeze (at least for experienced hires) (source: recruiter that keeps telling me to hold on submitting until 2023 hiring starts)
Middle East is definitely not in a hiring freeze…
We have had layoffs, bench is pretty big and anticipate rest of this year to be slow.
Our practice still has open Reqs., and the sales pipeline is still strong. I expect the conversion % to go down some, but I don’t think there will be layoffs
Hiring slowed due to over hiring in the first half of the year, but still happening. No layoffs in sight and no hiring freezes.