Latest news with #consultingfirms
Bloomberg
14-07-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Saudi Arabia Reviews Gigantic City at Neom Called The Line
Saudi Arabia has asked consulting firms to conduct a strategic review of its ambitious plans for building a futuristic city known as The Line, according to several people familiar with the matter, as the kingdom assesses priorities for its project-related expenditures. A unit of the sovereign wealth fund is asking the firms to review whether current plans for The Line - which is planned to be a 170-kilometer (105-mile) long car-free city that's part of Saudi Arabia's Neom development project - are feasible and to suggest possible changes, said the people, who asked not to be named discussing private matters.
Mail & Guardian
03-07-2025
- Business
- Mail & Guardian
Consulting companies are profiting off the climate crisis — report
Major consulting companies and some of the big accounting firms in South Africa are cashing in on the climate crisis, a new report has revealed. Major consulting companies and some of the big accounting firms in South Africa are cashing in on the climate crisis, despite conflicts of interest, and a lack of expertise and ambition, undermining South Africa's The investigation highlighted that management consultants and institutions linked to donor countries are receiving the lion's share of the grant funding meant for South Africa's just energy transition projects. The international financial pledge towards South Africa's shift from coal to cleaner sources of energy — while ensuring that coal-dependent communities and workers are not left behind — is $12.8 billion and $2.8 billion of pledged funds has actually been committed to projects, according to Open Secrets. A total of $100 billion is said to be needed for the country's just transition. 'Much of the grant funds are caught in a circular process that sees little money arriving on the ground in South Africa,' the report states. 'Instead, it 'passes through' South Africa only to again make its way into the hands of international platers. Where it is paid to South African entities, many of them are private consultants working for international firms.' The findings show that 65% of the committed grant funds have gone to private corporations and organisations as implementing entities and less than 25% of the grant monies have gone to local implementing entities, including non-governmental organisations, public sector institutions and universities, lead investigator Zen Mathe said. 'We have also found that often there is a direct link where the money comes from — so the donor country — and where the money goes, so the implementing entity and, as a result, consulting firms, are playing a fundamental role in shaping South Africa's response to the climate and energy crisis,' Mathe told a forum on the report. 'It's concerning that private consultants have been given this opportunity to corner the market for advice on the climate crisis and a just transition, with little to no scrutiny.' The report shows that most management consultancies have made fortunes by servicing the interests of fossil fuel companies and some of the world's largest polluters. These companies' climate advice also 'routinely lacks the ambition required to push for the systemic change that the climate crisis demands'. The report questions whether these firms have the necessary skills and expertise to do the work they are contracted to do. The use of consultancy firms to guide policies on the just transition undermines the expertise and capacity within the state and is a risk to democracy, it claims. 'The undermining of state capacity and capture of the policy space by corporate interests closely tied to fossil fuel interests are risks to the democratic process. Where the voices and interests of the public are sidelined, the risk is heightened.' It added that a lot of these discussions were happening behind closed doors, with little transparency. The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has been named as one of the major firms benefiting from the climate crisis, alongside McKinsey & Company and Bain, which were also implicated during an investigation into state capture in South Africa. 'BCG has positioned itself as a leader on climate-related consulting around the world and cemented itself as a key partner in South Africa's energy space,' the Open Secrets report states. This is despite having ties with petrostate Saudi Arabia and companies known to be major polluters, including Saudi Aramco, Shell and ExxonMobil, as well as being a consultant for Sasol — one of the world's worst polluters. 'Despite BCG's clear conflicts of interest, it has continued to play a key part in global climate negotiations,' the report states. The consultancy was a partner at the 26th UN climate change conference (COP26) and also played a role at COP27, before it was chosen as the 'principal strategy and action partner' for COP28 in 2023, which was held in the United Arab Emirates. According to the report, a record number of fossil fuel lobbyists — 2 456 — were present at the conference that year. 'BCG's partnerships and choice in clients, who are amongst some of the top polluters in the world, has called into question its role as a strategic partner for the last three global climate conferences,' Open Secrets said. 'If the aim is really to pursue the transition to a low-carbon economy, it should surely be of concern that a firm that applauds fossil fuel companies for supposed 'innovation' — all while those companies double down on models incompatible with addressing climate change — should play any lead role in the most important global negotiations to tackle climate change.' The report said from 2019 to 2021, BCG took on over 750 climate-related projects for over 300 clients and it made around $1.1 billion from climate consulting in 2021, which could account for almost a third of its sales by 2027. In response to questions from Open Secrets about its work on South Africa's just energy transition, BCG said: 'As is already a matter of public record, our various efforts with multi-stakeholder coalitions (e.g. NBI [National Business Initiative], Busa [Business Unity South Africa], The Energy Council of South Africa) have involved many contributors from many different organisations as part of transparent consultation processes, with BCG providing analytical and technical modelling support. 'We are proud of our contribution to South Africa's JET,' it added. Sasol confirmed that it takes consultation from BCG and various other firms on its projects, adding: 'We do not publicly disclose the specifics of all our consulting engagements or their ongoing status.' McKinsey & Company told Open Secrets that it has been open about its work with fossil fuel clients and 'hard-to-abate sectors and see no contradiction with our commitment to the energy transition … 'We are proud to work with clients in all of these sectors — including in oil and gas.' The big four accounting firms, EY, Deloitte, KPMG and PwC, have punted climate-related and environmental social and governance projects, but only two, Deloitte and PwC, are currently working on just transition-related projects and benefiting from the grants portion of just energy transition project funds, according to the report. These two firms have also been In July 2024, 'just transition' was officially defined under the Climate Change Act as 'a shift towards a low-carbon, climate resilient economy and society and ecologically sustainable economies and societies which contribute towards the creation of decent work for all, social inclusion and the eradication of poverty.' The implementation and interpretation of the Act requires decision-making that considers the needs of the most vulnerable, head of legal at Open Secrets Ariella Scher said. 'It's from that perspective that this report demonstrates that that doesn't seem to be what's happening. What is happening is that the most powerful, and those who have always been in charge of our economies, are just continuing to benefit,' Scher said. The authors recommended that money for the just energy transition be funnelled to the South African state, not only to private sector institutions, and should be in compliance with the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA). Additionally, the funds must be monitored and recorded in a publicly accessible repository and 'spent in a manner that is determined by the South African state itself', said Mathe. 'This allows for financial oversight, but also really importantly, democratic oversight because it subjects the spending of state monies to financial audits parliamentary oversight and so we have greater accountability, if we're following what the PFMA says,' Scher added. Open Secrets is also calling for more regulation. 'There must be public debate about how we hold these unelected private technocrats to account. We must critically consider the impact on South Africa's pursuit of an energy transition that is just and benefits the most vulnerable in our society and those that are most immediately affected in our society,' said Mathe
Bloomberg
26-06-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Trump Administration to Review Contracts With Consulting Firms
The Trump administration is asking consulting firms to justify their federal contracts as part of far-reaching efforts to reduce waste in federal spending, according to a letter obtained by Bloomberg News. The US General Services Administration said in a letter dated Thursday that it is soliciting information from the firms about their contracts to help 'critically evaluate which engagements deliver genuine value and demonstrable returns to the American taxpayer, and therefore merit external support, and which should be internalized to ensure we are responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars and avoid unnecessary spending.'
Fast Company
23-06-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
Why the big consulting firms are bad for healthcare
The healthcare industry has many ills. The payer-provider disconnect creates confusion, limits access, and exacerbates inefficiencies. Doctor and nurse burnout has led to widespread staffing shortages. This is compounded by aging infrastructure, outdated regulation, fragmented care delivery, and overly-complicated legacy systems. The list goes on. But there is a particular cancer that we could eliminate tomorrow: big consulting firms. Every year, American healthcare systems spend hundreds of millions of dollars on consulting firms that deliver PDFs instead of solutions. While patients suffer and clinicians burn out, these legacy firms collect their checks and move on—leaving implementation challenges to healthcare institutions they've diagnosed but failed to treat. Proponents of the 'Big Five' consulting model would argue that sclerotic institutions need an untainted outsider to parachute in. Someone who isn't married to the nuances of an existing system. But theorizing is easy to do when you're not tethered to the results. In healthcare, it's not just financial results the consultants are off the hook for, it's people's lives. What do providers get with a legacy consulting firm? Well, a sizable stack of documents. With massive fees to match. While a 300-page PDF may impress at first blush, it won't lead to actionable, sustainable solutions. It certainly won't allow the health system to rapidly test and refine new models of care delivery, proving which ideas do and don't work in practice. Time pressure and fitting solutions in boxes At Cactus, the design firm I cofounded, one of our clients was let go from a major health system as part of a big consulting cost-cutting round. He had been working to reduce staffing shortages and developed a novel method for care teams to work together more efficiently, freeing up precious time for overworked nurses. Despite having proven results, he was let go because the consultants couldn't fit his already-implemented, already-proven solution into their model. He has now founded a business to sell that same method to health systems as a SaaS business. Traditional consulting firms also worsen a key challenge in healthcare: time pressure. Most health systems plan year-to-year based on government reimbursements. With revenue cycles already complex, consultants often default to short-term cost cutting—an easier sell than long-term change. The result? Innovation stalls, patient experience suffers, and the cycle repeats. If it's so difficult, why not just leave healthcare alone? Because clearly, patients want better services. And by and large, those closest to the patient aren't the problem. There is an abundance of clinical excellence in the United States but this doesn't always translate to the best outcomes or patient experiences. The disconnect lies in how we approach system-level change. While working with a leading cancer center, my team found a big pain point for doctors: low compliance—in other words patients weren't following instructions. Research revealed that while treatment plans (housed in large binders) were technically sound, they weren't tailored to patients. As a result, patients would 'underperform.' We found that clearer communication, organized around actionable items and digestible content, could drive meaningful improvement. This 'user experience–first' investigation, which centered on the needs of both doctors (frustrated by low compliance) and patients (overwhelmed by information), is rarely prioritized in traditional consulting models but is core to a more modern, design-led approach. The house renovation problem Imagine you're renovating a Victorian mansion with a funky layout. The big consulting approach would be to tell the construction team to spend the allotted budget on turning the largest bedroom into two bedrooms, thereby increasing the home value. Maybe they'd advise a fresh coat of light grey paint, chosen to be least likely to offend potential buyers. But what if the person buying the home doesn't have people to fill those bedrooms? What if they would be happier with a bolder color? What if in the process of splitting the bedroom, the floorboards are found to have mold? Well, the suit-clad consultants are already gone. You're on your own, kid. Now imagine a design-led approach. In this scenario, the firm leading strategy is also the one implementing the changes. They spend the budget shifting the plumbing, dealing with mold issues as they arise. They don't add another bedroom because it's not needed, even if it would theoretically increase value. They try out a few paint swatches and see market appetite for bolder colors. Buyers are happier—they're willing to pay more! Everyone wins. From slide decks to solutions Apply this rubric to healthcare. A design-led approach can balance strategic and business goals with the realities of user experience and complexities of implementation. Consultants that also build can pilot innovations faster, see results faster, reducing overall risk and cost. This type of team can rapidly experiment and improve in a virtuous cycle like the best startups do. Design-led consulting firms that implement their own changes also have a higher stake in outcomes. They create working prototypes before prescribing final solutions. They iterate based on real-world feedback. This way mistakes are found fast and plans are adjusted before scaling, saving cost and allowing faster and more thorough implementation. A call to healthcare leaders To healthcare leaders, I ask: What could you ship in the next 90 days with a design-led approach? What might still be sitting in a binder three years from now with traditional consulting? If the answer is something that could change people's lives, and I suspect it is, it might be time to ditch the big guys. Design-led firms offer a fundamentally different relationship: partners who share your risk, commit to real-world results, and aren't afraid to get their hands dirty implementing solutions. They bring technical talent alongside strategic thinking. They work in weeks, not quarters. Most importantly, they are judged by what they build, not what they recommend. The question isn't whether you can afford this approach. The question is whether you can afford not to try it. Because while big consulting firms continue collecting their checks for delivering their slide decks, your patients and workforce are waiting for something better. They deserve it. And with the right partners, you can finally deliver it.
