I've ended up here by mistake - my Favourites link used to point to the TC forum, however I see this has become a forum dedicated to PA.Is there anywhere else I can get the useful sort of exchange I used to find on the TC forum before PA become the sole topic of conversation?

you do realise that by starting a new conversation on the subject you're just contributing to even more discussion about PA?

Sadly yes, but I wanted to have a whinge about how my favourite forum has been taken over.I'm sympathetic to what has gone on at PA, (happened to me a few years ago FWIW), but I think as consultants we should be capable of finding constructive/alternative solutions to problems, and I don't see much evidence of that in all the PA discussions.Am I the only one feeling this?

This is an open forum.You are welcome to discuss any firm at any time.Last year, EY and EDS were getting the heat and before that it was IBM and ACN.If you are going to criticise others for being vocal on concerns about their employer, I suggest you go elsewhere.Or could this just be yet another attempt by the sole PA cheerleader to stifle debate?

For so long now I've wanted a forum devoted to PA and now I have found it. I feel so special.

@ Fed Up Couldn't agree more - how about this as an answer. Lets kick off some open debate on a subject that requires some knowledge of content (even if it is a little insular in nature) just so we can get back to shooting the breeze without you-know-what ruining it.I'll kick off on the next thread.....

I'm really hoping that PA bashing will become an Olympic sport by 2012 as it gains popularity, although on that timescale it might out-live PA itself.

Brilliant piece of humour Anon. This is exactly what this forum is for. Ignore the people who keep asking for real content.

and of course EDS is no longer

So let's hope PA disappears too

PA is unlikely to disappear, but they are caught in the nowhere land between a specialist niche firm and the behemoth consulting organisations attached to the big IT / Outsourcing / Audit companies. The result has been that they have been unable to grow by cross selling in the good times, or having a decent revenue stream in the recent hard times.A number of the non-European outsourcing outfits have been looking around the UK consultancy market for some time. With spots of good public sector relationships, it would be an ideal takeover target.

Like Tata? So it would Patata I guess.Could work well in a Spanish environment - potato consulting.

nonsense, if EDS can go, PA can go

EDS didn't "go", they were acquired by HP and the business is now marketed under the HP brand. The only inference to draw is therefore that the PA brand could conceivably disappear if they were acquired by a global brand who wanted to go to market under their own brand rather than PA's...

Coffee - you were right. Look what has happened. Some people just can't get a hint..

"the PA brand could conceivably disappear if they were acquired by a global brand who wanted to go to market under their own brand rather than PA's"...and that would be the first step to preserve the acquirer's shareholder value in any acquisition of PA.

The PA brand is not a strong one. They have a series of high profile consulting c@ck ups to their name... missing memory sticks, screwed up baggage handling at T5, and lean bananas to name but a few.There probably are a few good people in PA - but honestly how marketable and current are their skills if they have been working on public sector projects that have ended in disaster?

They were also responsible for the Challenger shuttle disaster, the assassination of JFK and the credit crunch!PA had chuff all to do with the baggage handling issues at T5.

@ mack Complete twaddle. PA's intranet's main story on the morning that T5 opened was all about how wonderful the opening had gone.It was pulled within the hour.PA consulting had been running the initial phases of the Heathrow Transfer Baggage Project with BAA since the mid-90s, and have been entwined with T5 since then.

Don't forget as well how the T5 story on the intranet mysteriously changed tack once the news broke.The initial story crowed about the Partner who led the project, and then once everything went disastrously -- and so very publicly -- wrong, another story appeared that focused instead on the poor woman in Germany (?) who was being made the scapegoat for the failed "lean" processes. Interestingly the Partner was no longer mentioned!I would have another look to confirm the names in question but of course they'd no doubt spot me searching the intranet for the T5 story and discipline me :-)

Is the partner still there though?

Ben Elton's brother? Yep, he's still there. King of the Blogs as he is now known.