So again - rumour has it that Deloitte is buying Roland Berger, wondering if it will be for real this timehttp://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/26/us-deloitte-rolandberger-idUSBRE92P07120130326quite interesting that Deloitte is still on it after the "no go" in 2010- and they just bought Monitor as well. My opinion is that Deloitte might turn into a strategy moloch - but without having the caliber and the brand of MBB. Will it pay back on the long run? Maybe yes, if they keep their fees competitiveNot great news for Roland Berger, another prestigious european brand will disappear.What are your thoughts gents

For those within the industry Deloitte S&O has already differentiated itself quite a bit from the other Big 4 / ACN / rest of Deloitte. If they manage to buy berger and retain the people they got from monitor that's plenty of calibre, and they could become strong competition.

The logical progression would be to merge S&O with Monitor, fold in RB if they can get it, then split that off from the rest of Deloitte, effectively a tier 1 sox chemical reaction. It could compete in the Tier 1 and pose a very real threat to MBB as it would have both the people and the scale (which both RB and Monitor lacked to be a real threat). The danger is that they get swallowed then lost in internal wranglings while the Monitor and RB components try to establish their identify/brand/price point within the Deloitte structure, either taking the delineated offering route internally (PRTM or Diamond for example) the gradually suffocate until we all get out (just) aka AT Kearney or perform a sort of coup d'etat (IBM/PwC anyone) and decapitate the Deloitte business with strategists who dont/wont understand the SI model.My worry is that we are heading towards a polarised industry - mega-corporations at one end, boutiques at the other, and the mid-caps which are the lifeblood of the industry are going to go on getting acquired and assimilated.Green Dot? Green Borg.

I have a question. What would these mergers mean for Deloitte Consultants in Strategy regarding promotion chances? Having so many new top tier consultants to compete with would make promotion much harder I guess?

I wouldnt want to be in Deloitte S&O and looking for a promotion if the RB deal goes through. Yes there will be some politics as Deloitte will still want some home grown to rise in the ranks, but those RB partners and Monitor partners will have to sit somewhere, and frankly if you think Deloitte partners are demanding and hard to impress... Flip side is that the embedded Deloitte management wont want to the tail wagging the dog. Expect some attrition, including likely some partner exits while the whole thing settles down, much denser traffic around promotions, but it will depend on where you are in the organisation too. The grades might correlate but reality is that an RB Project Lead is considerably more expensive than a D Manager. It's all too early to say. But I do like a bit of conjecture.

I wouldnt want to be in Deloitte S&O and looking for a promotion if the RB deal goes through. Yes there will be some politics as Deloitte will still want some home grown to rise in the ranks, but those RB partners and Monitor partners will have to sit somewhere, and frankly if you think Deloitte partners are demanding and hard to impress... Flip side is that the embedded Deloitte management wont want to the tail wagging the dog. Expect some attrition, including likely some partner exits while the whole thing settles down, much denser traffic around promotions, but it will depend on where you are in the organisation too. The grades might correlate but reality is that an RB Project Lead is considerably more expensive than a D Manager. It's all too early to say. But I do like a bit of conjecture.

agree with Mars, and not only the partners.. also at lower levels (SC-M-SM), Monitor and RB will have high calibers with top school MBAs and top loans for those MBA's. They cannot afford to have their promotion plans messed up by some green dot small deloitties that were already in the pipeline... Just speculations - but it's gonna be interesting

The Monitor integration will go through first. Montor was/is overly complex, disparate, with lean practice teams so getting Monitor people into the promotional pipeline will be a blending exercise in my view. Getting RB into the promotional pipeline will be a like writing Brighton through an existing piece of rock - at great expense.

Not sure I agree that the logical step would be to merge RB, Monitor, S&O and spin it off. Deloitte have put lots of effort in to growing their SI capability in the last 18 months and are keen to get follow-on work from strategy, in to advisory services and then technology services.By spinning-off strategy but more so Operations, Deloitte risks losing the advantage of being well positioned to implement the technology projects that may come out of its advisory work. There is of course a risk that the perceived lack of independence could damage its reputation for advisory work. But with the current siloed operating model - it may not be a problem in reality...

I have two concerns.The first has to do with companies building up in-house consulting/strategy departments.The second is more pertinent to this thread. In consulting, just like in every company, its structure is that of a pyramid. There are far more ppl at the lower levels than there are those higher up. This is a problem. How will they handle the integration?Done some integration projects. It can be a pain, especially when there is significant overlap, be it product overlap or whatnot.

I heard from a Partners at Roland Berger in Germany that they had been in talks with Ernst & Young recently.Also all recruitment into Roland Berger has been put on hold which says to me something is going on in the background.Ultimately they will sell their business but it'll be interesting to see who buys them.. Deloitte.. EY...

I heard from a Partner at Roland Berger in Germany that they had been in talks with Ernst & Young recently.Also all recruitment into Roland Berger has been put on hold which says to me something is going on in the background.Ultimately they will sell their business but it'll be interesting to see who buys them.. Deloitte.. EY...

My 2 cents:The track record for successful consulting mergers is quite terrible. Plenty of examples of nimble boutiques and mid-sized firms that lost their edge and differentiation once swallowed by a full service provider/Big 4 player.Time will tell if DT can beat the trend and make it work with Monitor and now possibly RB. It will require a big change in culture -- in addition to all the usual merger integration trappings.One major complication (from a list of many) is going to be fostering organic collaboration among partners at the account level and having explicit roles for managing senior client relationships. This is where the rubber hits the road, and other merging firms have failed hard.When the type of work being sold doesn't support the high fee structure it has taken years to build, the downward spiral begins with everything else.

Actually EY makes more sense - EY is basically nothing in the strategy space, an acquisition like rb would be a boost. For Deloitte another acquisition after Monitor would be a hassle.

Any news on that topic?

New twist on this story:http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5527acca-aebf-11e2-bdfd-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2Rq83UUws

More news (but really no news)http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/70f7c7c2-b578-11e2-850d-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2SYAH2FFx

URgh, that site requires registration

- Partner Meeting on Saturday to discuss options- Partners agree to investigate options and meet again in 8 wks- Chief exec steps down for health reasons- Blood is in the water as Big4 Accounting firms are on the hunt- RB is worried about fit

THose partners could make a fortune!

Indeed, they could make a tidy sum (depending on lots of conditions) + it looks like PwC is in the driving seat......