What are the thoughts on Deloitte buying monitor strat biz? Where does this place them in the market? What does this mean for market

It's yet more consolidation from the Big 4 - this has already been played out with PRTM, Diamond etc the list is fairly extensive. Deloitte have bought themselves a ticket into strategy - first to get there but at what price? Monitor always was an over-complex, idiosyncratic business and I dont see yet how they will make the most of this. Spin out strat/ops from Deloitte with Monitor into a separate entity would be the best option perhaps, a sort of Monitor at Deloitte option. In any event Deloitte would probably want to maintain the brand like PwC have with PRTM and Diamond - and maybe learn from the difficulties they had in integrating a premium priced bespoke consulting offering into the more commoditised service lines at Deloitte. Expect some serious attrition from Monitor in the coming months.

Keep in mind that Deloitte came within a gnat's whisker of buying Roland Berger Strategy Consultants within the last 18 months. It was so close to happening that it appeared in mainstream media as a done deal. Then fell through at the final RB vote if memory serves correctly. So acquiring a reputable strategy brand is part of a thought-out long term strategy - not the knee-jerk distressed acquisition opportunity that Monitor has been presented as in some quarters, but something that had been in the planning stages at Deloitte for some time.It's quite right to say that retention issues (both client and staff) come into play when a deal like this happens, but having had its senior management working on post-acquisition strategy for some time I suspect the Deloitte deal stands a better chance than most to be well executed and successful. I may of course have to eat my words, but that's my take on the situation...Tony RestellFounder, [url]http://www.Top-Consultant.com[/url] and [url]http://www.Social-Hire.com[/url]

Good points Tony but RB is very strong in key areas for Deloitte such as ops and restructuring, and internally is a cohesive, well structured organisation - it would have, for the most part, been plug and play for Deloitte. Monitor is a very different proposition in my humble opinion.

Oh man, I just googled monitor associates (now there's a name from the past!) and found [url]http://www.monitorassociate.com/[/url] which has the funkiest music of any website i've ever come across!It's great, I love a website with a bit of pizzaz!

At the 30k feet level, it illustrates just how challenging the environment is at the moment.There will be more consolidation. From where I stand, clients are not willing to pay £x for an x-page slide deck. Pure strategy play will not cut it.

[quote]Oh man, I just googled monitor associates (now there's a name from the past!) and found [url]http://www.monitorassociate.com/[/url] which has the funkiest music of any website i've ever come across!It's great, I love a website with a bit of pizzaz![/quote]Don't be hatin' just cos your corporate website doesn't have bitchin' rollover animations.

What do a green dot, a monitor and a burger all have in common?http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/03/26/us-deloitte-rolandberger-idUKBRE92P07120130326