I overheard some people on the tube talking about BAS closing???!? Can anyone comment on this??

One of my friends that works in thier BT practice says that people are getting ants in thier pants - if they are not closing expect attrition: its ironic the same people that left accenture and ibm are now leaving again? Were will they go?!

Yes, it must be true. I heard it from my hairdresser as well.

VI, With all due respect, youre taking the p$ss out of two perfectly valid arguments. In my years as a mc, the most reliable information and news has come from friends across the industry and chit chat - not from consulting mag. Im sure its the same were you are: we even came to here about Blackstone's purchase of Atos weeks ahead of the press release, thanks to the chinese whisper. I've read youre posts and you seem to give balanced answers; thus why the shortcoming this time - have some conflict of interest perhaps?

I'm new to the world of consulting so apologies in advance for my ignorance. Is this EY's BAS??? I thought they had only just begun to rebuild their consulting practice and are advertising quite heavily to expand.

Both BAS & FS have struggled to get the sort of business volumes they need to sustain their growth rate. BAS' rapid expansion, particularly in the finance arena under a former IBM partner, has also meant that the paternalistic culture of EY came into stark contrast with the tough numbers driven focus of Accenture or IBM. We have some really wonderful leaders in BAS, but some really awful ones too.I think we have become a victim of too much, too soon, and some sort of clear out is required. Utilisation was so poor last year that they even gave us all 4 extra days holiday, to help bolster the year end figures.The jungle drums say that the situation is similar in FS too...

I take most of what I read on this board with a grain of salt. But in my experience, consultancies as big as BAS don't just "close" in a whim, particularly when the source is as unreliable as "overheard on the tube".I honestly don't know whether BAS are struggling to hit their numbers or whether they're flying high -- but I do know that they're still advertising and recruiting, whcih seems odd for a group that's "closing".Everyone can draw their own judgements, but this sounds an awful lot like "unsubstantiated rumour" to me.

How much do they pay grads?

John, they gave four days off to the entire UK firm. Are you suggesting that they took a revenue hit across nearly 8,500 people to make the utilisation numbers look better for a couple hundred people in BAS?Isn't it more likely that Mark Otty was being truthful when he awarded the days to celebrate our success?

I've also heard that BAS are letting people go, whilst continuing their recruitment. I honestly doubt that it will close though.At my own firm, we've started to see a small number of BAS CV's (primarily ex-industry and from the big SI companies like ACN and IBM) coming through, which was something we haven't seen before.I've often though that BAS was a very big gamble to join - seems like it hasn't worked out as well as the audit firm might have hoped ...

The gospel according to Mark Otty:http://www.standrewsoxshott.org.uk/moredetails/events.html

Considering the results of the recent people survey where there was an 85% satisfaction rate and the overall growth rate of the firm (highest of Big 4 at 19.6%) think can safely say NOT closing and in fact doing very well

In Nazi propaganda, Goebel once said " shout a lie strong and long enough, and people will start to believe you."Keep shouting M$L.

Not true - the people I know there are working on interesting projects with big clients. BAS are still recruiting.I guess your Tube travellers were ill informed.

Much like IBM when their decline started - they were also hiring and spouting statistics about how happy staff were, and where are these IBM'ers now ??You've guessed it folks - EY BAS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Have fun !!!!