The photo was taken from the Reuters publication. Nfi, what symbolizes these lusty pigeons over the KPMG office in South Africa, but probably something, according to Reuters.

In absolute numbers, it sounds bigger: they say they will lay off 1,400 rowers out of about 44,000. A month ago, the company announced that it would most likely lay off 1,400 to 2,000 people, and so they have begun to lay off.

This is not just a release, by the way, it has a name — Project Magnolia. McKinsey copywriters say that this is a very powerful project that will raise the company from its knees. The copywriters do not disclose the details of this mysterious project.

McKinsey is the fanciest firm of the big three consulting firms (Boston Consulting Group and Bain) in terms of annual turnover and the number of rowers. And so far, only they have announced the layoff.

The Big Four are still holding on. Only KPMG informed a month and a half ago about the layoff of 3–4% of rowers (that’s about 1,400 people) from taxation, audit, and consulting practices.

As evidenced by the last two crises, consulting offices react more quickly to such cataclysms: they fire all underperformers almost instantly. Law firms are either not so developed in terms of management, or they are more focused on their people, but they usually fire when all the Big Four companies have settled down.

Dima Gadomsky