When former Qantas chief executive John Menadue and his deputy Peter Stainlay were struggling to create one of the earliest airline reward programs in 1987, they had an even bigger headache to deal with.

The artificial intelligence revolution is giving chief executives the tools to end the decades of innovation suffocation caused by the dependency on tech consulting firms and software vendors.

A consultant’s search for good nutrition opened a Pandora’s box of snake oil salesmen and crackpot solutions. It also provided clues to the surging levels of chronic disease crippling the health system.

Three of the big four consulting firms, which collectively employ more than 20,000 professionals, have confirmed they have no plans to cut staff after Prime Minister Scott Morrison called for businesses to “hold onto your people” even if there is a downturn due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The consulting market may be booming but clients are also becoming more sophisticated thanks to the availability of independent consultants and easier access to once-secret methods, data and case studies.

That's the view of David Moloney, the head of online consulting platform Internal Consulting Group, who added that demand for independent consultants who were ex-partners of branded firms was particularly high.

Banks may spend a fortune on compliance but often avoid asking staff the hard questions about ethical behaviour because it may reveal problems they are unprepared to resolve.

Financial institutions should focus on improving customer outcomes and reforming their cultures, while preparing for "more engaged" regulators in the wake of the final banking royal commission report, veteran consultants say.

Elite strategy consulting houses McKinsey, the Boston Consulting Group and Bain all recommend that companies adopt a staged plan for getting through the COVID 19 downturn.

A global shortage of professionals has become the main constraint on growth at the major consulting firms, according to the global head of Kearney

A start-up that provides the equivalent of a vetted eBay for consulting work is winning projects away from established consultants as clients embrace new ways of hiring external experts.

Internal Consulting Group (ICG) counts amongst its clients major listed banks and financial institutions and state government departments.

Bank consultants have a chance to test their advice on how to deal with increasing competition, writes Tony Boyd.

After years spent advising banks on how to respond to increased competition, management consultants servicing the banking industry are facing a rise in competitive pressures.

In the past few weeks Mercer Oliver Wyman, a New York-based consulting firm specialising in banks, has opened a permanent office in Sydney, headed by David Moloney.

When the British government last year proposed laws to cap the number of calories in a pizza at just under 1000 as a way of fighting the long-term costs to society of obesity, it resonated strongly with behavioural economists.

An Australian invention that makes it easier to rapidly match specialist professional skills with the demands of large organisations could transform the global consulting and contracting market.

The patented technology, called Industrialised Adhocracy (IA), not only threatens incumbent management consultants, ­professional firms of all persuasions and head hunters, it could blow a hole in the growth trajectory of online networking site LinkedIn.

There are two schools of thought about EY’s move to split off its consulting business and list it on a stock exchange or sell it.

The first one is that the separation of the audit business and the sale of the consulting business is about satisfying the greed of the 13,000 partners who control the firm.