Why Big 4 Consultancies Deliver Compliance Advice Instead of Compliant Systems

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Typical rate premium of Big 4 consultancy staff over specialist engineering firm for the same technical deliverable

The Big 4 model is optimised for producing advisory output â€” assessments, gap analyses, roadmaps, and programme management offices. It is not optimised for delivering running software. The incentive structure, staffing economics, and knowledge transfer mechanisms that make the Big 4 excellent at policy and governance work make them structurally unsuited to engineering delivery. CTOs who understand the difference get value from both. CTOs who conflate them end up with a compliance programme that exists entirely in PowerPoint.

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