Consulting Firms Ranking

You think McKinsey is the best management consulting world in the world? Think again.

McKinsey might be the most prestigious and the most well-known in the sphere of strategy consulting, there are so many companies in this sphere that if we rank all the firms by different categories, other firms might come up on top. So in this article, we ranked consulting firms by three categories to give you a more holistic perspective on which consulting firms are the best in the world. These ranking categories are by revenue and size, by prestige and by Fortune’s “Best Company To Work For” in terms of culture and work life balance.

Ranking By Annual Revenue

Source: Corporate website and Forbes                                           Note: Revenue is consulting or advisory revenue.

Even though McKinsey might be the most well-known management consulting firm in the world, it is definitely not the most revenue generating. Global conglomerates such as Accenture and consulting branches of the big four, Deloitte, PWC, KPMG and Ernst and Young all trump McKinsey’s consulting services by revenue and by number of global offices. Interesting thing to note that although these bigger firms generate more revenue than McKinsey, its number of offices needed to generate those revenues are significantly more, meaning that McKinsey actually generates a higher revenue per office, most mostly probably because of the amount of money it charges per client or per service.

Ranking by Prestige

Source : Vault and Statista

Both by vault and by statista, the big three or MBB stands out in terms of its prestige. From an individual standpoint, as an entry level analyst or consultant entering a consulting firm, ranking by prestige would probably be the best criteria that you can look at because the more prestigious a firm is, the more selective it is for its employees and the more opportunities you have coming out of the firm in your later careers.

Ranking by Fortune’s Best Firms to Work For

Source: Fortune

Although MBB and other consulting firms might be very prestigious to work for, they actually might not be the best firms to work for. According to Fortune’s list of best firms to work for, which is ranked by work life balance, company culture and employee satisfaction, it gives us a new perspective on which firms are the best. Interestingly enough, both McKinsey and Bain are unranked on the Fortune’s list while BCG stands strong in both prestige and company culture.

Conslusion: There are many criteria to rank consulting firms. If you are an individual who is very career driven and wants prestige to drive your career forward, then McKinsey BCG and Bain probably are the best choices. If you want the best work life balance and employee satisfaction, perhaps BCG is the best, based on Fortune’s ranking.

But regardless of ranking, going with any of the top consulting firms will set you up for success in your career later on.