How to compare consulting firms and which one is the best?
- Alessandro & Gabor
- Dec 23, 2021
- 4 min read
We have been lucky to deliver workshop series and one-off guest lectures at leading universities in Europe. After the end of the ~90-minute sessions we tend to stay for a while to engage with students and answer questions. One of the most frequently debated topic is about choosing the right consulting firms. We endeavor to use this article to answer this question and reflect our viewpoint. It is worth starting with the major consulting firms.
McKinsey & Co, Boston Consulting Group, Bain & Co
The triumvirate of McKinsey, BCG and Bain (also known as MBB, or Tier 1 consulting firms) is considered the pinnacle of consulting. As a consultant, you will work on the No. 1 strategic initiatives of your clients, normally, in an international setting. Typically, you will have 1-3 months to deliver high-impact work. This alludes that the working hours can average 60-80 hours per week, but you should expect a better compensation package compared to other consulting firms.
As a side note, we noticed that MBB is shifting its focus. While it is still famous for its short, high-impact strategic projects, each MBB firm is building its service line to offer some implementation services. Although implementation projects offer lower potential revenue / consultant / day, it is such a low-hanging fruit. Why would they leave cash at their client, if they can keep going and implement the strategy they formulated as a next phase of their engagement?
Tier 2 consulting firms
Tier 2 refers to smaller sized strategy consulting firms, such as Roland Berger, Oliver Wyman, or Big 4 companies' entities focusing on strategy (e.g. Monitor Deloitte, or PWC's Strategy&). These companies tend to operate more locally and address smaller-scale strategy formulation projects. While work-life balance will be challenging if you choose these companies, you should expect a tad of longer projects and more free-time.
There is a misconception of considering Tier 2 firms "worse" than Tier 1, or better than some of the boutique consulting companies. It is worth emphasizing that it highly depends on the market. In some countries (or industries), Tier 2 companies are directly competing with Mckinsey, BCG and Bain, especially if they have a niche specialization. However, in typically smaller countries Tier 2 companies are struggling with building their presence and are losing work to smaller advisors with tailored service offerings.
Implementation consulting
Developing a high-level strategy is only one side of the coin. Client firms will need to implement them to realize the desired strategic objectives. Since this oftentimes require capabilities, or resources at scale that a clients do not necessarily possess, there are some consulting firms specialized on executing the formulated strategy, or guiding their clients through it. If you want to become an implementation consultant, you will need to develop a more detailed understanding of your clients' business and their underlying routines and processes. You will be engaged with your clients for a longer duration, typically around 4-8 months / project phase, while a project will have 2-4 phases on average. Although it will not be a 9-5 job, you should expect better work-life balance. Normally, you will work around 45-50 hours a week, peaking at 65 hours depending on phase and committed deadlines.

Your career path in consulting
Career development is one of the most critical factors you should consider during selecting the companies you want to apply to. Luckily, the grades are quite similar across the firms with similar responsibilities. You will typically start your journey as an analyst / junior associate / junior consultant. Performing a wide spectrum of research, cleansing data, modelling, creating presentations and writing memos will constitute your average day. If you demonstrate a work of high quality, you will get more and more responsibilities over time, which include owning a specific part of the strategy, coordinating the work of junior colleagues, and being in contact with some client stakeholders. By the time you become a manager, or team leader, you will be able to lead complex projects, delegate work to your junior and senior consultants and engage with senior client stakeholders.
Although the above career path is more or less the same for every consulting firm, we have found to specificities:
Up-or-Out Policy: You have probably heard the phrase, which refers to the fact that you will either climb the career ladder and move up, or you will find yourself out of the company. This is mainly applied by McKinsey, BCG and Bain. You will have 1.5-2 years to prove that you are capable of operating at the next level. Although it seems tough at first glance, it has its advantage as 1) you have certainty around the pace of your career development; and 2) you will be less dependent on the overall performance of the firm or your team
Consultant vs Specialist Track: Deloitte applies a unique, dual career track, which satisfies the needs of both consultants and Subject Matter Experts. If you choose to become a generalist, time will come when you will need to manage projects including their financials, schedule and resources. Since this is not attractive for experts (or they just did not meet the KPIs for promotion), many of them either stuck on senior consultant grade, or failed as managers and were asked to leave the firm. The specialist track and the specialist lead grade (which replaced manager grade) gives experts the opportunity to deepen their knowledge in their respective fields and progress in their career

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