The Big Three or MBB is the name colloquially given to the three large strategy consulting firms. They are considered to be the most prestigious firms in the management consulting industry. [1] In terms of employees, McKinsey & Company is the largest and leads by revenue. McKinsey is followed by Boston Consulting Group and Bain & Company, respectively.
The three consulting firms widely regarded as constituting the Big Three or MBB are McKinsey & Company, Boston Consulting Group, and Bain & Company.
These three firms are among the world's largest strategy consulting firms by revenue. Their latest publicly available data is summarized in the table below: [2]
| Firm | Employees (year) | Revenue (year) | Revenue per Employee | Locations (cities) | Headquarters |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| McKinsey & Company | 45,000 (2023) [3] | $16 B (2023) [4] | $355 K | 133 [5] | New York [5] |
| Boston Consulting Group | 30,000 (2022) [6] | $12.3 B (2023) [7] | $440 K | 100+ [8] | Boston |
| Bain & Company | 15,000 (2022) [9] | $5.8 B (2021) [10] | $387 K | 65 [11] | Boston |
This firm was founded in Chicago by James O. McKinsey in 1926. The firm has grown significantly since then, establishing 104 offices located in 60 countries as of 2014. [12] McKinsey & Company has been voted number one in "The Best Consulting Firms: Prestige" list of the Vault.com career intelligence website consecutively for 14 years since 2002. [13] [14] The firm currently serves two-thirds of the Fortune 1000. Their areas of expertise include management, organization, operations and IT. [15]
BCG was founded in 1963 by Bruce D. Henderson, a former Arthur D. Little consultant and a Vanderbilt University and Harvard Business School alumnus. [16] Starting out with only two consultants, the firm quickly grew. As of 2021, it employs 25,000 people in over 90 offices in more than 50 countries. [17] [18] BCG also has been consistently featured in Consulting magazine's "Best Firms to Work For" lists since 2001. [19] Their areas of expertise include corporate development, business growth and innovation. [20]
Bain was founded by Bill Bain in 1973 after leaving BCG. The firm pioneered private equity consulting and the fund Bain Capital was founded by partners from Bain & Company and led by Mitt Romney. It currently has 65 offices in 40 countries. [21] Their areas of expertise include private equity, mergers and acquisitions and retail. [22] Bridgespan, a non-profit consultancy, was spun out of Bain in the early 2000s by three former Bain employees. [23] The firm has been ranked multiple times as one of the "Best Places to Work" by Glassdoor, and has placed in the top five for the last decade. [24]
Management consulting is the practice of providing consulting services to organizations to improve their performance or in any way to assist in achieving organizational objectives. Organizations may draw upon the services of management consultants for a number of reasons, including gaining external advice and accessing consultants' specialized expertise regarding concerns that call for additional oversight.
A consultant is a professional who provides advice or services in an area of specialization. Consulting services generally fall under the domain of professional services, as contingent work.
McKinsey & Company is an American multinational strategy and management consulting firm that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. Founded in 1926 by James O. McKinsey, McKinsey is the oldest and largest of the "Big Three" management consultancies (MBB). The firm mainly focuses on the finances and operations of their clients.
Bruce Doolin Henderson was an American businessman and management expert. He founded Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in 1963 in Boston, Massachusetts and headed the firm as the president and CEO until 1980. He continued as chairman of BCG until 1985.
A consulting firm or simply consultancy is a professional service firm that provides expertise and specialised labour for a fee, through the use of consultants. Consulting firms may have one employee or thousands; they may consult in a broad range of domains, for example, management, engineering, and so on.
Kearney is an American global management consulting firm with offices in more than 40 countries worldwide. Kearney's predecessor firm was founded in Chicago by James O. McKinsey in 1926; he hired Andrew Thomas "Tom" Kearney as his first partner in 1929. After James McKinsey died in 1937, the Chicago office split into its own company, led by Tom Kearney and called McKinsey, A.T. Kearney, and Company. In 1947, it was renamed A.T. Kearney and Company.
A media consultant is a marketing agent or public relations executive that is hired by businesses or political candidates to obtain positive press coverage. Media consultants usually draft press releases to highlight positive achievements of a business, organization, or individual, and prepare subjects for interviews with the media. In politics, media consultants create advertisement campaigns to plant a desired image in the minds of voters.
Oliver Wyman is an American management consulting firm. Founded in New York City in 1984 by former Booz Allen Hamilton partners Alex Oliver and Bill Wyman, the firm has more than 60 offices in Europe, North America, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific employing over 5,000 professionals. The firm is part of the Oliver Wyman Group, a business unit of Marsh McLennan.
Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc., doing business as Marsh McLennan, is a global professional services firm, headquartered in New York City with businesses in insurance brokerage, risk management, reinsurance services, talent management, investment advisory, and management consulting. Its four main operating companies are Marsh, Guy Carpenter, Mercer, and Oliver Wyman.
William Worthington Bain Jr. was an American management consultant, known for his role as one of the founders of the management consultancy that bears his name, Bain & Company. Prior to founding Bain & Company, he was a vice-president at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
Hans-Paul Bürkner is a German management consultant, and a managing director, senior partner, and global chair rmeritus of the Boston Consulting Group. Bürkner was President & CEO from 2004 to 2012, and was the firm's first European CEO.
Boston Consulting Group, Inc. (BCG) is an American global management consulting firm founded in 1963 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the Big Three along with McKinsey & Company and Bain & Company. Since 2021, the consultancy has been led by the German executive Christoph Schweizer.
L.E.K. Consulting is a global strategy consulting firm based in London and Boston. Founded in 1983 by three partners from Bain & Company, L.E.K. focuses on corporate strategy, marketing and sales, mergers and acquisitions, and operations. It provides expertise to life sciences and pharma, healthcare services, consumer products, financial services, energy and environment, media and entertainment, technology, travel and transport, industrials, and retail. The firm also has a strong private equity practice.
Bain & Company is an American management consulting company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. The firm provides advice to public, private, and non-profit organizations. One of the Big Three management consultancies, Bain & Company was founded in 1973 by former Group Vice President of Boston Consulting Group Bill Bain and his colleagues, including Patrick F. Graham. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the firm grew rapidly. Bill Bain later spun off the alternative investment business into Bain Capital in 1984 and appointed Mitt Romney as its first CEO. Bain experienced several setbacks and financial troubles from 1987 to the early 1990s. Romney and Orit Gadiesh are credited with returning the firm to profitability and growth in their sequential roles as the firm's CEO and chairman respectively.
Dominic Barton, known as Bao Damin in China, is a Ugandan-born Canadian business executive, author, and diplomat. He is the current chairman of the private investment firm LeapFrog Investments as well as the chancellor of the University of Waterloo. He served as the Canadian Ambassador to the People's Republic of China from 2019 to 2021. Prior to this, Barton was the Global Managing Director of McKinsey & Company, the global consulting firm, from 2009 to 2018 and has previously served as Chairman of Teck Resources and as Non-Executive Director at the Singtel Group in Singapore and Investor AB in Sweden.
The business career of Mitt Romney began shortly after he finished graduate school in 1975. At that time, Romney entered the management consulting industry, and in 1977 secured a position at Bain & Company. Later serving as its chief executive officer, he helped bring the company out of financial crisis. In 1984, he co-founded and led the spin-off Bain Capital, a private equity investment firm that became highly profitable and one of the largest such firms in the nation. The fortune he earned from his business career is estimated at $190–250 million.
Richard Lesser is an American businessman who has been the chair of American management consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG) since 2021. He previously was CEO from 2013 to 2021.
The Arbeitskreis Börse is a non-profit organization located in Mannheim (Germany), focused on investment banking, capital markets, consulting and start-up companies within the financial technology sector. It is the oldest financial association led by students in Germany and with over 1,200 members among the largest student organizations in Germany. The Arbeitskreis Börse is dedicated to connect students interested in financial markets associated with worldwide banks and consulting firms. These include Bank of America Merrill Lynch, EQT Partners and McKinsey It is organized first and foremost by students of the University of Mannheim but is receiving increasing support from students of other tertiary establishments in Mannheim.
EY-Parthenon is Ernst & Young's global strategy consulting arm. The firm was established as The Parthenon Group LLC in 1991 by former Bain & Company directors William "Bill" Achtmeyer and John C. Rutherford. In 2014 The Parthenon Group merged with professional services firm EY forming the new entity EY-Parthenon. The move was viewed as part of the continued efforts by the Big Four to move up the value chain from their traditional audit services into more lucrative areas of business, as well as to provide new points of entry to clients.
