Strategy&

Last updated
Strategy&
TypeSubsidiary of PwC
Industry Management consulting
Founded1914;109 years ago (1914)
SuccessorBusiness Research Service,
Edwin G. Booz Surveys,
Edwin G. Booz & Fry Surveys
Booz, Fry, Allen & Hamilton
Booz Allen Hamilton
Booz & Company
Headquarters New York City, New York,
United States
Key people
Peter Gassmann
(Global Leader)
Number of employees
3,000+ employees
Website www.strategyand.pwc.com

Strategy& is the strategy consulting business unit of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), one of the Big Four professional service firms.

Contents

Founded by Edwin G. Booz as Business Research Service in Chicago in 1914, the firm underwent numerous name changes before settling on Booz Allen Hamilton in 1943. [1] In 2008, it split from Booz Allen Hamilton as Booz & Company, and, in 2013, it was acquired by PwC, the largest consulting acquisition of the company's history. [2] The contract required PwC to drop the Booz name, and the unit became known as Strategy& in 2014. [3] At the time of acquisition, the company had more than 80 offices in 41 countries.

According to Glassdoor, it is the second highest-paying company for employees in the United States as of April 2017. [4]

History

Foundation and early development

After graduating from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois in 1914, Edwin G. Booz developed the business theory that companies would be more successful if they could call on someone outside their own organizations for expert, impartial advice. [5] This theory developed into a new profession — management consulting — and the firm that would bear his name. Booz established a small consulting firm in Chicago, and two years later, he and two partners formed the Business Research and Development Company, which conducted studies and performed investigational work for commercial and trade organizations. This service, which Booz labeled as the first of its kind in the Midwest, soon attracted such clients as Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, Chicago's Union Stockyards and Transit Company, and the Canadian Pacific Railroad.[ citation needed ]

At the end of the 1950s, Time Magazine dubbed the firm "the world's largest, most prestigious management consulting firm". [6]

Public listing and continued growth

In 1970, Booz Allen went public with an initial offering of 500,000 shares at $24 per share. Trading continued through 1976. [7]

In 2008, Booz & Company was spun off from Booz Allen Hamilton, in conjunction with a private equity takeover by The Carlyle Group. [8] At the time, Booz & Company consisted of the commercial portion of Booz Allen Hamilton's consulting business, as well as all consulting operations with government entitites outside the United States. After the spin-off, Booz Allen Hamilton then focused exclusively on U.S. government consulting endeavors. In 2011, however, when the three-year noncompete provision expired, Booz Allen Hamilton began building out its commercial consulting practice, focusing on technology integration and cybersecurity programs. [9]

In 2009, Booz & Company purchased Katzenbach Partners for an undisclosed sum, and has since launched the Katzenbach Center, focused on the development and application of innovative ideas for organizational culture and change. [10]

In 2012, Axon Advisory Partners joined the company to launch Booz Digital, a full-service team of strategists, designers and technologists who "help companies turn ideas into transformational digital businesses". [11]

In April 2013, Booz & Company acquired international consulting firm Management Engineers for its operations expertise and experience in industries such as manufacturing, chemicals and industrials. Through the acquisition, Management Engineers added 17 partners and 145 staff to Booz & Company, along with a market position in Germany, as well as China, the UK and the US. [12]

Acquisition and rebranding

On October 30, 2013, Booz & Company announced it would be sold to PricewaterhouseCoopers as part of a conditional merger, pending regulatory approval and the vote of Booz partners scheduled for December 2013. [13] Booz partners voted in favor on December 23, 2013, [14] and the deal was closed in early April 2014. The acquisition, and subsequent change of name from Booz & Company to Strategy&, was announced on April 4, 2014. [15] The name, pronounced "Strategy and", was widely criticized, but was required by an agreement with former parent Booz Allen Hamilton that the Booz name or variants could never be used in conjunction with a new legal entity. [16]

The firm operates in over 150 countries around the globe. Strategy& Office Render.jpg
The firm operates in over 150 countries around the globe.

Corporate affairs

Recruiting

In 2007, Booz & Company had roughly 150,000 applicants and 1033 new jobs. [17] Strategy& is the second largest recruiter at Columbia Business School [18] and the third largest recruiter at INSEAD. [19]

The firm operates on a modified version of the Cravath System, under which employees are promoted within a certain time frame or "counseled out". [20] [21]

Research

Over the years, Booz has been credited with developing some of the important concepts in business. The firm coined the terms and developed the concepts of supply chain, supply chain management, product life cycle, the PERT Chart and organizational DNA. [20] [22]

The firm publishes the majority of its research in its quarterly management magazine Strategy+Business, which in 2009 was one of just two business magazines to grow its circulation, along with The Economist. Strategy& also publishes several studies annually:

The firm also regularly publishes cross-industry research related to its four major platforms: Capabilities-Driven Strategy, Deals, Digital, and Fitness for Growth.

The Katzenbach Center at Strategy& has generated a research on the importance of fostering companies' informal organization to improve corporate performance. In a white paper entitled "Fast Track to Recovery" [27] and the book Leading Outside the Lines, [28] Booz partner Jon Katzenbach uses various case studies to illustrate the exchange between the formal and the informal elements of organizations.

See also

Related Research Articles

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PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited is a British multinational professional services brand of firms, operating as partnerships under the PwC brand. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounting firms, along with Deloitte, EY and KPMG.

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.

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, commonly referred to as Deloitte, is a British multinational professional services network headquartered in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of professionals in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounting firms along with EY, KPMG and PwC.

IBM Consulting, rebranded in 2021 from IBM Global Business Services, is the professional services and consulting arm of IBM. It provides services to companies, global government organizations, non-profits and NGOs.

Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation is the parent of Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., an American government and military contractor, specializing in intelligence. It is headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in Greater Washington, D.C., with 80 other offices around the globe. The company's stated core business is to provide consulting, analysis and engineering services to public and private sector organizations and nonprofits.

James Lane Allen was an American businessman who was one of the founders of the management consulting firms Booz Allen Hamilton and Strategy&, a division of PricewaterhouseCoopers.

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.

Booz may refer to:

Mercer is an American consulting firm founded in 1945. It is one of the four operating subsidiaries of global professional services firm Marsh McLennan. Mercer is headquartered in New York City with offices in 43 countries and operations in 130 countries. The company primarily provides human resources and financial services consulting services to its clients.

Katzenbach Partners was a small American management consulting firm. In 2009 it became a part of the global management consulting firm Booz & Company.

Booz Allen Hamilton may refer to:

Adam J. Gutstein is an American business executive. He was the president, from 2004, and CEO, from 2006, of Diamond Management & Technology Consultants (DMTC) until its takeover by PWC. Gustein joined the company in 1994 as vice president. He has been a director of the company since 1999, and has held senior positions including that of chief operating officer.

<i>Strategy+Business</i> Business magazine

Strategy+Business is a business magazine focusing on management issues and corporate strategy. Headquartered in New York, it is published by certain member firms of the PricewaterhouseCoopers network. Before the separation of Booz & Company from Booz Allen Hamilton in 2008, strategy+business was published by Booz Allen Hamilton, which launched the magazine, then titled Strategy & Business, in 1995. Full issues of strategy+business appear in print and digital edition form every quarter, and other original material is published daily on its website.

The Satyam Computer Services scandal was India's largest corporate fraud until 2010. The founder and directors of India-based outsourcing company Satyam Computer Services, falsified the accounts, inflated the share price, and stole large sums from the company. Much of this was invested in property. The swindle was discovered in late 2008 when the Hyderabad property market collapsed, leaving a trail back to Satyam. The scandal was brought to light in 2009 when chairman Byrraju Ramalinga Raju confessed that the company's accounts had been falsified.

Jon R. Katzenbach is a published author and consultant who is best known for his work on the informal organization. He is a practitioner in organizational strategies for Strategy&. He is a managing director with PwC U.S., based in New York. He is also the founder of the Katzenbach Center at Strategy&, a center of excellence in the areas of organizational culture, leadership, informal organization and motivation.

Heidrick & Struggles International Incorporated is an international executive search and management consulting company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The firm also has a consulting practice focused on leadership and shaping corporate culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arbeitskreis Börse</span> German non-profit organisation

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 lead 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.

Horacio D. Rozanski is an Argentine-born American businessman. He serves as the president and chief executive officer of Booz Allen Hamilton, a global management and technology consulting firm headquartered in McLean, VA.

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The PwC tax scandal is an ongoing scandal involving PwC's abuse of Australian Government secrets to enrich itself and its corporate clients.

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