Competitive landscape of management consulting industry
I wanted to get some opinions on where the management consulting industry is going, from a competitive landscape perspective. Looking at the cases of Roland Berger, Monitor, PRTM, Diamond, Katzenbach, etc . it is obvious that the current landscape is shifting and there is a lot happening (or yet to happen). What do you think the industry will look like in 5 years? Will there be more consolidation (which is, generally, my position), more break-ups or will the current status quo be maintained?
I, for one, think the Big 4, which seem to be derided quite a lot on here, will emerge much stronger in the next few years and will challenge the top.
I think the Big 4 is derided here as well, but I have a feeling Deloitte is trying to set itself up to become a "financial conglomerate" ... they recently acquired a MM IB firm. I think they are trying to create synergy here, just like how they were able to connect accounting and consulting together.
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/03/the_state_of_strategy_consulti.html
From 2011, but still true IMO.
Big 4, especially PWC and Deloitte, will continue to strengthen, the tier 2 firms will see the brunt of the pain, squeezed on both sides by MBB and the Big4, the Accenture type firms which have an IT/ops focus will muddle along
Here's what I think:
Basically, the Big 4 are trying to get more business, MBB (especially McKinsey) is opening up to Ops cases and tier 2 players get eaten out. Specialists kinda play their own game separately (the nature of the projects is pretty different, IMO).
Will be interesting to note how close MBB will get to implementation projects (where the long term $$$ is), especially as firms like Deloitte & PwC are positioned to do both the strategy AND implementation. There clearly is a case for maintaining the same team/key consultants the entire way through.
Pretty recent article from The Economist:
http://www.economist.com/news/business/21577376-world-grows-more-confus…
which firm?
future landscape is likely to be close to current IBD landscape: 1) top tier strategy consulting firm (e.g. Bain, BCG etc...) 2) Big 4 for mass market and one-stop-shop projects 3) specialized boutique (e.g. energy consulting)
As many others have said, I think the Big 4 will do well, MBB will keep the top clients but may lose some competitive advantage, and boutiques will continue to chip away where the opportunities lie. Tech firms like Accenture and IBM will continue to do well as technology becomes increasingly important but will always be seen as "beneath" the strategy shops. In all honesty, I don't see things changing very much over the next few years..... Merger and consolidation is always offset by new shops opening up.
There was a pretty good article in Indian context about it but I think it holds true for US/EU as well.
articles. economictimes. indiatimes. com / 2013-04-28/news/38862562_1_kpmg-consulting-pwc-big-bucks
I think the Big 4 are looking to squeeze out/acquire Tier 2s for sure. If I were MBB, I would be worried a lot.
Big 4 + Tier 2 Acquired Groups can create enough headaches for MBB or at least start eating at their profits with competitive price points and increased quality.
I have seen that post - excellent write up. Couple of others keep popping up in Consulting Mag and Harvard Business Review occasionally.
You mean this?
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/03/the_state_of_strategy_consulti.html
just about every client has multiple firms working on different things at once
Well folks... guess we're moving closer towards the endgame by the day! Apparently Accenture just finished its DD of Booz.
http://www.manager-magazin.de/unternehmen/artikel/kauft-die-unternehmen…
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