The United States strategy consulting market is a highly concentrated and fiercely competitive arena, with market share and prestige overwhelmingly dominated by a small and exclusive group of firms, famously known as the "MBB." A detailed US Strategy Consulting Market Share Analysis reveals that the lion's share of the pure, high-level corporate strategy market is commanded by the "Big Three": McKinsey & Company, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), and Bain & Company. Their market share dominance is built on a foundation of unparalleled brand prestige, a century of collective experience advising the world's most influential organizations, and an alumni network that is deeply embedded in the C-suites of corporate America. Their competitive strategy is one of intellectual leadership and elite positioning. They compete by consistently producing groundbreaking research and thought leadership that defines the business agenda, and by cultivating an aura of being the absolute "best of the best." Their ability to attract the very top talent from the world's most elite universities and business schools allows them to charge the highest fees in the industry, and their powerful brand acts as a powerful signal of quality and confidence for a CEO or a board of directors facing a high-stakes decision.
A second and increasingly powerful tier in the competitive landscape, which holds a substantial share of the broader strategy and operations market, is composed of the strategy consulting arms of the "Big Four" accounting and professional services firms. This group includes Deloitte Consulting (with its Monitor Deloitte brand), PwC (with its Strategy& brand, formerly Booz & Company), EY (with its EY-Parthenon brand), and KPMG. Their competitive strategy is to leverage their immense scale, their global footprint, and their deep, long-standing relationships with the audit and finance departments of virtually every major corporation. They compete by offering a broader, more end-to-end service portfolio that can seamlessly connect high-level strategy with the deep operational, technological, and financial implementation required to execute it. Their ability to offer a "one-stop shop" for a client's advisory needs, from strategy and M&A to technology implementation and risk management, is a powerful value proposition that allows them to capture a huge share of the overall consulting market.
Finally, the market share analysis is completed by a vibrant and highly influential ecosystem of other major players and specialized boutique firms. This includes other large, well-respected strategy firms that are often considered to be in the "tier below" MBB, such as Kearney, L.E.K. Consulting, and Oliver Wyman. It also includes the massive strategy practices of the major technology consulting firms, most notably Accenture Strategy, which leverages its deep expertise in technology to compete effectively on digital transformation projects. Beyond these large players, the landscape is enriched by a multitude of highly successful "boutique" firms that compete by developing a world-class reputation in a specific industry (e.g., life sciences, financial services) or a specific functional area (e.g., pricing, supply chain). While their individual market share may be smaller, these specialist firms are a critical part of the ecosystem, often providing a level of deep domain expertise that the more generalist firms cannot match. This multi-layered structure defines the highly competitive and hierarchical nature of the US market.
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