Top 50 Management and Strategy Consulting Firms

The 2009 prestige rankings of the top management and strategy consulting firms have arrived! This year’s survey is based on surveys of more than 4,000 consultants.

Rankings methodology:For the 2008 Vault consulting survey, we selected a list of top consulting firms to include. These consulting firms were chosen because of their prominence in the consulting industry and their interest to consulting job seekers. This year, over 4,000 consultants responded to our survey.
The Vault survey was distributed to the firms on Vault’s list in spring 2008. In some cases, Vault contacted practicing consultants directly. Survey respondents were asked to rate each consulting firm on the survey on a scale of 1 to 10 based on prestige, with 10 being the most prestigious. Consultants were unable to rate their own firm, and they were asked to rate only those firms with which they were familiar.

Vault collected the survey results and averaged the score for each firm. The firms were then ranked, with the highest score being No. 1, down to No. 50.

We also asked survey respondents to give their perceptions of other consulting firms besides their own. A selection of those comments is featured on each firm profile as The Buzz.

Remember that Vault’s top-50 strategy consulting firms are chosen by practicing consultants at top consulting firms. Vault does not choose or influence the rankings. The rankings measure perceived prestige (as determined by consulting professionals) and not revenue, size or lifestyle.

2009
RANK

FIRM

SCORE

2008
RANK

HEADQUARTERS/
LARGEST OFFICE

1

McKinsey & Company

8.430

1

New York, NY

2

The Boston Consulting Group, Inc.

8.089

2

Boston, MA

3

Bain & Company

7.966

3

Boston, MA

4

Booz & Company

6.535

4

New York, NY

5

Monitor Group

6.296

5

Cambridge, MA

6

Mercer LLC

6.160

9

New York, NY

7

Deloitte

5.844

8

New York, NY

8

Oliver Wyman

5.755

6

New York, NY

9

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

5.572

NR

New York, NY

10

L.E.K. Consulting

5.426

13

Boston, MA
London

11

Ernst & Young LLP

5.388

NR

New York, NY
London

12

A.T. Kearney

5.373

15

Chicago, IL

13

IBM Global Business Services

5.352

11

Armonk, NY

14

Accenture

5.314

14

New York, NY

15

The Parthenon Group

5.306

10

Boston, MA

16

KPMG LLP

5.246

NR

New York, NY

17

Katzenbach Partners LLC

5.146

16

New York, NY

18

Towers Perrin

4.848

18

Stamford, CT

19

Capgemini

4.752

22

New York, NY
Paris

20

Gartner, Inc.

4.728

12

Stamford, CT

21

Roland Berger Strategy Consultants

4.684

20

New York, NY
Munich

22

ZS Associates

4.645

24

Evanston, IL

23

Cambridge Associates LLC

4.588

21

Boston, MA

24

Hewitt Associates

4.541

23

Lincolnshire, IL

25

NERA Economic Consulting

4.540

27

White Plains, NY

26

Navigant Consulting, Inc.

4.539

29

Chicago, IL

27

AlixPartners, LLP

4.457

26

Southfield, MI

28

BearingPoint, Inc.

4.433

28

McLean, VA

29

Watson Wyatt Worldwide

4.355

25

Arlington, VA

30

Kurt Salmon Associates

4.276

36

Atlanta, GA

31

CRA International, Inc.

4.275

30

Boston, MA

32

Huron Consulting Group

4.261

39

Chicago, IL

33

Arthur D. Little

4.186

40

Boston, MA
Paris

34

Diamond Inc.

4.149

45

Chicago, IL

35

PRTM

4.131

33

Mountain View, CA
Waltham, MA

36

Gallup Consulting

4.055

31

Washington, DC

37

The Advisory Board Company

4.020

38

Washington, DC

38

FTI Consulting, Inc.

3.925

46

Baltimore, MD

39

First Manhattan Consulting Group

3.859

42

New York, NY

40

Corporate Executive Board

3.844

41

Washington, DC

41

Cornerstone Research

3.838

37

New York, NY
San Francisco, CA

42

Mitchell Madison Group LLC

3.790

NR

New York, NY

43

LECG

3.782

35

Emeryville, CA

44

Alvarez & Marsal

3.758

43

New York, NY

45

Mars & Co

3.737

48

Greenwich, CT

46

Aon Consulting Worldwide

3.624

49

Chicago, IL

47

Analysis Group, Inc.

3.519

47

Boston, MA

48

Archstone Consulting

3.512

NR

Stamford, CT

49

Hay Group

3.415

44

Philadelphia, PA

50

IMS Health Incorporated

3.370

NR

Norwalk, CT

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