No matter what industry you’re in, there’s most certainly a management consulting firm that specializes in your field. The management consulting industry is booming, bringing in an estimated $250B a year. These firms range from tiny boutique firms that specialize in one practice area or industry up to the Big 4 that employ hundreds of thousands of people globally.
Today, there are over 700,000 consulting firms! However, it’s the top 20 that account for the majority of the industry's revenue. We also need to make a distinction here in the different services these firms may offer. Firms like the Big 4 are known as “professional services networks”. The services they offer are not isolated to consulting, but they also offer audit, assurance, and tax services as well. Some of the smaller firms only offer consulting services. The firms listed in this top 20 may vary in other metrics, such as the revenue of their accounting arms or the number of overall employees.
This article focuses on the revenue of the top 20 firms, specifically for consulting.
Consulting Firms by Revenue
For the top 5 consulting firms by revenue, only one of the “Big 4” makes the cut. Deloitte is the largest firm in the world by overall services, and it moved from to number 5 to number 2 on this listing of consulting revenue.
Notice a pattern? The firms on our list focus overwhelmingly on tech integration and implementation work - with widespread demand and long projects, this kind of work adds up to big bucks for consulting firms.
- Accenture Consulting - $34B
- Deloitte Consulting - $25.8B
- Tata Consulting Services - $23.9B
- Capgemini Consulting - $ 18.7B
- Cognizant Technology Solutions - $16.8B
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Big 4 Firms By Revenue (Plus Others)
In the next 5 to make the list, we get the rest of the Big 4 in PwC, Ernst & Young, and KPMG. With almost $34B dollars generated by these three firms' consulting arms alone, it makes sense that combined with their other service offerings they are some of the biggest companies by revenue in the entire world.
- PwC Advisory - $20.7B
- Infosys Consulting - $16.3B
- Ernst & Young Advisory - $13.8B
- KPMG Advisory - $13.6B
- Cisco Systems Consulting - $12B
Management Consulting Firms By Revenue (Plus Others)
Listed here in the next 5, we finally see two of the “Big 3”, also known as MBB. Boston Consulting Group and McKinsey show up on the list at number 12 and 13 in consulting firms by revenue. The MBB firms are known to be the most prestigious in the entire world, and yet their relatively small size puts them in the middle of the pack revenue-wise. However, the revenue they are able to generate per consultant is incredibly impressive.
- CGI Group - $12.1B
- The Boston Consulting Group - $11B
- McKinsey & Company - $10.5B
- Booz Allen Hamilton - $8.3B
- HP Enterprise Technology Services - $7.8B
Technology Firms By Revenue (Plus Others)
Finally, we have here the last five of the biggest consulting firms by revenue. The final firm of the “Big 3” - Bain & Company - comes in at number 16 on the list. You'll also find more tech consulting firms in this part of the list, as well as HR consulting giant Mercer.
- Bain & Company - 5.8B
- Mercer LLC - $5B
- IBM Global Services - $4.7B
- SAP Services Consulting - $3.5B
- Oracle Consulting - $3.4B
These 20 consulting firms are the largest in terms of revenue. Overall, if you want the biggest slice of the consulting pie, look to tech consulting. For a lesson in how to remain more focused yet still scale, look no further than McKinsey, Bain, and BCG.
Additional Reading:
- Top 25 Consulting Firms
- MBB: McKinsey, BCG, Bain; Are They Really the Best?
- Big 4 Accounting Firms
- Case Interview: Complete Prep Guide