By Alison Huntington.
Conventional wisdom tells us that McKinsey, The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), and Bain only really compete with each other.
But as the tectonic plates of the consulting industry are shifting, there’s mounting evidence that this is simply no longer true. Sure, the MBB firms might still retain an aura of differentiation through the prestige of their brands, but as client demand changes, and as firms of all stripes converge around digital transformation, there’s a serious danger that McKinsey, BCG, and Bain’s obsession with each other is blinding them to other threats.
Take McKinsey’s clients. We asked current users of McKinsey which firm they’d pick as their first choice in a range of consulting services, if they were given free reign*. Unsurprisingly, large proportions of its clients are loyal--on average, 20% say they’d pick McKinsey as their first choice firm regardless of service. But, looking at the table below, we can see that their loyalty varies considerably depending on which service they’re thinking about. And the arms into which they’re likely to drift are anything but the familiar foes.
