Meet The World’s Best Management Consulting Firms 2024

It’s often been said that the only constant in life—and in business—is change. And while this can be unsettling for companies, change has consistently led to growth for the management consulting industry. Whether companies are seeking to downsize, expand, rebrand or enhance AI capabilities, businesses often need help from external advisors, particularly those with highly technical skills or niche expertise. As a result, consultants have never been busier.

Alicia Pittman, managing director, senior partner and global people chair at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), says that many businesses coming out of turbulent times post pandemic are seeking large-scale change. “A lot of clients are looking soup to nuts, and asking, ‘how do we accelerate this company to the next chapter?’”

The answer, according to Pittman, is to join forces with the right consulting team. In the case of BCG, when their consultants take on a project, they don’t just drop in, make some fixes and leave. Rather, the consultants take considerable time listening to the needs of their clients, customizing strategies together, and then guiding executives and staff on how to implement them. BCG’s philosophy, says Pittman: “We don’t work on clients, we work with clients.”

This approach has served BCG well because for the third straight year it ranked as one of the most recommended firms in our list of the World’s Best Management Consulting Firms. The ranking, created in partnership with market research firm Statista, is based on three national surveys of consultants (partners and managers at consulting firms) and clients (executives) in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany; as well as a global survey of 8,500 consultants and clients in 29 countries across all continents.

Survey respondents were asked which consulting firms they would recommend within 13 industries (such as construction and healthcare) and 14 functional areas (such as digital transformation and organization management) for a total of 27 categories; those with the most recommendations were included in our list and awarded a star rating. Firms in the top 10% (very frequently recommended) received 5 stars, firms between the top 10% and 40% (frequently recommended) received 4 stars, and all others with a sufficient number of recommendations received 3 stars.

In addition to the consulting firms, survey respondents were also able to recommend consulting networks, which aggregate large numbers of independent consultants and facilitate their connection with potential clients. Consulting networks were rated using the same method used to rate consulting firms.

Ultimately, a total of 224 management consulting firms and nine consulting networks made this third annual list. (For more on the methodology, see below.)

Eight firms on our list earned stars in all 27 categories, and they were the same top performers as last year. But this year, Accenture led the pack—bumping McKinsey & Company from the head of the list—with Accenture receiving 26 5-star ratings and one 4-star rating, while McKinsey received 24 5-star ratings and three 4-star ratings. For the second year in a row, Deloitte earned 25 5-star ratings and two 4-star ratings. The other five firms that received stars in all 27 categories (specifically, 4- and 5-star ratings) were Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Bain & Company, KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and EY.

One of the top priorities for clients across every industry this year, says Muqsit Ashraf, group chief executive of Accenture Strategy, is to reinvent their organization’s generative AI, “impacting everyone from the C-suite to frontline workers.” To do this, Accenture teams advise companies on “building a digital core, transforming processes end to end, rethinking talent strategies, embedding responsible AI principles and developing change management capabilities,” he says.

Another major focus for businesses around the world is sustainability, says Tamzen Isacsson, CEO of the Management Consultancies Association, a trade organization in the UK. So, consulting firms are not only guiding clients on sustainable strategies for their businesses, the consultants themselves are also walking the (carbon-free) walk. “The consulting industry previously had a big carbon footprint in terms of travel,” says Isacsson. Post pandemic, however, consultants have radically revamped the way they work with clients, often traveling much less and instead offering a blend of remote time and face-to-face time.

New norms for remote and digital work arrangements have also made it easier for businesses to work with expert consultants in any country—and there are a growing number of consulting networks facilitating these connections. One such network, Malt—which received high marks in our rankings—has built an online community of more than 500,000 freelance consultants and more than 70,000 clients. The AI-powered platform serves as a matchmaker of sorts, allowing consultants to find projects that suit their skills and interests while offering clients the ability to find consultants with the specific expertise needed.

Malt, which operates in eight countries in Europe and the United Arab Emirates, vets the freelancers, makes sure they are compliant with tax regulations and certified to work where the client is located, and provides tools that help both consultants and clients find matches. Pascal Schäfer, Malt’s head of freelance community and project partnering, says that clients usually come to the platform knowing exactly what they are looking for, and it’s often a consultant with very specific expertise that most companies would not employ on staff. “We can help them to find someone with exactly that skillset or that combination of experience in the country they need,” he says.

“The platform suggests potential candidates based on their experience and hard skills but then we add the human touch,” says Schäfer, noting that Malt proposes three to five candidates to the client—also considering interpersonal skills and price—and the client can choose which candidates they’d like to meet. Malt arranges a call for both parties to talk on their own or with a Malt advisor. When a match is made, clients then hire and pay the consultant through the platform, providing security and stability for all involved.

For executives in search of a great match—whether it’s made through a consulting network, a boutique consulting company or a multinational firm—click here for the full list of the World’s Best Consulting Firms.

Methodology

The World’s Best Consulting Firms 2024, created in partnership with market research firm Statista, is based on three national surveys of consultants (partners and managers at consulting firms) and clients (executives) in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany; as well as a global survey of 8,500 consultants and clients in 29 countries across all continents. Survey respondents were asked which consulting firms they would recommend; firms were eligible if they had active offices in at least three of the following regions: Africa, Asia, Australia and Oceania, Europe, the Middle East, North America and South America.

The firms were recommended within 13 industries (such as technology, financial services and healthcare) and 14 functional areas (such as M&A, marketing and sustainability); those with the most recommendations were included in our list and awarded a star rating. Firms in the top 10% (very frequently recommended) received 5 stars, firms between the top 10% and 40% (frequently recommended) received 4 stars, and all others with a sufficient number of recommendations received 3 stars.

In addition to the consulting firms, survey respondents were also able to recommend consulting networks, which aggregate large numbers of independent consultants and facilitate their connection with potential clients. The networks enable consultants to match with projects that suit their skills and interests, while affording clients the ability to match with consultants offering the specific expertise needed. For this list, the method used to rate consulting firms was also used to rate consulting networks.

Ultimately, a total of 224 management consulting firms and nine consulting networks made the list.

As with all Forbes lists, companies pay no fee to participate or be selected. To read more about how we make these lists, click here. For questions about this list, please email listdesk [at] forbes.com.