Boston Consulting Group
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| The Boston Consulting Group | |
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| Type | Partnership |
| Founded | 1963 |
| Headquarters |  Boston, Massachusetts66 offices in 38 countries |
| Key people | Hans-Paul Bürkner, President & CEO |
| Industry | Management consulting |
| Products | Management consulting services |
| Revenue | US$ 2.3 billion (2007) |
| Employees | about 7,000 |
| Website | www.bcg.com |
- “BCG” redirects here. For other uses, see BCG (disambiguation).
The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) is a global management consulting firm and the world's leading advisor on business strategy founded by Bruce Henderson in 1963. The company was formed when Henderson, a Harvard Business School alumnus, left Arthur D. Little to accept the challenge from the CEO of the Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Company to start a consulting arm for the bank.
In 1965 Henderson thought that to survive, much less grow, in a competitive landscape occupied by hundreds of larger and better-known consulting firms, a distinctive identity was needed, and pioneered "Business Strategy" as a special area of expertise for BCG.
As his client list grew, Henderson targeted the nation's best business schools. At some point he was said to have eclipsed McKinsey as the top recruiter at Harvard, aggressively wooing its best students with high salaries and the chance to make a difference in a cutting-edge firm. He encouraged the young minds he hired to come up with innovative ideas that were meant to dazzle hardened corporate veterans.
In 1973 Bill Bain and others left BCG to form Bain & Company, and two years later Henderson arranged an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), so that the employees could take the company independent from The Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Company. The buyout of all shares was completed in 1979.
In 1998 BCG created The Strategy Institute. Its purpose is to enrich the firm's strategic thinking by applying insights from a variety of academic disciplines to the strategic challenges facing both business and society.
The Boston Consulting Group ranked 11th overall and 1st among smaller companies in Fortune Magazine's 2008 "100 Best US Companies to Work For" survey, based on strong employee development, a supportive culture, and progressive benefits.[1]
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[edit] Competitors
Today BCG competes principally with McKinsey & Company, Bain & Company, and Booz & Company. While none of these can be considered large in the management consulting market, they compete for the most lucrative market segment, consulting to top management. BCG has 66 offices in 38 countries, and its current CEO is Hans-Paul Bürkner.
[edit] Recruiting
BCG typically hires for an Associate or a Consultant position. Whilst so called "lateral hires" as Project Leader, Principal or Partner are possible, they are not the norm. BCG recruits MBA graduates to join as Consultants from the world's top business schools[2]. Additionally, increasing effort is being placed on hiring advanced non-business degree holders. Graduates holding JD's, MD's and PhD's in disciplines like engineering, science, and liberal arts receive training in business fundamentals and then typically join the firm as Consultants. There is also an opportunity to join as a Summer Associate or Summer Consultant (internship) position for 10 weeks, which for the majority of interns will result in an offer for full-time position.
Insiders estimate that BCG North American offices receive around 10,000 resumes every year for the Associate position. Typically, 1 to 2% of candidates are extended an offer to join the firm, ~70% of whom accept - ratios that are considered in line with competitors.
After a two year tenure, some BCG Associates choose to stay for a third year as Senior Associates and have the opportunity to work abroad in a foreign office through BCG's Associate Exchange Program. Many Associates are also sponsored by BCG to attend business school (almost systematically at Harvard Business School, the Stanford Graduate School of Business, the Wharton School of Business, or INSEAD) and rejoin the company afterwards as Consultants.
Consultants are also given the opportunity to work abroad in a foreign office through the Ambassador Program. This program is open to Consultants in their second year at BCG, or to Project Leaders within the first year of their promotion to this level. Acceptance in the Ambassador Program is competitive, with the program only open to the top quartile of performers at the firm.
[edit] Interview Process
BCG uses the case method to conduct interviews, which is an interview technique designed to simulate the types of problems inherent in management consulting and to test the qualitative and quantitative skills deemed important for abstract thinking in a business setting.
The first round of interviews consists of two 45 minute case interviews with BCG consultants. Successful candidates may be passed onto the second round corresponding with a regional office. The second round consists of three 30-45 minute interviews with principals or partners from that office in a similar format to the first round interviews.
[edit] Publications
Every year, BCG publishes articles, industry reports, government commissioned studies and books relating to particular industries or authorial practice areas. Many partners have written books on issues facing management in the modern business environment. Some recent publications:
Trading Up - Why Consumers Want New Luxury Goods and How Companies Create Them. By Michael J. Silverstein and Neil Fiske, 2003. A Business Week Bestseller and Berry AMA book prize winner.
Payback - Reaping the Rewards of Innovation. By James P. Andrew and Harold L. Sirkin, 2006. Published by the Harvard Business School Press, Payback has become a staple in the MBA curriculum.
Blown to Bits - How the New Economics of Information Transforms Strategy. By Philip Evans and Thomas S. Wurster, 2000.
Treasure Hunt - Inside the Mind of the New Consumer. By Michael J. Silverstein with John Butman, 2006.
The Change Monster - The Human Forces that Fuel or Foil Corporate Transformation and Change. Jeanie Daniel Duck, 2002.
[edit] BCG growth-share matrix
In the 1970s, BCG created and popularized the "growth-share matrix", a simple chart to assist large corporations in deciding how to allocate cash among their business units. The corporation would categorize its business units as "Stars", "Cash Cows", "Question Marks", and "Dogs", and then allocate cash accordingly, moving money from "cash cows" toward "stars" and "question marks" that had higher market growth rates, and hence higher upside potential.
The chart was popular for two decades and "continues to be used as a primer in the principles of portfolio management," as BCG says.
[edit] Offices
[edit] Offices in Asia Pacific
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[edit] Offices in Europe and the Middle East
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[edit] Offices in the Americas
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[edit] Notable current and former employees
[edit] Business
Indra Nooyi - CEO of Pepsi
Jeff Immelt - CEO of General Electric (MBA internship)
Gary M. Reiner - SVP and CIO of General Electric
William Browder - co-founder of Hermitage Capital Management
Gerald Corbett - CEO of Railtrack
Michael R. Eisenson - co-founder of Charlesbank Capital Partners, LLC, former managing director of the Harvard Management Company
Ahmed Fahour - CEO of the Australian operations of the National Australia Bank
Stefan Quandt - owner of Delton AG
Andreas Jacobs - Chairman of Barry Callebau AG
Jim Whitehurst - CEO of Red Hat, former COO of Delta Airlines
Neil Fiske - CEO of Eddie Bauer
Michael Dornemann - Chairman & CEO of Bertelsman Entertainment
Jeffrey Hunker - National Security Council member under President Clinton and professor at Carnegie Mellon University
[edit] Politics and Public Service
Ira Magaziner - Aide and policy advisor to President Clinton, CEO of SJS Advisors and co founder of Brown University's open curriculum
Benjamin Netanyahu - Prime Minister of Israel (1996-1999)
Steve Poizner - California businessman and Republican politician
Mitt Romney - Governor of Massachusetts, CEO of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, co-founder of Bain Capital
Hans Wijers - Minister of Economic Affairs of the Netherlands (1994-1998), CEO of Akzo Nobel
[edit] Others
Kaz Uchida- Professor, Waseda University, Tokyo [3]
Aiba Koji- Professor, Waseda University, Tokyo
John R. Wells - Professor, President International Institute for Management Development, Switzerland
Linda Bilmes - academic, Harvard Kennedy School of Government
Clayton M. Christensen - Robert and Jane Cizik Professor, Harvard Business School
Michael Chu - senior lecturer, Harvard Business School, Former partner KKR and a founding senior partner of Pegasus Capital
John Legend - musician
Jesse Ward - golf pro
Jehan Ratnatunga - Co-Founder of Ripple (charitable organisation)
Alex Michel - Star of the Bachelor, season one
Michael J. Silverstein - Author of several bestselling business books, including "Trading Up" and "Treasure Hunt"
Azwan Khan Osman Khan - Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy & Development, Celcom
Aamir A. Rehman - Author of "Dubai & Co.: Global Strategies for Doing Business in the Gulf States"
[edit] References
1.http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/fortune/0701/gallery.bestcos/8.html
2.http://bwnt.businessweek.com/recruiting/index.asp?c=243
[edit] See also
Henderson Typeface family designed in 2006-07 for the BCG exclusive use:
Henderson Serif
Henderson Sans
