BCG achieves stellar 25 percent growth to $11 billion in revenues
Global strategy and management consulting firm Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has booked massive year-on-year growth of 25 percent in 2021, in what is the firm’s fastest growth rate in over two decades.
Boston Consulting Group has brought in a record-breaking $11 billion in global revenues for 2021, with underlying growth of 25 percent at constant rates. The firm, which saw its revenues level out to around $8.6 billion in 2020 due to the global pandemic, credited its return to strong growth on demand for its strategic, sustainability and digital expertise.
“We have benefited from our multi-year commitment to invest in developing world-class capabilities,” said BCG’s recently-installed global CEO, the German Christoph Schweizer, who took over in October.
While its main rivals McKinsey and Bain have made multiple purchases over the past year, BCG stated that 98 percent of its growth had been organic. Schweizer continued: “I’m very proud of the way our team has partnered with clients in every sector to help them navigate through a very challenging period. We are enabling our clients to harness the potential of (digital) transformation to build resilience and prepare for future opportunities.”
Schweizer’s predecessor, Rich Lesser – now global chairman – oversaw a tripling of the consultancy’s revenues in a single decade, from $3.7 billion when he took over in 2013. In 2002, that figure stood at just $1 billion, increasing ten-fold over the past twenty years.
Naturally, the firm’s headcount has grown in tandem, from around 8,000 to 25,000 over the past ten years, including a 10 percent rise last year.
And the consulting firm has no intention to temper that influx, despite the global talent crunch, with Schweizer stating the BCG plans to recruit 8,000 new staff members this year alone, including significant numbers of climate and sustainability and AI experts to its consulting teams.
Further reading: CEO Christoph Schweizer calls on climate activists to join BCG.
The firm has also just launched a virtual hub for Ukrainian talent, making it easier for refugees to access job opportunities and connect with BCG recruiters.
The official consulting partner for last year’s UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), BCG has also been embarking on its own path to net zero (targeting ‘climate positivity’ by 2030), having invested $240 million since 2020 “to broaden and deepen its climate partnerships, advance its thought leadership, and expand its capabilities.” As part of that agenda, the firm last year launched a global climate & sustainability practice.
In its annual report, BCG also gave an update on its diversity & inclusion and social impact commitments (BCG invested a record $320 million in social impact work through 2021), with its number of female managing directors and partners growing at a rate almost three times that of male ones. Altogether, women now make up 44 percent of the BCG’s global workforce, and account for over a third of its Executive Committee, with members from ten countries.
Boston Consulting Group operates with multiple specialist brands, including Boston Consulting Group (strategy consulting), BrightHouse (purpose advisory), BCG Inverto (supply chain and procurement advisory), BCG Platinion (technology transformation), BCG Gamma (artificial intelligence) and BCG Digital Ventures (corporate innovation and business building services).
