Management Consulting Services
Industry Profile Report
Dive Deep into the industry with a 25+ page industry report (pdf format) including the following chapters
Industry Overview Current Conditions, Industry Structure, How Firms Operate, Industry Trends, Credit Underwriting & Risks, and Industry Forecast.
Call Preparation Call Prep Questions, Industry Terms, and Weblinks.
Financial Insights Working Capital, Capital Financing, Business Valuation, and Financial Benchmarks.
Industry Profile Excerpts
Industry Overview
The 90,000 management consulting firms in the US assist businesses and organizations with administrative, strategic, and management-related issues. Major revenue categories include strategic and financial management consulting and implementation services. Firms may also offer operations and supply chain, marketing, and human resources management consulting services. Customers include businesses, institutions, non-profit organizations, and government entities.
Competitive Bidding
Many clients use competitive bidding when soliciting management consulting services and preparing bids is a costly process for consulting firms and requires significant amounts of managerial time and effort.
Dependence On Highly-Skilled Labor
Management consulting firms solve complex business problems and rely on highly-skilled, educated, and experienced industry professionals to provide consulting services.
Industry size & Structure
The average management consulting services provider operates out of a single location, employs fewer than 5 workers, and generates about $3.4 million annually.
- The management consulting services industry consists of about 90,000 firms that employ about 845,000 workers and generate about $307 billion annually.
- The industry is fragmented; the top 50 companies account for 41% of industry revenue.
- Large companies include McKinsey and Company, Booz Allen Hamilton, Boston Consulting Group, Bain, and Accenture. Most large firms offer comprehensive services and operate nationally and internationally.
Industry Forecast
Management Consulting Services Industry Growth
Recent Developments
Mar 4, 2025 - Electronic Employee Monitoring Rises
- Electronic monitoring of in-person and remote workers by employers is on the rise, according to a recent study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The study found that about 80% of employers use some kind of system that monitors online activity, employee location, and even records keystrokes, among other methods. The trend risks further eroding employee/employer trust. According to Gartner Research’s HR Advisory Group, only 52% of employees stated that they trusted their employers and 62% of employers trusted their employees. Hiring trends increasingly show that trusted managers are as important to new hires almost as much as pay - about 92% per video conferencing company Owl Labs. As the use of monitoring tools grows, so does employee stress with recent surveys showing employees took less breaks, felt pressure to work faster, and would consider leaving a job if surveillance increased too much.
- Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices are being slashed at large companies given the political climate and the Trump administration’s slew of executive orders banning DEI initiatives across the federal government. Wall Street is fearful of running afoul of anti-DEI forces among the feds which are banning DEI programs from federal contractors and directing authorities to investigate “illegal DEI” practices at public companies. High profile DEI scalebacks include Amazon, Meta, Walmart, Starbucks, Ford, Boeing, McDonald’s, and Target. Other companies, however, have doubled down. Apple asked its shareholders to retain its DEI policies, and Costco’s board of directors convinced 98% of stockholders to retain its initiatives. Cancelling DEI can also receive significant pushback, as Target after it cut the initiative after touting it as a company policy for years. Some shareholders have filed a fraud lawsuit against the retailer as a result.
- Both employment and average wages for nonsupervisory employees in the management consulting industry increased about 3% overall in 2024, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. The growth came despite a challenging environment in the industry as demand waned during and after the pandemic, causing hiring freezes and layoffs. Overall compensation looks bigger on paper largely due to companies adding benefits (bonuses, profit-sharing, paid-leave) rather than increasing wages. Starting management consultant salaries, however, have remained stagnant across all company sizes for the past two years per a study from career coaching firm Management Consulted. This was true among not only the big four - Deloitte, PwC, EY, and KPMG - but among the coveted MBB crowd (McKinsey, Boston Consulting, Bain), who have historically paid the most. Compensation is expected to remain flat in 2025 as the industry continues to cut costs through an increased use of generative AI and remote work.
- Return-to-office mandates continue to increase as employers increasingly sour on employees working from home. A KPMG survey from 2024 found that among 400 US CEOs, about 80% thought employees would be back in the office full time by the end of 2027. Big employers that have recently mandated a return to full time in-office work include Amazon, JPMorgan Chase, WPP, and AT&T. Employees, though, after finding more work-life balance during and after the pandemic, still favor remote or hybrid work in some form. The issue has become a heated push and pull between employers who want more in-person collaboration, and employees who have grown accustomed to the flexibility remote work provides. Per LinkedIn, 1 in 10 workers want to change jobs over the issue. Industries where remote/hybrid job listings increased last year included non-profits, insurance, finance, and technology, according to ZipRecruiter.
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