The Big Three or MBB refers to the name colloquially given to the world's three largest strategy consulting firms by revenue. They are also considered to be the most prestigious employers in the strategic consulting industry. McKinsey is the biggest of these with an annual revenue of $8bn followed by BCG ($5bn revenue) and then Bain ($2bn revenue).
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The firms
The three consulting firms widely regarded as constituting the Big Three or MBB are McKinsey & Company, Boston Consulting Group and Bain & Company.
McKinsey & Company
This firm was founded under the name "McKinsey & Company" in Chicago by James McKinsey in 1926. The firm has grown significantly since then, establishing 104 offices located in 60 different countries as of 2014. McKinsey & Company has been voted number one in the "The Best Consulting Firms: Prestige" list of the Vault.com career intelligence website consecutively for 14 years since the year 2002. The firm currently serves two-thirds of the Fortune 1000. Their areas of expertise include management, organisation, operations and IT.
The Boston Consulting Group
BCG was founded in 1963 by Bruce D. Henderson, a former Bible salesman and a Vanderbilt University and Harvard Business School alumnus. Starting out with only two consultants, the firm quickly grew. It currently employs 12,000 people over 88 offices in 48 different countries. BCG also has been consistently featured in Consulting Magazine’s "Best Firms to Work For" lists since the year 2001. Their areas of expertise include corporate development, growth and innovation.
Bain & Company
Bain is the smallest and youngest consulting firm out of the Big Three firms. The firm was founded by a group of ten employees from The Boston Consulting Group in 1973, led by Bill Bain. It currently has 53 offices in 34 different countries. The firm pioneered Private Equity consulting and the fund Bain Capital was founded by partners from Bain & Company and led by Mitt Romney. Their areas of expertise include private equity, mergers and acquisitions and retail. Bain has been ranked #1 "Best Place to Work" by Glassdoor and leads the Vault Consulting 50 ranking, as well as Vault's "Best Consulting Firms to Work For" ranking.
These three firms have stood out from other competitors, and have consolidated as the top-tier of management consulting business. Their latest publicly available data is summarised in the table below: