Drafting in any of the “big three” management consultancy firms to help companies with certain projects has no positive effect and sometimes even make things worse, a survey of their former clients has found.
The study, which polled 702 bosses and project managers, found that 84 per cent of those that worked with the so-called big three firms, which includes McKinsey, Bain and Boston Consulting Group (BCG), found them to have been “no help at all”, while three per cent believed they actually hindered a project.
Only 13 per cent respondents said the big beasts of management consultancy were more of a help than a hindrance, the poll said.
Alex Adamopoulos, the chief executive of Emergn, a smaller consultancy that commissioned the research, said: “What you have is big consultancy armies with briefcases; they walk into organisations and confidently try to get them to fit into a pre-designed transformation strategy mould. But what organisations need is a solution that works in their context.”
The survey’s findings come amid a challenging period for the management consultancy sector following a boom over the pandemic when businesses turned to them to help transition to remote working and establish new supply chains.
McKinsey, the largest of the three firms, laid off hundreds of its staff in April this year, attracting headlines for offering some employees nine months pay for them to leave and find another job. Bain was also revealed to be offering buyouts to UK staff in the spring.
It also follows several high profile incidents of work produced by firms going viral for its perceived inefficacy. Last month, New York City’s contract with McKinsey on a project to assess whether the city should collect domestic waste using wheelie bins, for which the consultant billed the cash-strapped city a reported $1.6m (£1.2m), prompted widespread ridicule.
Meanwhile, the number of public sector contracts looks set to diminish after the new Labour government pledged to scrap all non-essential spending on consultants.
McKinsey and Bain were approached for comment. BCG declined to comment.