You ever wondered what the differences are between consulting firms? Today I'm
gonna talk a little bit about the differences between the, top three firms,
and the big four consulting firms. Let me start with the top three firms. The top
three firms generally are respected as McKinsey, Bain, and BCG. Three great firms
that have really grown out of McKinsey, and then offshoots of McKinsey or firms
that have sold against McKinsey. The premier focus of these firms is that they focus
on strategy. They focus on C level purchasing's, to work with CEOs of larger
corporations. And they've built pretty large global practices, but still in
comparison to big four firms, the top three firms are very small. So that's one
of the major differences between them. Top three firms are smaller than the big
four firms, on average about a tenth of the size or even smaller. That creates a
very different cultural dynamic. It also means that they hire fewer people a year.
Generally they have slightly more focused hiring efforts, they work with
fewer partner schools to do their hiring. And they also have more limited
practices, so their brand in some ways is stronger because you have a more
identifiable background for people, more identifiable path inside the firm, and
more identifiable future- places that you go outside of the top three firms. Then
there are the big four firms, which includes: Deloitte, S&O, as well as the
Deloitte Monitor practice. It includes PwC, which has a strategy practice on its own
and then it also includes Strategy&. You have KPMG, and then you also have
EY Parthenon. And EY Parthenon is really the the premier strategy group inside
EY now. And the different firms handle very different integrations with some of
the external firms differently. Deloitte bought Monitor. PwC bought Strategy&.
EY bought Parthenon. EY has integrated them the most
Deloitte had the largest practice to start with, so they have swallowed them instead of
integrating them. And then PwC Strategy& are still kind of trying to navigate
whether their operating as the same firm or a different firm. So not all
big four firms even in their strategy practices are created equal. Something
else though that's really important to understand other than the size
difference between the top three and the big four firms, which relates to
secondarily a culture difference, is that the work types are different. Top three
firms generally have historically focused more on strategy work, whereas
big four firms have historically focused more on implementation work. Now those
lines are starting to bleed, a lot of the big four firms are working on some
strategy to get the implementation work. While the top three firms are working on
strategy rolling into implementation work, and building out some more of those
capabilities. So we're gonna see some shifts a little bit in that as time goes
on in the future. But right now that delineation is still pretty normal.
Generally is a worker at a top three firm, you're gonna have more project
rotations, versus if you're working in a big four firm. And overall in general,
both of the firms have great HR practices, some benefits, good pay. At the
MBB firms, the top three firms, you are going to be paid a delta more, slightly more,
than you would at the Deloitte's of the world. And generally you actually work
fewer hours in addition at the top three firms. Now that's interesting to a lot of
people. It's not necessarily evident. And the reason is that the firms at the top
three levels scope their projects pretty narrowly, and they don't bill by the hour.
Whereas a firm like Deloitte, does bill by the hour, they come out of their audit
and their tax practice which are very hour billable heavy. At the consulting
level on the top three firms, they bill by the project. So if at Bain you're able
to complete your work in 30 hours you don't have any incentive to work for 50
or 60. Usually you're working more than 30 hours, but just as an example there
isn't any benefit to the firm for you to work for more hours. Whereas in the big
four firms, working more hours and billing more hours is actually
advantageous. And that really fundamentally creates a huge culture
divide between the firm's. Whether you're trying to be super expeditious with your
work, or whether you trying to be super liberal with the amount of hours
that you're billing. Overall there are lots of nuances and
lots of differences, we couldn't cover them all, but we hope that you've enjoyed
this video about some of the differences between top three and big four firms. If
you have experience working in any of these firms or questions about working
for them. Please reach out to us. comment on this video, subscribe to our Channel,
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