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Vault's 2021 Ranking of the Best Consulting Firms in Europe and Asia-Pacific

Published: Jan 19, 2021

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Today, we're thrilled to announce the release of our annual ranking of the Best Consulting Firms to Work For in Europe and Asia-Pacific. The Consulting Rankings highlight the best firms in these regions across 39 categories and include the overall Top Consulting Firms in Europe and Asia-Pacific, as well as the Most Prestigious Consulting Firms, the Best Consulting Firms in Each Practice Area, and the Best Consulting Firms to Work For in key employment factors, including compensation, work/life balance, corporate culture, and more for each region.

Over the course of this past year, beginning at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and extending into the fall, Vault worked closely with more than 130 of the world’s top consulting firms to coordinate the distribution of our annual survey to employees around the world. Despite the unprecedented global upheaval, more than 16,000 consulting professionals participated in our survey across North America; Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA); Asia-Pacific (APAC); and Latin America. Almost 5,000 consultants participated in EMEA and APAC. Their responses form the basis of our Europe and Asia-Pacific rankings.

These consultants’ invaluable insights give jobseekers an insider’s perspective when researching their next career move. Every year, we ask employees to rate their own firms on a scale of 1 to 10 based on firm culture, compensation, work/life balance, overall business outlook, satisfaction, and other employment factors. We also asked consultants to rate the prestige of peer firms and to select the strongest firms in more than a dozen specific practice areas; for the prestige and practice area rankings, consultants were unable to rate or vote for their own firms. The Vault Consulting 25 Europe and Consulting 15 Asia-Pacific rankings are based on a weighted formula that combines each firm’s prestige rating with its scores in several key employment factors to come up with an overall list of the Best Consulting Firms to Work For.  

The Top 5 Consulting Firms in Europe are:

  1. McKinsey & Company
  2. Bain & Company
  3. Roland Berger
  4. Oliver Wyman
  5. Strategy&

The Top 5 Consulting Firms in Asia-Pacific are:

  1. McKinsey & Company
  2. Bain & Company
  3. Roland Berger
  4. Oliver Wyman
  5. Kearney

McKinsey & Company is No. 1 this year in both Europe and Asia-Pacific. The firm also ranks No. 1 in both regions for multiple employment factors, including Firm Leadership, Firm Culture, Exit Opportunities, International Opportunities, and Overall Business Outlook. Says one employee in one of McKinsey’s European offices, “Come with a vision of what you want to get out of McKinsey: the skills you want to acquire, the clients you want to serve, the geographies you want to experience, the people you want to help develop as leaders. The opportunities afforded by the firm are effectively limitless.”

Bain & Company ranks No. 2 in Europe and Asia-Pacific. It is No. 1 in Europe for Promotion Policies and takes the top spot in Asia-Pacific for Training (both Formal and Informal) and overall Satisfaction. One employee in the Asia-Pacific region praises Bain’s “excellent training programs and strong mentorship culture” as well as the firm’s “very diverse and inclusive workplace.” Another employee in the region cites an “outstanding apprenticeship model [where] people are given all the opportunities and responsibilities that they can handle.”

Roland Berger rounds out the Top 3 in both Europe and Asia-Pacific rankings. In Europe, the firm performs well in several practice areas, including Energy Consulting (No. 4) and Strategy Consulting (No. 5). As one employee in the region told us, “At Roland Berger, you have the chance to work in a fast-paced, challenging environment with continuous learning opportunities…you work with people of diverse backgrounds and from different offices…Employees are rewarded based on merit (i.e. high performers are promoted faster).” The firm’s Asia-Pacific presence is distinguished by strong performance in various employment factors, including Innovation (No. 2), Satisfaction (No. 2), Exit Opportunities (No. 3) and Benefits (No. 3).

Vault Ranks the Most Prestigious Consulting Firms in Europe and Asia-Pacific

There aren’t often surprises in the ranking of the most prestigious consulting firms, and understandably so. This held true in this year’s North American rankings, and it holds true for both the European and Asia-Pacific rankings, which only saw one firm move into the Top 5 in one region (Roland Berger Europe).

Consultants who participate in our survey are not allowed to rate the prestige of their own firms; they can only rate their peers. The firms that rank are often the standard-bearers of the consulting industry—those global juggernauts whose influence and renown all but ensure near-universal name recognition.

The 5 Most Prestigious Consulting Firms in Europe are:

  1. McKinsey & Company
  2. Boston Consulting Group
  3. Bain & Company
  4. Oliver Wyman
  5. Roland Berger

The 5 Most Prestigious Consulting Firms in Asia-Pacific are:

  1. McKinsey & Company
  2. Boston Consulting Group
  3. Bain & Company
  4. Kearney
  5. Deloitte (Consulting Practice)

Below are the rest of our Consulting Rankings for Europe and Asia-Pacific, along with the firms that rank No. 1 in each (categories marked with an asterisk are new to this year’s rankings).

Vault Ranks the Best Consulting Firms in Each Practice Area for Europe and Asia-Pacific

Practice Area

Europe

Asia-Pacific

Data Analytics*

Accenture

IQVIA

Economic

McKinsey & Company

NERA Economic Consulting

Energy

Boston Consulting Group

McKinsey & Company

Environmental Sustainability*

Boston Consulting Group

Sia Partners

Financial

McKinsey & Company

McKinsey & Company

Health Care

Boston Consulting Group

Kx Advisors

Human Resources

Korn Ferry

Aon

IT Operations

Accenture

Accenture

IT Strategy

Accenture

Accenture

Management

Boston Consulting Group

Boston Consulting Group

Operations

Boston Consulting Group

Boston Consulting Group

Pricing, Sales & Marketing

Simon-Kucher & Partners

Simon-Kucher & Partners

Retail

Boston Consulting Group

Boston Consulting Group

Strategy

Boston Consulting Group

McKinsey & Company

Technology, Media & Telecommunications

McKinsey & Company

Boston Consulting Group / McKinsey & Company (tie)

Vault Ranks the Best Consulting Firms to Work For by Employment Factor

for Europe and Asia-Pacific

Employment Factor

Europe

Asia-Pacific

Benefits

McKinsey & Company

McKinsey & Company

Compensation

Blue Matter Consulting

McKinsey & Company

Diversity

McKinsey & Company

McKinsey & Company

Exit Opportunities

McKinsey & Company

McKinsey & Company

Firm Culture

McKinsey & Company

McKinsey & Company

Firm Leadership

McKinsey & Company

McKinsey & Company

Formal Training

McKinsey & Company

Bain & Company

Health & Wellness*

Blue Matter Consulting

McKinsey & Company

Hours in the Office

Blue Matter Consulting

McKinsey & Company

Informal Training

Kearney

 Bain & Company

Innovation

Whiteshield Partners

McKinsey & Company

Interaction with Clients

McKinsey & Company

McKinsey & Company

Internal Mobility

McKinsey & Company

McKinsey & Company

International Opportunities

McKinsey & Company

McKinsey & Company

Level of Challenge

McKinsey & Company

McKinsey & Company

Overall Business Outlook

McKinsey & Company

McKinsey & Company

Promotion Policies

Bain & Company

McKinsey & Company

Relationships with Supervisors

McKinsey & Company

McKinsey & Company

Satisfaction

Blue Matter Consulting

Bain & Company

Selectivity

McKinsey & Company

McKinsey & Company

Travel Requirements

Blue Matter Consulting

McKinsey & Company

Work/Life Balance

Blue Matter Consulting

McKinsey & Company

Vault Expands its Footprint to Latin America and the Caribbean

This year, for the first time, we also surveyed professionals at the top consulting firms with a presence in Latin America and the Caribbean so that we can continue delivering the invaluable insights that experienced and aspiring consultants have come to rely on—on a truly global scale. Almost 600 employees at McKinsey & Company, Bain & Company, Alvarez & Marsal, Oliver Wyman, and more participated in the region. Our hope in the coming years is to grow engagement enough to release rankings of the Best Consulting Firms to Work For in Latin America and the Caribbean.

View the complete Vault Consulting Rankings for North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.

We also recently published the Vault Guide to Case Interviews, Ninth Edition, which provides an inside perspective on what recruiters and interviewers expect from candidates as well as key business frameworks and more than 50 sample cases, guesstimates, and brainteasers likely to come up in an interview.


About Vault Career Intelligence

Vault, an Infobase Company, is the most comprehensive resource for employer, university, and firm program rankings, ratings, and insights. Vault’s influential rankings and reviews are sourced from directed surveys of professionals and students, and evaluate companies, schools, and internships in terms of prestige, best place to work, diversity, quality of life, compensation, and other categories. Vault offers strategic content and digital tools to help career searchers research employers, industries, interviews, and available jobs and firms. In addition, Vault partners with employers to help build their brands and assist with recruiting efforts, as well as with universities to help their students with employment placement and career selection.

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