The market for strategy consulting firms in France

Leading strategy consultancies play a decisive role in today's corporate strategies.

The first strategy consultancy was founded in 1886 by Arthur Dehon Little, a chemist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His aim was to tackle the most complex business problems. Other entrepreneurs followed, and the consulting business began to take shape: McKinsey in 1926, BCG in 1963, Bain in 1973.

In concrete terms, consultants from strategy consulting firms are there to help the organizations they work with transform and adapt in a constantly changing environment.

To achieve this, managers can rely on the consultants' ability to identify key trends in their industries from an outside perspective. The aim is also to bring method to the company's processes andintegrate all the expertise required for a project. Above all, companies who call on the services of strategy consultants recognize their ability to bring their teams on board, to provide them with quality support, and to set the pace for projects while respecting the uniqueness of a company and its sector, and taking the human factor into account.

The clients of strategy consulting firms are generally large companies such as those in the CAC 40 index, or investment funds seeking advice on investments in their portfolios, but we can also find orders from the public sector or from SMEs in often niche markets.

The strategy consulting market is highly concentrated. The MBBs (Mc Kinsey, Bain and BCG) make up a large part of it. For example, McKinsey provides recommendations to nearly 70% of France' s CAC40 companies. These large firms have practices in various sectors. However, some firms have chosen to develop more in-depth expertise in certain functions (private equity, organization, etc.) or themes (luxury goods, insurance, banking, retail, etc.). For example, Kéa is increasingly specializing in ESG strategies for companies.

This market remains highly dependent on a country's macroeconomic context. In France, for example, the business climate and French GDP are expected to fall by 0.7% in 2023, which will have a direct impact on managers' willingness to invest in strategy consulting services.

In concrete terms, the most common assignments for strategy consulting in 2024 include the following:

Business portfolio review

COMEX reorganization

Launching new offers

Implementing digital growth strategies

Finally, the strategy consulting sector is constantly adapting, offering its customers new offerings focused on digitization or CSR strategies , while trying to adapt to the new disruptive entrant: Artificial Intelligence.