ANALYZING TRENDS IN Q3 2019: BECKWAY GROUP’S INDEX OF CONSULTING FIRM WHITE PAPERS
Executive Summary
Beckway has published its Consulting Firm White Paper Index for Q3 2019. We selected 26 of the leading management consulting firms, reviewed their knowledge papers, and categorized this information into themes. Our examination was further refined by placing each theme within three frameworks: industry, functional solutions and geography. This analysis provides critical insight into what the leading consulting firms believe are the most relevant management topics in the corporate world.
In Q3 2019, we incorporated an analysis of 729 knowledge papers.
- The IT/BPO/Communications industry took the spotlight, representing 12% of the total, which made it the largest industry topic surveyed by the consulting firms. It has taken precedence over our Q2 leader, the healthcare/pharmaceutical industry.
- In the functional solutions framework, Technology &Transformation, R&D/Integration remined the highest level of interest from Q2 at 13%.
- The geographical themes were slightly changed compared to Q1 2019, with the United states making the most significant decrease from 29% to 21%, although still holding on to the top spot. Ranked highest to lowest are the U.S., Europe, UK/Russia, China, Asia/Pacific, Australia, India, Africa & Spain and Canada. However, this does not account for the 55% of articles published without a specific geographical focus, which we designated as “global.”
Industry View
The IT/BPO/Communications industry has taken the lead in Q3 with 12% and 87 articles. IT/BPO/communications is becoming increasingly more important while companies search for ways to cut costs by relying on business process outsourcing BPO (See Tables 1 & 2).
The second major industry, which gained popularity from Q2 2019 Financial Services/Business & Strategy, with 74 articles and accounting for 10% overall. The level of attention to this category has increased while companies aim to strategize their business processes in order to be financially responsible.
The Healthcare/Pharmaceutical industry has taken third place in the rankings with 10% and 55 articles but is expected to continue to be hot topics for a vast majority of Americans and are increasingly becoming more prevalent with the upcoming Presidential election in 2020.
The number four spot, representing 48 articles and 7% overall, is the Banking category, followed by Energy at 6% with 46 articles.
Table 1
Table 2
Functional Solutions View
In the functional solutions category, our analysis revealed that Technology & Transformation, R&D/Integration remained at the top of the chart with 95 articles and 13%, which beat out Company/Industry Strategy & Review at 11% and Consumer/Market Analysis & access also with 11%, both tied for second with 78 articles. Automation/ innovation/Ideas/requirements took spot number four with 8% and 59 articles, followed by Digitization/ Smart technology with 8% and 55 articles. When combined, the top five categories represented over half of the total, at 51%.
The biggest percentage increase from Q2 2019 to Q3 2019 was Consumer / Market Analysis & access, jumping from 9% to 11%. The largest percentage was Gov't policy/ Rules & regulation, dropping from 8% to 5% (See Tables 3 and 4).
Table 3
Table 4
Geographical View
More than half (51%) of the articles published did not have a specific geographical focus, so we classified them as “global” (See Tables 5 & 6). The remainder of knowledge papers, as predicted, featured the U.S. as its main geographical focus, and represented 21% of the total, an 8% decrease from Q2. Rounding out the top five were Europe, UK/Russia, China and Asia/Pacific.
Table 5
Table 6
About the Index
Beckway calculates the index because we believe that understanding the trends of leading management consulting firms is both informative and important.
Our website serves as a research center for these topics since we provide full-length links to the individual papers.
The index is calculated by reviewing white papers on the websites of the management consulting sample set, which is listed below. Each knowledge paper is reviewed and assigned a theme. In a minority of cases, multiple themes are assigned, each receiving a proportional score such that each knowledge paper is only recorded as a single entry.
We appreciate Empulse Global’s assistance in this analysis.
The list of firms included in Q3 2019 are listed below:
Accenture Consulting
Alix Partners
Alvarez and Marsal
Arthur D Little
AT Kearney
Bain & Company
BCG
Capgemini
Deloitte Consulting
FTI Consulting
Grant Thorton Consulting
Huron Consulting Group
KPMG Management Consulting
LEK Consulting
McKinsey
Marakon
Navigant
Oliver Wyman
Parthenon – EY
Protiviti
PWC Advisory
Roland Berger
Simon-Kucher and Partners
ZS Associates
Slalom Consulting
IBM Consulting
About Beckway
Beckway provides operational capabilities through operating partners, proprietary execution software and talent finders to private equity funds to support due diligence and enhance their portfolio investment performance. www.beckway.com
Contact Details
Danyell Lance, Chief People Officer, BeckWay Group. dlance@beckway.com