Boston Consulting Group

The firm was founded by Bruce Henderson in 1963 as part of The Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Company. Henderson had previously been employed at Arthur D. Little.[7] In 1973, Bill Bain and others left BCG to form Bain & Company. In 1974, Henderson arranged an employee stock ownership plan so that the employees could make the company independent from The Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Company. The buyout of all shares was completed in 1979.[8]

As part of the federal government's auto bailout program, Boston Consulting Group was paid as much as $7 million to advise General Motors and Chrysler to help costs and overhaul operations.[9]

In January 2020, long-time BCG director Lisa Ellis-James left the consultancy to join Ogletree Deakins as COO.[10]

BCG typically hires for an associate or a consultant position, recruiting from top undergraduate colleges and business schools.[11] The firm also offers summer internships.[12][13]

Insiders estimate that BCG North American offices receive around 10,000 resumes every year for the associate position.[14]

Senior associates have the opportunity to work abroad through BCG's exchange program.[15][16] Many associates are also sponsored by the firm to attend business school.[17][18] As is typical for the top strategy consultancies, BCG practices an "up or out," or forced attrition, system, in which employees must leave the company if they fail to achieve a promotion within a fixed time frame.[19]

In the 1970s, BCG created and popularized the "growth–share matrix," a chart to help large corporations decide how to allocate cash among their business units. The corporation would categorize its business units as "Stars," "Cash Cows," "Question Marks," or "Dogs," and then allocate cash accordingly, moving money from Cash Cows toward Stars and Question Marks, which have higher market growth rates and hence greater upside potential.[22][23]

BCG has built a network of companies that complement its management consulting skill set.[24]

On January 19, 2020, The New York Times identified the Boston Consulting Group as having facilitated Isabel dos Santos's exploitation of Angola's natural resources while the country suffers from poverty, illiteracy, and infant mortality.[37] The Times said BCG was contracted by the Angolan state-owned petroleum company Sonangol Group as well as the jewelry company De Grisogono, owned by her husband through shell companies in Luxembourg, Malta, and the Netherlands; the firm was reportedly paid through offshore companies in tax havens such as Malta.[37]

Every year, BCG publishes articles, industry reports, government commissioned studies, and books relating to particular industries or authorial practice areas. Many partners have written books on management issues:

• Silverstein, Michael J.; Fiske, Neil (2003), Trading Up: Why Consumers Want New Luxury Goods and How Companies Create Them, ISBN 978-1591840800.
• Andrew, James P.; Sirkin, Harold L. (2006), Payback: Reaping the Rewards of Innovation, Harvard Business School Press, ISBN 978-1422103135.
• Evans, Philip; Wurster, Thomas S. (2000), Blown to Bits: How the New Economics of Information Transforms Strategy, ISBN 978-0875848778
• Silverstein, Michael J.; Butman, John (2006), Treasure Hunt: Inside the Mind of the New Consumer, ISBN 978-1591841234
• Duck, Jeanie Daniel (2002), The Change Monster: The Human Forces that Fuel or Foil Corporate Transformation and Change, ISBN 978-0609607718

• Official website