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The Best Consulting Firms in Europe, 2016

Published: Oct 06, 2015

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I'm delighted to announce that the Vault's 2016 European Consulting Rankings are now live!

Marking our final set of consulting rankings for the year—we released North America and Asia-Pacific in August and September respectively –it's wonderful to be able to report that all three rankings were based on significantly higher survey responses than in previous years, from a higher number of participating firms than ever before.

Of all the regions we cover, Europe has had by far the most interesting year in terms of movements in the industry—while the overall story has been about continued, albeit weak, recovery in the European economy as a whole, issues such as the drop in value of the ruble, falling oil prices, and political instability in different areas all came through in the survey, and influenced to a greater or lesser degree the things that consultants told us about their firm and the industry they work in.


One quick insight by way of example: several Russia-based consultants noted that the drop in the value of the ruble had effectively slashed the purchasing power of their salaries elsewhere in the region—a fact that becomes especially frustrating when working alongside colleagues being paid in pounds, euros, or dollars.

 

Verified Results

As with all our surveys, every response we received came from a verified employee of the firm being surveyed. After that, we simply get out of the way: beyond the weighting for our signature ranking, there are no tricks, algorithms or other editorial input into any part of the ranking process. Consultants rate their own firms on quality of life, and competing firms on prestige. We take those answers, average them, and compile our rankings accordingly: the firm with the highest average score in any given category appears at the top of the list, followed by the next highest, and so on.

To emerge as one of the top firms in our rankings, then, couldn't be simpler: all companies have to do is work tirelessly to keep their employees happy across a range of factors from compensation to work-life balance, while also providing them with the opportunity to grow, develop new skills and make career progress.

The rankings

Without further ado, I offer my sincere congratulations to each of the firms that qualified in any of our rankings in Europe—an honor roll that includes the most prestigious firms in the region,  23 separate quality of life rankings, 11 separate practice areas, 5 diversity rankings, and, of course, the  signature Vault Top Consulting Europe ranking, which identifies the best firms in the region to work for.

For a sneak peek of that ranking, here at the top 5 firms for 2016:

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

 

Check out the full ranking here.

I hope you will take the time to explore this and some of the other rankings that we offer, as well as the profiles of each of the firms surveyed which come complete with comments on life at the firm that you won't find anywhere else. At Vault, we truly believe that researching your future employer is one of the keys to finding the perfect fit that will allow your career to take off. These rankings, and the accompanying firm profiles, are a great way to start taking the temperature of the industry and the firms within it. Who knows: your next employer may be just a couple of clicks away!

 

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