McKinsey & Company #1 Consulting Firm for Eighth Straight Year, says Vault

Annual Vault Consulting Survey Shows Shifts in the Rankings Reflect Overall Market Conditions

NEW YORK, September 15, 2009: Vault (www.vault.com), the web’s most comprehensive resource for career intelligence, today announced the Top 50 Management and Strategy Consulting Firms for 2010, and for the eighth straight year McKinsey & Company has been ranked #1.  While there was little change in the Top 10, the rankings show significant movement for firms that specialize in human resources and those that are best known for their business advisory prowess.

Business advisory and restructuring firm Alvarez & Marsal, which is handling the dismantling of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., leapt an unprecedented 23 places from last year, coming in at #21. Other firms that saw significant (but not quite as stratospheric) improvement in their ranking include AlixPartners, FTI Consulting and niche HR players Watson Wyatt Worldwide, Aon Consulting Worldwide and Hay Group.

Naomi Newman, global consulting editor at Vault, says the rankings are an accurate reflection of the global economy.  “In a year of extreme economic and financial turbulence, it's not surprising that the firms that advanced the most in our ranking are those to which other companies flock in uncertain times.”

As part of Vault’s annual Management and Strategy Consulting Survey, which was conducted from January through April of this year, a record 5,500 consultants of all levels were asked to rate consulting firms on a scale of 1 to 10 based on prestige (they were unable to rate their own firm, and were asked to rate only firms with which they were familiar). With its track record in the Vault rankings, and its perceived reputation by industry peers, it's unsurprising that consultants describe McKinsey as "world class," "still the standard" and "the big dog." Of course, the firm is "not for everybody," some respondents claim, and its detractors criticize it for the "poor work/life balance" it offers consultants, and for its "pretentious" and "arrogant" attitude.

The Top 10 firms, as ranked in the Vault Guide to the Top 50 Management and Strategy Consulting Firms are:

            1. McKinsey & Company                                      

            2. The Boston Consulting Group, Inc.                   

            3. Bain & Company                                                           

            4. Booz & Company                                                          

            5. Deloitte Consulting LLP                                    

            6. Monitor Group                                                   

            7. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP                            

            8. Mercer LLC                                                                   

            9. Ernst & Young LLP                                                       

            10. Oliver Wyman                                                  

In addition to rating peer firms based on prestige, survey respondents were asked to rate their own firm on various quality of life issues, including work/life balance, training, compensation, green initiatives and diversity. The best-selling Vault Guide to the Top 50 Management and Strategy Consulting Firms also features individual firm profiles that give readers critical stats and company news, insiders' perspectives of working at the firm, employment contacts and “The Buzz,” overall perceptions of each firm.

To see Vault’s Top 50 Consulting Firms, please CLICK HERE.

About Vault.com

Vault.com is the Web’s most comprehensive resource for career management and job search information, including insider intelligence on salaries, hiring practices and company cultures. Vault features thousands of profiles on occupations, industries, companies and universities, as well as career-related articles, videos, blogs and research tools.  The company publishes more than 120 print and online titles, from the best-selling Vault Guide to the Top 100 Law Firms to the Vault Guide to Schmoozing. Vault’s clients include Fortune 1000 advertisers and recruiters, the country’s top universities and graduate schools.

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