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Best Boutique Consulting Firms

Which are the best small, mid-sized and specialist consulting firms to work for?
Survey Methodology

What is a boutique firm?

While there is no hard and fast definition, the term is generally understood within the consulting industry to refer to firms that are narrower in focus and smaller in size than the larger, generalist firms that can offer advice across a wide range of practice areas and industries. Thus, each of the firms on this ranking are specialists in their practice areas--some have, in fact, just one area of specialization, and all had fewer than 750 consultants at the time of publication.

Why work for a boutique?

There are many reasons why someone would choose to work for a boutique consulting firm over one of the larger competitors in the industry. For example, boutiques tend to offer better work-life balance opportunities. Some staff employees locally, as opposed to firms that operate on 100% travel models. And sometimes, it just comes down to specialization: if you're only interested in economics or public sector consulting, it might not make sense to work at a firm where you'll be expected to rotate through a variety of practice areas in your first two years.

Every year, we look at our consulting survey data from a number of angles, trying to find insights and takeaways about the consulting industry that we haven't seen before. One of those insights led directly to the creation of the Best Boutique Firms ranking--that when you compare responses of employees from large firms and those who work for boutiques, one major factor stands out: big firm consultants are much more likely to value the prestige of their organization than those who work for boutiques.

Interestingly, the remaining factors that motivate employees at the two groups of firms are almost identical and, when prestige is excluded, are also weighted almost identically.

As a result, we decided to examine our data from that perspective: to eliminate prestige as a concern, and simply rank the boutique firms based on the remaining factors that consultants identified as being important to them, weighted as closely as possible to their relative importance in our survey data. The result is this ranking, which is weighted as follows:

25% Firm Culture
20% Satisfaction
20% Work/Life Balance
10% Level of Challenge
10% Compensation
10% Overall Business Outlook
5% Promotion Policies

As ever, our survey is only open to consultants who are currently employed at reputable firms in the industry. When rating quality of life issues, consultants are only permitted to rate their own firm. For prestige and practice area rankings, however, consultants are only allowed to rate competitors, and NOT their own firms.

Take Our Survey

Each year Vault invites eligible consulting firms to participate in our annual Consulting Survey. Please contact us if you’re interested in having your firm considered for inclusion.

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2021 Best Boutique Consulting Firms

#1
SCORE 9.522
2020 Rank 2

ghSMART

The early leaders of ghSMART set out to create a top firm in the emerging segment of professional services called management assessment. Nearly 25 years later, the firm is made up of more than fifty consultants and, while management assessment...

Overview Survey Says Why Work Here Employee Reviews
#2
SCORE 9.439
2020 Rank 1

ClearView Healthcare Partners

ClearView is a boutique consulting firm in the life sciences strategy field that provides advice and insights across four main areas of focus: pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical devices, and diagnostics. Founded in 2007, the company has...

Overview Survey Says Employee Reviews
#3
SCORE 9.293
2020 Rank 4

Putnam Associates

For more than 30 years Putnam Associates has grown into a premier strategy consulting firm serving biopharmaceutical, biotechnology (cell, gene and tissue therapies), diagnostics, medical device, and related clients in the healthcare space. The...

Overview Survey Says Why Work Here Employee Reviews
#4
SCORE 9.185
2020 Rank 5

The Keystone Group

Founded in 1991, The Keystone Group is a management consulting firm that works with mid-market manufacturing and distribution clients. The firm is based in Chicago, with another office in Atlanta. Manufacturing Profit Keystone operates in...

Overview Survey Says Employee Reviews
#5
SCORE 9.155
2020 Rank 7

Blue Matter Consulting LLC

Founded in 2012, Blue Matter is a specialized management consulting firm serving the life sciences industry. The firm maintains offices across the United States and Europe. Blue Matter works to help pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies...

Overview Survey Says Why Work Here Employee Reviews
#6
SCORE 9.077
2020 Not Ranked

Kx Advisors (A Kaiser Associates Partner Company)

Kx Advisors (operating as Kaiser Associates’ Healthcare Practice) has provided strategy consulting services to help healthcare executives achieve critical business growth goals for more than three decades. With a highly collaborative approach,...

Overview Survey Says Employee Reviews
#7
SCORE 9.049
2020 Not Ranked

Potomac Point Group

Potomac Point Group is a boutique management consulting firm. Since 2011, the firm has worked closely together with its clients to help them innovate, tackle change, and make lasting enhancements to their businesses. Some of Potomac Point...

Overview Survey Says Employee Reviews
#8
SCORE 8.974
2020 Rank 12

Eagle Hill Consulting

Billing itself as a "family-run, woman-owned company," Eagle Hill Consulting serves clients in five distinct sectors: financial services; public service; nonprofit; health and life sciences; and media, technology and entertainment. With offices...

Overview Survey Says Why Work Here Employee Reviews
#9
SCORE 8.960
2020 Rank 13

The Bridgespan Group

Co-founder and managing partner of The Bridgespan Group, Jeffrey L. Bradach left his post at Harvard Business School’s Organizational Behavior and Social Enterprise Initiative department, where he was a professor, to start the firm. Bradach is...

Overview Survey Says Employee Reviews
#10
SCORE 8.945
2020 Rank 9

Health Advances

The professionals at Health Advances consult about one thing and one thing only: health care. Established in 1992, the firm's core belief is that focusing on just one industry allows it to provide clients with greater resources and focused...

Overview Survey Says Why Work Here Employee Reviews
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