France's top strategy consulting firms in the industrials sector

A new analysis of consulting firms active in France has identified the country’s top providers of strategic consultancy services to the manufacturing and industrials sector.

Valued at around one fifth of France’s roughly €5 billion management consulting industry, the strategy consulting segment spans services aimed at clients’ most strategic challenges. Whether it relates to the development of a new corporate strategy, outlining strategic scenarios for the future, merger & acquisition support, or the transition to a new, digital-savvy business model, strategy consultants help a company's board and senior managers with designing and navigating pressing cases for change. 

France’s market for strategy consulting services is dominated by a group of leading players, consisting of large global firms, including the ‘MBB’ trio (McKinsey, BCG and Bain), a group of European-origin counterparts (led by Germany headquartered Roland Berger and UK-origin L.E.K. Consulting) and a band of homegrown challengers including the likes of Advancy, Emerton and Advention. 

According to data sourced from French outlet Decideurs Magazine, which assesses the quality of services as well as company reputation among decision-makers and consultants, McKinsey & Company, Boston Consulting Group, Roland Berger and French firm Emerton lead the lead the way in strategic consulting services to industrial executives. The industrial goods or manufacturing sector spans companies that rely heavily on industrial processes for turning raw materials into products or goods, including aerospace and defence, automotive, construction, chemicals, machinery, consumer goods and textile.

The market-leading position of McKinsey and BCG comes as no major surprise: they are among the largest players in France, mirroring their global grandeur, and consistently rank in the top echelon of similar local rankings. Roland Berger’s top rank builds for a large part on the firm’s growing Paris office and Francophone leadership, groomed by the firm’s CEO himself, Charles-Edouard Bouée, a French national who is now in his second term as CEO (and the first non-German to hold the role).Established in 2012, Emerton is a boutique strategy consulting firm that operates with a team of around 50 consultants from offices in Paris, Brussels, Boston, New York and Dubai. The privately held company works with large corporations, family businesses and technology entrepreneurs on topics such as strategy, (commercial) due diligence, market entry, economic policy, marketing & sales, and innovation.

Strategy consulting services

A group of ten consulting firms follow shortly behind the leading pack, with their breadth and depth of strategy consulting services qualified as “excellent”. Bain & Company, A.T. Kearney, Oliver Wyman, Strategy& and L.E.K. Consulting are brands that raise no eyebrows – all five are among the ten largest strategy consultancies of the world. Accenture and Deloitte both see their dedicated strategy consulting arms – Accenture Strategy and Monitor Deloitte (established in 2012 after Deloitte bought Monitor Group) – also make the cut, showing their heels to two of the other ‘big four’ players EY and KPMG.

While KPMG doesn’t have a dedicated strategy consulting arm, instead serving the market with its Deals & Growth Strategy and Corporate Finance service lines, EY has been pushing hard to build its strategic consulting services through its EY-Parthenon brand. Formed in 2014 when EY picked up The Parthenon Group, the firm has since more than tripled in size, with Europe its key growth market; particularly so in France, as well as the Benelux and Germany, as EY-Parthenon was bolstered significantly with the purchase of the local teams of OC&C Strategy Consultants. 

Three of the other excellent ranking strategy consulting firms in France have their roots in the country. Advancy was founded in 1999 in Paris, and now has offices in Paris, Shanghai, Sydney, São Paulo, London, New Delhi and Boston, and has an additional network of nine affiliate consulting partners around the world. Corporate Value Associates (CVA) positions itself as a global strategy boutique – the consultancy has over 250 advisors across seventeen offices globally, with the firm’s Paris office one of its strongholds. Mars & Co is of a similar size, but operates with a smaller number of offices with seven globally. The company was founded 40 years ago by a former BCG Director, with the “raison d'être” to serve clients in an industry segment on an exclusive basis, an approach which it to a large extent still maintains today. 

Also listed among France’s top strategic consultancies are Arthur D. Little, the world’s oldest management consulting firm; Eleven Strategy, a Paris-based consultancy that focuses mainly on digital strategy; Advention Business Partners, a group founded in 2001 with offices in Paris, London, Moscow, Munich, New York, Dubai, and Shanghai; and Estin & Co; a firm founded by alumni of BCG, McKinsey and Oliver Wyman which currently consists of some 150-plus strategy consultants based in Paris, London, Zurich, New York and Shanghai.

In another ranking of strategy consulting firms in France, based on the view of students, McKinsey, BCG and Bain surfaced as the country’s most prestigious employers.