BCG integrates digital design agency AllofUs into BCG Platinion
Global management consulting firm Boston Consulting Group has acquired AllofUs. The circa 40 employees of the digital design agency have been integrated into BCG Platinion.
“With this acquisition, we are further enhancing our ability to bring top-notch digital design capabilities to our clients while welcoming incredible talent to our team – enabling us to continue to deliver even greater value and impact for our clients,” said Karalee Close, who leads BCG’s Technology Advantage division.
Founded in 2003, AllofUs is a digital design consulting firm with studios in London and San Francisco. The firm helps clients with inventing and scaling their products and propositions, including supporting the testing and prototype phase, product/concept delivery, development of value propositions and roll-out roadmaps, and gaining insight in the voice of the customer.
For Boston Consulting Group, the acquisition expands its position in the $41 billion global design services market, a rapidly expanding industry amid the growing need for companies to cater to the changing design expectations of customers. How relevant design is becoming to businesses was recently highlighted by a large-scale study which found that companies that master design principles generate 32% higher revenue growth than their average peers.
“Our clients are demanding high-value design and engineering capability,” said Sherif Choudhry, a managing director at BCG Platinion. Clients the firm can now add to is roster include AllofUs customers such as Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Samsung, Sky and Yale University.
For AllofUs, the joining of forces with one of the globe’s top management consulting firms will offer opportunities to expand the client base – BCG has offices in 90 cities in over 50 countries – and the breadth of offerings.
Part of BCG Platinion
As part of the integration, the founders of AllofUs, Phil Gerrard and Orlando Mathias, will become partners in BCG Platinion, which is BCG’s digital implementation arm. The unit employs data engineers, experts in Agile and DevOps, architects, cybersecurity consultants, human scientists, as well as designers.
Gerrard: “Our capabilities in design thinking, coupled with BCG’s strength in business strategy, ensure that we are bringing to market an offering that can deliver value and impact for our clients at the highest level.”
The deal comes months after BCG acquired Spanish data science consultancy Kernel Analytics and Australian tech simulation firm TSG – both were integrated into BCG Gamma, another unit within BCG’s digital division. Two years ago, in the US, the consulting giant purchased MAYA, a digital design and innovation firm.
BCG’s arch-rival McKinsey & Company is also pushing into the world of digital design, having launched McKinsey Design last year.