McKinsey vs BCG Footprint analysis

Video transcript:

You're planning to start your career with Boston Consulting Group or with McKinsey. Stay tuned. Today we're making a footprint analysis and comparison of McKinsey and BCG.

Gabriel Goldbrain SUCCESS Training

I'm Gabriel Goldbrain, and my mission is to make you a Tier 1 or Tier 2 Management Consultant. I want you to earn +$100,000 US straight out of college. Go to my website, www.gabrielgoldbrain.com, for more information how I can help you to break into management consulting.

McKinsey office locations

Let's have a look at McKinsey's footprint first. McKinsey operates in about 60 countries and has 117 offices. They have about 37 non-consulting offices or service offices. If you look at the map, you see they cover North America pretty much. South America pretty well covered. Europe is covered. Africa there is still room for improvement, but probably these countries they are not that economically important; that's why they don't have big offices in Africa. In Asia, McKinsey also has a good presence, as well as in Australia. McKinsey's most important regions are Europe with 40 offices, followed by North America with 30 offices, and then followed by Asia Pacific, where McKinsey operates 28 offices. Its most important countries, or its most important country by far is the United States with 24 offices, followed by Germany, where they have seven offices, and Greater China with six offices.

BCG office locations

How does the Boston Consulting Group compare to McKinsey when we look at the footprint? The Boston Consulting Group covers about 50 countries, roughly 10 countries less than McKinsey, but they have 136 offices and 63 service centers. So, while covering less countries, the Boston Consulting Group has, on average, clearly more offices, which means you will have, on average, smaller offices in the Boston Consulting Group than at McKinsey. The same with the service centers; they seem to be smaller and more distributed. They have almost double the number of service centers than McKinsey has.Geographically, Boston Consulting Group has a similar coverage as McKinsey. In North America, they cover it very well. South America is also covered very well by the BCG. Europe is covered to a similar extent by the BCG, the same with Africa. Also, in Asia Pacific, the Boston Consulting Group has a strong presence. BCG's region with the highest presence is Europe with 48 offices, followed by North America with 41 offices, and followed by Asia Pacific having 33 offices. Pretty much the same order as McKinsey, but BCG has significantly more offices in these regions. That means, on average, BCG offices are smaller, probably McKinsey employees travel more because their offices are farther away from their clients on average.Looking at the countries where BCG has the most offices is the same as with McKinsey. They have the most offices in the United States, followed by Germany, followed by Greater China.

Summary 

To summarize the footprint discussion, differences between McKinsey and the Boston Consulting Group are rather marginal. The Boston Consulting Group has smaller offices, which means that at McKinsey, you likely travel more because BCG consultants are closer to the customers.

Video Recommendation

You will find the slides that I presented on my website, www.gabrielgoldbrain.com. You must see my video on McKinsey Career entry points and my second video on salaries by career level. Subscribe to my channel and like my video. Thanks for watching.