The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) is an American global management consulting firm, an institution founded in 1963 by Bruce D. Henderson in Boston, Massachusetts. It was initially established as a consulting division within The Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Company, with the mission to help clients achieve a competitive advantage through strategic analysis. Henderson pioneered the field of business strategy consulting, and the firm became independent in 1975 via an employee stock ownership plan.
BCG's mechanism is a project-based model where consultants leverage expertise and data to develop and implement innovative strategies for clients across sectors like financial services, technology, and healthcare. The firm is known for creating influential business frameworks, such as the experience curve concept developed in 1966 and the growth-share matrix created in 1970, which helps companies analyze their product portfolios.
BCG is one of the "Big Three" or "MBB" firms, a group of the world's largest management consulting firms that also includes McKinsey & Company and Bain & Company. It connects to concepts like corporate strategy, digital transformation, and sustainability. The firm's internal think tank is the BCG Henderson Institute.
Recently, BCG has undergone a significant shift by focusing heavily on Artificial Intelligence (AI), launching the BCG X unit to provide AI, IT architecture, and software-build services. While the core consulting service remains, the firm has increasingly adopted a value-based model for its largest AI projects, where fees are dependent on achieving specific client outcomes like cost reduction or revenue growth, a change from the traditional project-based fee structure. Christoph Schweizer has led the firm as CEO since 2021.