Much is talked of the big 5 in consultancy... who exactly does this refer to?Accenture, IBM, Atos, Cap Gemini, LogicaCMG?

This question is unclear. 1) Big 5 was a term used for the big 5 accountancy firm's. They had more influence in consulting before recent legislation, particularly in the US, because they were able to win consulting business on the back of their accountancy relationships with clients.2) Some consultancies and industry commentators, but not all, have spun the term onto consultancies. Some, but not all, consultancies have originated from their roots in accountancy. You say that much is talked of the big 5 in consultancy, but how much of that is talk about the big 5 in consultancy before, rather than after, their split from their accountancy wings? We can only conclude that the answer to this is unclear. 3) The term Big, when it is undefined, is unclear. A consultant worth his/her salt would ask 'What do you mean by Big?'. Do you mean Big by number of employees, billings, billings/employees or another measure?It is a reasonable question to ask. It is a pity that so many, but not all, with the top jobs in the consulting industry make so little effort to make these matters clearer.Why should this be?

I beleive that in accountancy the Big 4 are Pwc, Ernst & Young, Deloitte and KPMG. In management consultancy I think that the term Big 5, as used by the media, refers to the biggest strategy consultancies namely Mckinsey, Monitor Group, Bain, Boston Consulting Group and Booz Allen Hamilton. I beleive this to be true, if not, someone please correct me. kev.

KevinThanks for your posting.I believe that Pdubya, E&Y, Deloitte and KPMG are the Big 4 in accountancy.Your Big 5 list has a certain amount of credibility. The strategy consultancies do well versus system integrators if you consider big in terms of revenues by headcount (all 5 are strategy consultancies in both our lists).My list differs a bit because I have Marakon and ATK, vs. your Monitor and Booz Allen Hamilton. This is probably because our survey's cover different time periods and might be due to different geographical coverage.Does that seem plausible?

Hi there bb. Thanks for your message. I think you certainly make a good point about time frame, as Monitor and Booz Allen don't appear in the media as much as they used to. However the main reason I included them is because the media always seems to refer to the Big 5 as being the 'Ms and Bs'. ie referring the the fact that the names of the consultancies all begin with either M or B.

The big 5 (as the previous respondent said) corresponds to the big 5 accountancy firms. Its quite an old term therefore due to mergers etc but when the term 'big 5 consultancies' is used it means - Accenture, Deloitte, PWC, CGEY and KPMG. The likes of McKinsey, A T Kearney are not included as it is the old accountancy firms that are being talked about. Its just a traditional term and has no correspondance with size anymore really.

Thanks for your post Mike. The trouble is that the term 'Big 5 consultancies' has so many meanings, it is in fact meaningless to apply it to consultancies, without explaining it. If it is simply a traditional term then why not apply it simply to the Big 4 accountancy firms? If the meaning is used in the way that you describe, then why does IBM exist? It is big in terms of staff numbers. It is big in terms of revenues. It was big by tradition, in the sense that it was the biggest consultancy division of the biggest accountancy firm. It can be true to say that McKinsey is a big strategy consultancy, but quite confusing as well. It does, as you say, not correspond with size anymore in consultancy. It is interesting as a way to understand business, because all of the big 5 changed in different ways and to some extent. It was therefore a very reasonable question to ask.

deloitte, pwc,kpmg,E&Y,Mckinsey