Dusseldorf The world’s second largest strategy consultancy is continuing on its ambitious course of expansion. According to information from the Handelsblatt, the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) is planning to take over its competitor Quantis from Switzerland. With the consultancy specializing in sustainability issues, BCG intends to further expand this fast-growing consultancy segment. The sustainability business is expected to increase from 10 to 25 percent of global sales.
“The merger of Quantis and BCG is an important step. We are thus continuing to make targeted investments in our market leadership in the areas of climate and sustainability,” said BCG World Head Christoph Schweizer. Quantis is the market leader in life cycle assessments. Dimitri Caudrelier, CEO of Quantis, stated: “We combine BCG’s industry knowledge and transformational capabilities with Quantis’ scientific expertise and sustainability reputation.”
With an annual turnover of eleven billion dollars, BCG is the world’s second largest strategy consultancy after McKinsey. The acquisition of Quantis doesn’t really bring BCG any closer to number one, but BCG is setting an example in terms of quality.
The “green consultancy”, as it likes to call itself because of its corporate color, is once again clearly positioning itself in this growth segment. The basis for this was laid by the advice in Germany in 2017 with the study “Climate Path” at the Federation of German Industries (BDI). This study opened the doors to many decision-makers in business and politics for the consultants.
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Quantis was founded in Switzerland in 2006 and is headquartered in Lugano. According to their own information, advice has grown primarily with customers from the consumer goods business and retail. On their website, the “Quantisans” advertise projects from Armani, Evonik, Intel to Unilever.
For industry experts such as Dietmar Fink, Managing Director of the Scientific Society for Management and Consulting (WGMB) from Bonn, the takeover is “a step in absolutely the right direction”. With this, BCG is consolidating its position as number one in sustainability consulting. And this is also a “huge opportunity” for Quantis. So far, the Swiss have mainly been in the upper middle class. Under the umbrella of BCG, they could now scale their competencies.
Climate change as the top issue
The consultants’ business is booming overall, but the top issue is climate change. He turned the sustainability experts and teams in the consulting firms into so-called “rainmakers”. There is almost no project left that they are not involved in. The energy crisis is making this area even more important, as costs can be reduced in the short term using efficient energy systems.
McKinsey and BCG in particular are fighting for customers in the area of sustainability. Advance payments are made and entire projects are booked as marketing expenses just to fly the flag and keep the competition out. BCG will again be a cooperation partner at the UN climate protection conference in November in Egypt (COP27) this year.
According to industry experts such as Ralf Strehlau, President of the Federal Association of German Management Consultancies (BDU) since 2017, “sustainability has developed into a growth segment alongside digitization”. Accordingly, massive investments are currently being made in this area – “in the form of acquisitions and by hiring new consultants,” says Strehlau, himself the founder and managing partner of ANXO Management Consulting.
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Just like BCG now, McKinsey has recently strengthened itself in this segment. In 2021, Number One acquired rivals Vivid Economics, a UK-based strategic economics consultancy with expertise in sustainability and macroeconomics, Planetrics, a climate analytics consultancy that helps financial institutions better understand climate-related risks and opportunities, and Material Economics Sustainability consultancy based in Stockholm.
With Quantis, BCG is not just assimilating a young, wild and specialized competitor. It is above all the approximately 270 employees of Quantis who should have made the takeover attractive. After all, recruiting new consultants was and is the biggest challenge in the industry. The lack of personnel is considered – even more so than in the rest of the Western economy – as a dangerous brake on growth. Accordingly, BCG world boss Schweizer was “proud” to “welcome more than 250 scientists and environmental experts to BCG”.
diverse team
The diverse team from Quantis is now to be integrated into BCG’s advisory team with the greatest possible freedom. Templates for this are provided by the takeover of the US purpose consultancy Brighthouse, which BCG took over in 2015 and which now has its own office in Berlin, as well as the acquisition of the Cologne purchasing consultancy Inverto, which came on board in 2016 and was flourishing in the supply chain issue.
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Overall, the number two’s growth plans are big. This is also due to the management team. Since this year, BCG has been managed by a kind of German triumvirate. The CEO of the consultancy is Christoph Schweizer (49), the European business is headed by Matthias Tauber (42), and the head of Germany and Switzerland is Michael Brigl (47). All three come from the Munich office of the company. In addition, they have experience with cross-cutting and innovation topics such as digitization and sustainability and experience in advising on mergers and acquisitions.
Accordingly, the BCG consultants appear ambitious and closed, some industry observers also say “aggressive”. Michael Brigl said in an interview with the Handelsblatt in July: “We want to be number one with our customers and our employees. We want to be ahead. We want to scale as much as possible.” And further: “We are very well positioned, and of course we want to exploit that now.”
The focus here: the sustainability business. According to their own statements, it is said to have doubled worldwide in each of the past two years. And so it should go on. After all, according to Brigl, a sustainable strategy is essential for every company today – out of conviction or to strengthen competitiveness. Customers’ willingness to pay has increased accordingly.
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