The business press has been buzzing today with the news of a potential merger between AT Kearney and Booz and Company. As a Friday research assignment, we decided to do a bit of homework on the size and background of both firms. This post contains the highlights from our research as well as our high-level analysis of what a merged firm would mean for the procurement, sourcing and operations consulting landscape. If we take 2009 ranking numbers from Careers in Business Research, AT Kearney ranked 13th overall in terms of revenue with a revenue per consultant rank of 6 (i.e., the annual revenue per consultant). Booz and Co. ranked 11th for revenue and 8th in revenue per consultant. AT Kearney had roughly $785 million in revenue in 2008 and an average revenue per consultant of $413,158, compared with Booz’s estimated $1 billion in revenue and $312,500 per consultant rank.
According to AT Kearney’s website, the firm has 2,700 employees worldwide, including 1,900 billable consultants “who have broad industry experience and come from leading business schools” compared with Booz’s 3,200 consultants (this number does not count the now split-off government consulting business, Booz Allen & Hamilton). ChicagoBreakingBusines.com suggests that ATK’s revenue fell from $900 million in prior years to the above quoted $785 million. Consulting Magazine suggests “a combination of the two stalwarts would create the profession’s third largest consultancy with some 6,000 employees and close to $2 billion in annual revenue.”
We also glanced at LinkedIn and found that AT Kearney’s line-employees are broken down in the following ways: 19% manager, 16% associate, 10% principal, 9% consultant and 6% business analyst. This compares with what appears to be even more of a pyramid model of Booz with 23% associate, 16% senior associate, 12% principal, 10% consultant and 8% senior consultant breakdowns.
These numbers only tell part of the story. For example, in the procurement and supply chain space, AT Kearney has a separate division, AT Kearney Procurement Solutions, focusing more on vanilla sourcing and supply management work. We believe this group had over $50 million in revenue last year. Moreover, AT Kearney is doing more contingency-based work as well…
