While you guys were wasting billable hours yesterday still debating which fast-food restaurant has the best fried chicken sandwich, we posted an article about the latest Vault Consulting 50 rankings and how the Big 4 did pretty well. If you missed it because you were trying to hunt down a Popeyes fried chicken sandwich, all of the Big 4 landed in the top 15 (top 16 if you include PwC’s Strategy&).

Just like it does with its annual accounting firm rankings, Vault annually ranks the fried chicken sandwiches consulting firms that are the most prestigious, based on the results of a survey. And just like with its survey of accounting professionals, Vault asks consulting professionals to rate firms with which they were familiar on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most prestigious. Survey participants weren’t allowed to rate their own (or former) employer.

In accounting, Vault might as well call its prestige ranking the PwC Most Prestigious Accounting Firm Award because P. Dubs has been No. 1 since 2010. In consulting, Vault should call its prestige ranking the McKinsey Most Prestigious Consulting Firm Award because that firm has been No. 1 every year since 2007.

The Big 4 firms held their own in Vault’s 2020 consulting firm prestige rankings, all finishing in the top 10:

1. McKinsey & Co.
2. The Boston Consulting Group
3. Bain & Company
4. Deloitte Consulting LLP
5. PwC Advisory Services
6. Booz Allen Hamilton
7. Ernst & Young LLP Consulting Practice
8. Accenture
9. KPMG LLP (Advisory)
10. Oliver Wyman

For several years running now, EY’s consulting practice has been in the top 10 in Vault’s prestige rankings but hasn’t made Vault’s top 50 rankings of the best consulting firms to work for, while EY-Parthenon, the firm’s global strategy consulting business, has made the top 50 for the past several years.

EY-Parthenon was ranked 12th in prestige for 2020, while Strategy& sits at 14th. And hey look, a Grant Thornton sighting! GT’s consulting practice was ranked 18th in prestige.

Vault also ranks consulting firms by practice area. Let’s see how well your favorite accounting consultancies fared:

Defense

10. Deloitte
16. KPMG

Economic

7. PwC
8. Deloitte
10. EY
11. KPMG

Energy

3. Deloitte
5. PwC
7. EY
10. KPMG

Financial

1. EY
2. Deloitte
4. PwC
7. KPMG
10. Grant Thornton

Health care

3. Deloitte
9. PwC
19. EY

Human resources

1. Deloitte
8. PwC
12. EY
13. KPMG

IT operations

2. Deloitte
4. PwC
15. KPMG

IT strategy

2. Deloitte
5. PwC
16. KPMG

Management

4. Deloitte
5. PwC
7. EY
9. KPMG

Operations

1. Deloitte
6. PwC
7. EY
10. KPMG

Pricing, sales and marketing

4. Deloitte
5. PwC
8. EY

Public sector

1. Deloitte
5. PwC
9. EY
10. KPMG
20. EY-Parthenon

Retail

4. Deloitte
6. PwC
8. EY
10. KPMG
17. EY-Parthenon

Strategy

4. Deloitte
6. Strategy&
8. EY
9. KPMG

Technology, media and telecommunications

4. Deloitte
7. PwC
8. EY
14. KPMG

Carry on with your fried chicken sandwich discussions.

Related article:

Deloitte Gets Big 4 Bragging Rights In 2020 Vault Consulting 50

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