Only a few players manage to successfully hold their own in the top segment of the consulting market.
This year, 30 consulting firms in Germany were able to establish themselves as hidden champions. Their recognised area of expertise either relates to a specific discipline such as digital transformation or to a specific industry. KPS was able to score successfully in the retail and consumer goods sectors. One cannot apply for the coveted award - the pre-selection happens exclusively on the basis of a proposal by an independent panel of experts from science and business. Only then can a company enter the application process. This is why the ranking enjoys an excellent reputation throughout the consulting market and in the executive suites of large companies.
Very special requirements for hidden champions
To qualify as a hidden champion, a consulting company must meet very specific requirements. For example, it must have an unaided level of recognition that is no higher than 15 percent in the top management of large companies with an annual turnover of more than one billion euros. It must work for clients, at least 50 percent of whom have also worked with one or more of the large consultancies such as McKinsey or the Boston Consulting Group. And finally, the candidate must be rated better than the three major competitors in at least one speciality by its clients.
For the evaluation, the Scientific Society for Management and Consulting (Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft für Management und Beratung, WGMB) conducted a comprehensive empirical study.
In the process, from June to October last year, 1,032 executives of large German companies from different industries were interviewed about the management consulting companies they were familiar with. The participants included board members, managing directors, budget managers and project managers, among them 93 executives from the Fortune100 (DAX40) German companies.
