The Boston Consulting Group

The Boston consulting group

Company History:

The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) was founded in1963 by Bruce Henderson; it is based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the most influential business strategy consulting firms in the world. It recruits 2,800 consultants from the ranks of America's top business schools, including the University of Chicago, Harvard, Stanford, and Wharton. A big share of the firm's clients is among the world's 500 largest corporations, but BCG also advises mid-sized companies and nonprofits as well as performing some government work. BCG maintains more than 50 offices located across North America, South America, Europe, the Far East, and Australia.

In the late 1960's, a consultant for the BCG presented his ideas about ‘cash deficient' and ‘growth deficient' businesses and the need for a balance between cash generators and cash users. The BCG then developed a portfolio business model based on this thinking, it was called the BCG growth-share matrix, and it was based on the BCG's knowledge and work in the area of the experience curve and the product life cycle and how they relate to cash generation and cash requirements. The growth-share matrix was intended to analyze a portfolio from a corporate perspective because it is only at that level that cash balance is meaningful. A business may, however, be segmented further using this diagnostic tool to understand the positions of its various product lines or market segments. This portfolio can therefore be made up of products in a multiproduct company, divisions in a multidivisional company and companies in a conglomerate.

BCG growth-share matrix

The BCG's Perspectives:

The Boston Consulting Group is an international strategy and general management consulting firm whose mission is to help leading corporations create and maintain competitive advantage. As a truly international firm, its strong global presence offers clients and employees