Strategy&
| Company type | Division |
|---|---|
| Industry | Management consulting |
| Predecessor | Booz & Company |
| Founded | 1914 |
| Founder | Edwin G. Booz |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Parent | PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) |
Strategy& serves as the strategy consulting division within PwC, a member of the Big Four accounting firms.
The company traces its origins to 1914 when Edwin G. Booz established the Business Research Service in Chicago. Over time, it experienced multiple rebrandings before adopting the name Booz Allen Hamilton in 1943. In 2008, the commercial consulting segment separated from Booz Allen Hamilton, becoming Booz & Company. PwC's acquisition of Booz & Company in 2013 marked its largest-ever consulting purchase. Due to contractual requirements to discontinue the Booz brand, the unit was renamed Strategy& in 2014. At the time of acquisition, the firm maintained a global footprint with more than 80 offices in 41 countries.
By April 2017, according to Glassdoor, Strategy& was recognized as the second highest-paying employer within the United States.
Origins and initial growth
Following his graduation from Northwestern University in 1914, Edwin G. Booz launched a consulting enterprise in Chicago motivated by his belief that businesses would gain from expert, objective guidance beyond their internal teams. Two years later, he and his associates created the Business Research and Development Company, delivering research services to clients such as Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, Chicago's Union Stockyards and Transit Company, and the Canadian Pacific Railroad.
By the late 1950s, Time Magazine described the firm as "the world's largest, most prestigious management consulting firm".
Public offering and expansion
In 1970, Booz Allen initiated a public stock offering with 500,000 shares priced at $24 each; trading of these shares persisted until 1976.
The year 2008 saw Booz & Company spun off from Booz Allen Hamilton following acquisition by The Carlyle Group, a private equity firm. This separation encompassed the commercial consulting activities and government consulting outside of the U.S., while Booz Allen Hamilton concentrated solely on U.S. government contracts. After a noncompete period ended in 2011, Booz Allen expanded its commercial services with a focus on technology integration and cybersecurity.
In 2009, Booz & Company acquired Katzenbach Partners to establish the Katzenbach Center, which specializes in organizational culture and change management.
In 2012, Axon Advisory Partners merged with Booz & Company to form Booz Digital, a unit dedicated to guiding business transformations through digital strategy and technology implementation.
April 2013 brought the acquisition of Management Engineers by Booz & Company, enhancing its operational expertise across manufacturing, chemical, and industrial sectors. This deal added 17 partners and 145 employees while extending the firm's reach into Germany, China, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Acquisition and Rebranding
On October 30, 2013, Booz & Company declared its agreement to be acquired by PricewaterhouseCoopers through a conditional merger, subject to regulatory clearance and a partner vote planned for December 2013. The partnership gave their consent to the transaction on December 23, 2013, with the acquisition finalized in early April 2014. Subsequently, on April 4, 2014, the firm adopted the new brand name Strategy&. Pronounced "Strategy and," this name encountered some criticism but was required by terms set with the former parent company Booz Allen Hamilton, which barred any use of the Booz name or its derivatives by the new organization.
Recruiting
In 2007, Booz & Company received around 150,000 applications and onboarded 1,033 new hires. Strategy& ranks prominently among recruiters at leading business schools, securing the second position at Columbia Business School and third at INSEAD.
The organization implements a variant of the Cravath System, advancing employees within predetermined timeframes or encouraging those who do not meet performance standards to exit.
Research
Booz has been instrumental in developing foundational business ideas such as supply chain', supply chain management, product life cycle, the PERT Chart and the concept of organizational DNA.
The majority of its research outputs appear in the quarterly publication Strategy+Business, which notably was one of only two business magazines to increase circulation in 2009, alongside The Economist. Strategy& also delivers multiple annual research reports:
- Study of CEOs, Governance, and Success: evaluates CEO transitions among the top 2,500 publicly traded companies worldwide. Its 26th global CEO survey, involving responses from 4,410 CEOs, was published in January 2023.
- Global Innovation 1000: assesses research and development expenditures among the world’s largest 1,000 public corporations.
- Industry Perspectives: offers insights into prevailing trends, challenges, and prospects across key industries.
Moreover, Strategy& frequently releases cross-sector research aligned with its four core platforms: Capabilities-Driven Strategy, Deals, Digital, and Fitness for Growth.
The Katzenbach Center at Strategy& concentrates on how informal organizational dynamics influence corporate outcomes. Partner Jon Katzenbach presents case studies illustrating the interplay between formal organizational frameworks and informal networks within companies in both the white paper "Fast Track to Recovery" and his book Leading Outside the Lines.