The Methodology of the Study

The Nominated Consulting Firms

Of the 14,000 management consulting firms in the German market, only a few specializedconsulting firms were chosen by an independent expert panel to be further examined by Prof. Dr. Dietmar Fink and his research team from the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University. The panel consisted of market analysts, meta consultants and consultancy clients. The nominations were undertaken in an independent manner. Self applications from the specialized consulting firms were not permitted.

The Survey

In order to assess the competence of the selected firms, 249 top executives (CEO’s, management directors, managers in charge of budgets and project managers from companies with a turnover of over 500 million euro) were asked about their experience with the selected specialized consulting firms in comparison to the market leaders McKinsey, the Boston Consulting Group and Roland Berger.

The Final Judgement

In order to be elected as a Hidden Champion, the competence of a specialist consulting firm had to be judged higher than the competence of the three market leaders. The comparison included a variety of disciplines such as market understanding, the ability to think ahead, etc.