How to Choose Between Top Innovation Strategy Consulting Firms

With 27 Larger & Smaller Firms to Consider, We Help Navigate Your Best Choices

Innovation strategy is a top growth focus for business leaders, ranking as the second-highest priority this year for executives, behind overall growth strategy.  And there are many innovation strategy consulting firms to potentially partner with.  

When looking for a top innovation strategy consulting firm, one categorization is to decide between larger firms, smaller firms or to consider a mix of both.   A typical source of innovation strategy consulting firms is to create a list from prior experience and to solicit referrals from trusted sources. 

Third-party sources and industry players identify over a hundred innovation strategy consulting firms to consider, both small and large. These include Consulting.US, ReallyGoodInnovation,  Board of Innovation, Consultancy.Org, UXStudio, Penji, and Sortlist. There are also several lists of the best innovation strategy consulting firms to work for, from Geurric.co and Vault.

To help with navigating the choices, we will look at 27 innovation strategy consulting firms, separated into three groups by size and sources:

1. Top 10 large innovation strategy consulting firms that are identified by three or more online sources
2. Additional 11 large innovation strategy consulting firms that are identified by at least two of the online sources
3. 6 small and medium-sized innovation strategy consulting firms.

Group 1: Top 10 Large Innovation Strategy Consulting Firms that Are Identified by 3 or More Online Sources

This group includes many very large organizations with tens of thousands of employees, typically with a range of services.  Because many of the large organizations have acquired innovation strategy firms, the parent company is listed first in the list, followed by the name of the innovation strategy subsidiary.  It’s likely we have missed a few acquisitions within these very large firms.  Some of the organizations are consulting firms while others are agencies.  These ten large innovation strategy consulting firms are:

1. Interpublic / R/GA
2. Accenture / ?What if! / Bow & Arrow / Happen / Droga5 / Accenture Song
3. Deloitte / Doblin
4. Capgemini / Frog / Fahrenheit 212 / Doing / Altran
5. Hakuhodo DY Holdings / Kyu Collective / IDEO
6. McKinsey  / Lunar / Leap
7. Bain / FRWD
8. BCG / BCG Digital Ventures / BCGX / All of Us / Maya / Formation
9. Huron / Innosight
10. PA Consulting / 4inno / Essential Design

For each innovation strategy firm, we looked at the number of employees, their self-description, whether they have a landing page for the term innovation strategy, and (based on these results) whether innovation strategy consulting is an apparent focus for the organization overall.  If the firm has a dedicated page, the color scheme is color-coded green, if not, it is color-coded red.  Similarly, if the firm appears to have an overall focus on innovation strategy, it is color-coded green, otherwise it is coded red.

Of course, within a large organization, it’s always possible to find groups or individuals who focus on a topic such as innovation strategy, so this color-coding assessment is more about how the organization presents itself (or not) for innovation strategy.  When selecting an innovation strategy consulting firm and specific consultants to work with, it’s important to select a team within the firm that has professional experience around innovation.

Group 1: First 4 of Top 10 Large Innovation Strategy Consulting Firms

The four large innovation strategy consulting  firms at the top of the list, Interpublic, Accenture, Deloitte and Capgemini, are all cited for innovation strategy by online sources and have made acquisitions in this area.  Interpublic claims 57,000 employees, Capgemini has 349,500, Deloitte has 415,000 and Accenture is by far the largest with 743,000.

Of the four, Deloitte and Capgemini stand out as having specific innovation strategy landing pages, with subsidiaries Doblin (Deloitte) and Frog (Capgemini) showing clear focus in their self-descriptions on innovation, though the larger corporate focus is not on innovation strategy.   

Both Deloitte and Capgemini were also recognized by ALM Intelligence as innovation strategy leaders in 2018. However, neither feature innovation nor innovation strategy as a specific service offered.

Accenture does not have an innovation strategy landing page, or apparent overall focus.  Instead, Accenture has a technology innovation landing page and a strategy landing page, and conveys the message of focusing on technology to drive innovation.  Agencies and consulting firms owned by Accenture include Accenture Song, ?What if!, Bow & Arrow,  Happen and Droga5.  ?What if!, Bow & Arrow and Happen were all acquired specifically for having innovation expertise.

Similarly, Interpublic does not have an innovation strategy page, and it’s clear that the organization is more focused on being a top-notch marketing agency rather than an innovation strategy consulting firm.  R/GA within Interpublic is well regarded by online sources for innovation, but even R/GA seems more focused on being an overall marketing agency than an innovation dominant organization.

From this first set of four large consulting players, Deloitte and Capgemini give evidence of focus and capabilities in innovation strategy consulting, with the caveat that this area is not important enough to them to be listed as a service offering.

Get the PDF chart: 27 Innovation Strategy Consulting Firms

Group 1: Next 4 of Top 10 Large Innovation Strategy Consulting Firms

The next four large innovation strategy consulting firms include the top-tier consulting MBB players (McKinsey, Bain, BCG) as well as Hakuhodo DY Holdings (which owns IDEO). McKinsey has between 30,000 to 45,000 employees; BCG has 30,000; Hakuhodo DY Holdings has 27,936, and Bain has 19,000.

While IDEO is a very well-recognized innovation firm, referring to itself as a “global design company,” its parent organizations ( Hakuhodo DY Holdings and Kyu)do not display a focus on innovation strategy consulting.  There is no innovation strategy page, and the capabilities come across as more of a global marketing agency, like Interpublic.

Global consulting MBB leaders McKinsey, BCG and Bain each display a focus on innovation strategy consulting with dedicated landing pages, and units within each firm that focus on innovation.  

BCG directly highlights innovation strategy and delivery as one of its 20 capability areas, demonstrating a clear commitment to this area. 

Similarly, Bain features innovation as one of its 11 consulting services.

McKinsey does not list innovation or innovation strategy as a specific capabilities area.  Despite the dedicated landing page, it seems this area may be covered by its growth, marketing and sales area, and perhaps other areas.

Bain acquired FRWD to further its push on innovation. BCG acquired Maya, All of Us and Formation and has BCGX and BCG Digital Ventures. McKinsey acquired Lunar and Leap to enhance their capabilities in design, innovation and marketing. Again, there have been so many acquisitions that we are likely missing several.

While all have clear capabilities, from this second set of four large consulting firms, Bain and BCG appear the most committed to innovation strategy consulting.

Get the PDF chart: 27 Innovation Strategy Consulting Firms

Group 1: Final 2 of Top 10 Large Innovation Strategy Consulting Firms

Two additional large innovation strategy consulting firms are also identified by three or more sources: Huron and PA Consulting.  These firms are still quite large, but notably smaller than Bain, BCG, Deloitte, Capgemini and the others above.  Huron has 3,800 employees, while PA Consulting claims 4,000+ people.

Huron lists strategy & innovation as of one of its six expertise areas, and has a dedicated landing page.  Similar to other large firms, Huron acquired Innosight.  Innosight’s founders included the late Clayton Christensen, a leading scholar and author on disruptive innovation as well as Mark Johnson, a leading strategy consultant.  From this, it’s apparent that Huron has a focus on innovation strategy consulting.

PA Consulting also has a dedicated innovation strategy landing page, and has made several acquisitions of innovation firms including 4inno and Essential Design.  PA Consulting’s self-description is well aligned with innovation; however, innovation strategy is not a service listed.  The “build products and services” service offering describes a long history of innovation.

Both Huron and PA Consulting are large innovation strategy consulting firms.

Get the PDF chart: 27 Innovation Strategy Consulting Firms

Group 1 Summary: Top 10 Large Innovation Strategy Consulting Firms

Of the original 10 large innovation strategy consulting firms, six remain as candidates, following our assessment. In alphabetical order they are:

• Bain / FRWD
• BCG / BCG Digital Ventures / BCGX / All of Us / Maya / Formation
• Capgemini / Frog / Fahrenheit 212 / Doing / Altran
• Deloitte / Doblin
• Huron / Innosight
• PA Consulting / 4inno / Essential Design / The Cambridge Group

While six may seem like enough large firms for consideration, it turns out there are an additional 11 large innovation strategy consulting firms to examine in Group 2 that are recognized by at least two sources.

Group 2: Additional 11 Large Innovation Strategy Consulting Firms that are Identified by Two Online Sources

Using the same set of third-party sources, we found 11 additional large innovation strategy consulting firms that were identified by two sources.  In alphabetical order, they are:

1. Cordence Worldwide (global consulting network)
2. EY / Seren
3. IBM /IBM Consulting
4. KPMG / KPMG Ventures /KPMG Ignition
5. L.E.K. Consulting
6. Nextcontinent
7. PwC
8. Roland Berger
9. SGS / SGS Maine Pointe
10. Simon Kucher
11. Wipro /Capco

These are all large firms with over 1,000 employees.   The largest is EY with over 395,000 employees, followed closely by PwC at 364,000, then KPMG at 270,000, IBM at 245,000, Wipro/Capco also at 245,000, SGS at 96,000.  Next in line is Cordence with 5,000 employees, then Roland Berger and Nextcontinent each with 3,000, followed by L.E.K. at 2,100, and Simon Kucher at 2,000.

Get the PDF chart: 27 Innovation Strategy Consulting Firms

As with the first group of large firms, there are several that sources identified whose primary business is clearly not innovation strategy consulting, e.g., PwC, EY, SGS and Wipro Capco.    

None of the 11 firms in the second group list innovation strategy as a capability or service area, suggesting that innovation strategy isn’t a focus for any of them.

However, three of these firms have created dedicated innovation strategy landing pages: EY, KPMG and Simon Kucher.   This implies that innovation strategy is a higher focus for them than the others, though still not important enough to merit recognition as a service provided.

Additionally, six other firms have pages that provide perspective on innovation, including L.E.K., PWC, Roland Berger, SGS and Wipro.

The two network firms, Cordence Worldwide and Nextcontinent stand out for not having visible marketing effort on innovation strategy and can be eliminated for that reason. 

Similarly, IBM Consulting has no visible effort and can be dropped from contention.

Get the PDF chart: 27 Innovation Strategy Consulting Firms

Group 2: Summary Additional 11 Large Innovation Strategy Consulting Firms

Overall, the eleven large consulting firms in the second group are visibly less capable for innovation strategy.   Depending on how many large firms your organization wants to consider, one option is to skip this group altogether, as few sources identified them.  If more candidates are desired, however, the best options from this group are:

• EY
• KPMG
• Simon Kucher

Group 3: Small and Medium-Sized Innovation Strategy Consulting Firms

Small and medium-sized innovation strategy consulting firms are much harder to locate using online sources.  Five emerged from the sources reviewed, and we include our own firm by comparison, since this is a focus area for us. The small and mid-sized firms (in alphabetical order) are:

1. Cedar Management Consulting
2. Fantasy
3. Insight to Action
4. OC&C Strategy Consultants
5. Q5 Partners
6. WHOA

All of these have under 1,000 employees.  Of these, OC&C Strategy Consultants is the largest with 877 employees, followed by Q5 at 302, then Cedar Management Consulting with 126, Fantasy with between 102 and 516, WHO with two to 10 and Insight to Action with two to 10.

Starting with the biggest of the small and mid-sized firms, OC&C Strategy Consultants does not have an innovation strategy landing page, nor is innovation strategy a listed service or capability.  OC&C says it has “built our business firmly on the sectors and specialism where we know we can outshine the competition,” and from this we can infer that innovation strategy is not an important focus given the lack of visibility for this capability.

Next in size is Q5 Partners. Q5 has a specific specialization in organizational health.  Not surprisingly given this focus, Q5 doesn’t have an innovation strategy landing page and doesn’t list innovation strategy as a service offer.

Fantasy also has between 102 and 516 employees, positioning itself as a “design partner for fortune 200 companies.” Fantasy does not have an innovation strategy landing page and does not identify innovation strategy as a service area.   The company website lists 13 areas under “what we do,” including: “Ecosystems, Operating Systems, Mobility, Products, Vision & Strategy, A.I. & Voice, Healthcare, B2B Platforms, TV & Streaming, Retail & Ecommerce, Fashion & Luxury, Websites and Travel & Hospitality.”  The focus is not on innovation strategy consulting, rather it is on being a UX design agency partner to large organizations.

Also, with over 100 employees is Cedar Management Consulting. Cedar states, “We make strategy and innovation work. Our global consulting teams possess deep experience in working with clients in addressing a range of problem statements across all our practice areas. We’ve got you covered.”  While this seems promising for a focus on innovation, the promise is not delivered by listing innovation strategy as a service offered or by having an innovation strategy landing page. Rather than innovation, Cedar focuses on communicating its overall strategy credentials, as recognized by Forbes, and also expertise in operations management and balanced scorecard.

The next firm is difficult to find in the innovation strategy area. WHOA says on its LinkedIn profile “independent, vigorously-vetted research and strategy agency. We approach everything we do with razor-sharp precision, unwavering honesty and an unapologetic POV from seasoned veterans and industry experts.”  We couldn’t find a website for WHOA Agency that matched, though there were other firms using “whoa” in their name.  WHOA Agency’s  Instagram account says WHOA Agency is:  “# 1 Career Development Agency for ACTORS founded by @georgelott [ FEATURED IN SHEEN MAGAZINE ] TRAINING | CONSULTING | CASTING”.  CEO Weekly also says WHOA Agency is for actors.

As for our own boutique consulting firm, Insight to Action, we do focus on innovation strategy.  Innovation Strategy Consulting is one of our major services, and Innovation Strategy has its own landing page.   We regularly cover innovation strategy examples, including innovation strategy for the fashion industry, McDonalds and Heinz and the Steam Deck gaming device.   Unlike some of the other firms, we are a strategy consultancy, not a design or advertising agency.  

Another small to mid-sized consulting firm that we are familiar with, The Cambridge Group, is now owned by PA Consulting, one of the large consulting companies in innovation strategy.  As we looked at earlier, PA Consulting has made a number of investments in innovation firms.

From the initial set of 27 firms, we find seven with greater focus on innovation strategy consulting to use when choosing a top innovation strategy consulting firm. In order of size from smallest to largest they are:

1. Insight to Action
2. Huron / Innosight
3. PA Consulting / 4inno / Essential Design / The Cambridge Group
4. Bain / FRWD
5. BCG / BCG Digital Ventures / BCGX / All of Us / Maya / Formation
6. Capgemini / Frog / Fahrenheit 212 / Doing / Altran
7. Deloitte / Doblin

As this set of firms includes both small and large firms, the experience of working together (how the work is done) will vary considerably, as will the values of the firm, the expertise of the team, and the cost.  

Some reasons to consider a small firm from one source include:

• “Specialization…Innovation (or dealing with non-standard problems) requires a little more experience and a different way of thinking.  The great, scalable large consultancies give you a process to deal with normal issues, manned by people who understand the process, maybe more than the work itself.”
• “Flexibility…Large firms find it difficult to depart from their processes.,
• “Connection…happens when people care about the people they’re doing business with.  And although it’s a professional relationship, a good business relationship brings a desire for others’ success built-in”
• “Can be a great value, since they’re often more niched, have expertise in your area, give you deeper connections with their everyday operations, and can give you the flexibility that comes from close proximity to the decisionmakers.”

IndustryWeek identifies situations when it makes sense to choose a large consulting firm versus a smaller firm:

Prior to talking with potential innovation strategy firm partners, it’s also helpful to identify the desired goals or outputs.   We suggest 11 questions that the innovation strategy should address:

1. What areas are we committed to innovate against?  (We typically refer to these as strategic growth opportunity areas or SGOAs)
2. How are the areas defined? Why are they chosen?
3. What specific new product, service or platform ideas address these areas?
4. What business results do we expect from pursuing these areas, i.e., size of the prize?
5. Will internal new product and innovation efforts be sufficient, or do we need to consider an acquisition or partnership? Do we have the needed capabilities and branding?
6. Do we have a portfolio of close-in, mid-range and farther-out new product projects to deliver against the SGOAs? 
7. What resources and time are dedicated for each grouping (i.e., close-in, mid-range, farther-out?
8. Who is leading these efforts, e.g., existing brand or product team vs. innovation leader?
9. What is the organization already doing or capable of doing that is needed by this new product idea or platform?
10. What are potential internal organizational pitfalls, lack of capabilities or obstacles that will prevent the new product idea or platform from being created and launched?
11. How confident are internal stakeholders, outside of the marketing and innovation team, that the new product or platform is attractive and that the brand has a right to win with this new product?

For more resources on innovation strategy and examples, we suggest Insight to Action’s resources page.  Or, if you are thinking about innovation strategy to drive growth strategy, we recommend eight selection factors.  We’d love to hear your feedback at upcoming office hours.