The Big 4 are the four largest international professional services and accounting firms. They are Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC. Each of them offers auditing, tax, consulting and financial advisory services to major companies. The comparison between the top three consulting firms and the big four is an interesting comparison.
The three main management consulting firms are McKinsey, Bain and BCG, known as MBB firms. They are not necessarily the biggest firms, but rather the ones that have the most prestige and can charge high commissions to their clients. The Big 4 refer to the top 4 accounting firms. These firms may have strategy branches that compete with MBB firms, but most of their business is related to accounting.
So let's do a little comparison between the top 3 and the top 4 consulting firms and see what some of the differences are. If you're looking for what firms to apply to, this should provide you with some useful facts to consider. PwC audits the highest percentage of S&P 100 companies, with a market share of 32%; however, of the S&P 500, it ranks second behind EY. In the United Kingdom, PwC used to have the highest share of the FTSE 100, also with a market share of 37%, but now it has fallen to 25%, in line with the other four major accounting firms, as the United Kingdom has increased competition laws for auditing firms.
Deloitte's purpose is to “make an impact that matters”. They are focusing their efforts on the practical implementation and operations of products for large organizations. These projects are worth millions of dollars each and position Deloitte in a good position to sell in the future, when organizations seek to digitize other parts of their businesses. Work environments and people also score high in all four companies.
With huge revenues, they can afford luxury offices in popular areas of the cities where they are present. The Big 4 is made up of PwC, Deloitte, EY and KPMG. Historically, they are accounting firms and have expanded to other professional services, but there is little difference between each of them.
