VAULT CONSULTING 50 RANKING

Rankings always publicize the big jumps or disappointing slides. Reality is, excellence is hard to maintain. Considering the competition, just holding onto a high spot should be cause for celebration.

Exhibit A: Alvarez and Marsal.

Home to 11,000 employees across six continents, Alvarez and Marsal focuses on transformation management, with its services highly-regarded in the finance, operations, and technology sectors. This year, it clung to its #3 spot in North America, thanks to ranking among the Top 15 in the dimensions valued by Vault: Overall Satisfaction, Compensation, Level of Challenge, and Overall Business Outlook. In addition, Alvarez and Marsal climbed to 16th for Prestige, which further solidified the firm’s status.

Alvarez and Marsal also ranked 14th for Firm Leadership, an area that several Vault survey respondents praised. One survey-taker called the firm’s hierarchy “flat [and] approachable,” while another appreciated how it treated its people as professionals.

“No ‘face time’ requirements, no micromanaging, and no expectation that you get your work done between 9 A.M. and 5 P.M. We hire great people, set expectations, and trust them to get the job done (and ask for help when they need it).”

Despite the firm’s consistency, an Alvarez and Marsal consultant points to leadership’s “growth mindset” as one reason why it can continue its momentum. However, the long-term numbers paint a different picture. As a whole, Alvarez and Marsal boosted its overall score by .053 of a point in the Vault Consulting 50. That pales in comparison to seven firms in the Top 10, whose improvement spanned from .131 to .373 of a point. That’s nerve-wracking data for a firm that didn’t rank among the ten-best in any dimension. Even more, Alvarez and Marsal beat out Putnam Associates by just .001 of a point for the 3rd spot.

PAYCHECKS AND PROMOTIONS VS. PRESTIGE

In fact, Putnam Associates ranked among the ten-best in 17 dimensions surveyed by Vault. This includes Promotion Policies (3rd), Compensation (6th), Work-Life Balance (6th), Overall Satisfaction (7th), Firm Culture (8th), and Overall Business Outlook (9th). Problem is, the firm didn’t crack the Top 25 in two dimensions – both of which carried weight: Level of Challenge (10%) and Promotion Policies (5%). In the end, Prestige was the category that ultimately dragged Putnam down. Here, the firm ranks 41st – in a category worth 30% of the ranking weight.

In other words, Putnam has a perception problem. Still, survey-takers believe the firm is on the cusp of breaking out of the industry’s cloistered view of it.

“The internal efforts to leverage AI are way more than just hype – I’ve been blown away by how our custom tools have been increasing the speed and quality of work, as well as making doing the work more enjoyable,” writes one consultant in response to the Vault survey.

Add to that, Putnam operates in one of the most coveted and secure spaces in consulting: life sciences and healthcare. Even more, Putnam has the fundamentals down pat: Their staff is happy. That filters into every corner of the organization.

“People come for the work but stay for the people and culture,” writes another survey-taker. “Putnam is very inclusive and welcoming.”

ROLAND BERGER POISED FOR A RUN

Like Putnam, Roland Berger Strategy Consultants also cracked the North American Top 5 in the 2025 Vault Consulting 50. Operating out of 50 countries with 3,500 employees, the German firm is best known for marketing and retail consulting. Roland Berger also posted Top 10 scores in several key dimensions, including Level of Challenge, Compensation, and Overall Satisfaction – with its best performance coming in International Opportunities (3rd). Like Putnam, the firm’s Achilles heel remained Prestige (26th).

Big picture, Roland Berger’s overall score has improved by 1.014 points since 2021 (which has propelled it to a 15-spot jump over the same period). Following a mantra of entrepreneurs, excellence, and empathy, Roland Berger tends to throw new hires into the deep early, serving as a catalyst for quick career development.

“Roland Berger is a great place to work, where people can develop almost insanely fast,” explains one Vault survey respondent. “You are given a lot of responsibility quickly, which boosts your career, but always with a proper safety net.”

Along with providing fast-track personal growth, Roland Berger also boasts “ambitious growth plans” according to several consultants surveyed by Vault. Notably, the firm cracked the €1 billion dollar revenue mark and achieved double digit growth in 2023.

“Since we have a good mixture of clients from large-cap to medium-sized across many different regions and industries, we have a quite stable business model in difficult times like these,” explains one survey respondent. “Our investments in sustainability and climate, AI, and water management have paid off, and we win many projects in those future-oriented areas.”

FIRM TO WATCH: STAX

Putnam Associates and Roland Berger weren’t the only consulting firms making impressive moves in the 2025 Vault Consulting 50. The Analysis Group rose from 13th to 8th, ranking among the Top 10 in four dimensions – including Level of Challenge and Compensation. By the same token, Cornerstone Research leaped from 18th to 9th, posting the 7th-highest score for Compensation. In addition, Bates White Economic Consulting moved up six spots to rank 10th, with the firm’s best performance coming in Compensation and Training.

Outside the Top 10, Arthur D. Little vaulted from 28th to 11th. Along similar lines, Kaiser Associates rocketed from 36th to 17th, followed by Stax (49th to 22nd), DeciBio Consulting (40th to 27th), and LeapPoint (44th to 36th),

Stax made eight Top 10 appearances among the Quality of Work and Life Dimensions. That’s one reason why Kaitlin McManus, Vault’s senior editor of profiles includes it among her firms to watch for the year.

“I would say Stax and Iberia Advisory,” she tells P&Q. “Stax appeared in a handful of rankings last year, but this year it’s made the list in more than two dozen. Similarly, Cirque Analytics is a newcomer to the survey this year, and had a great showing—they appear in 19 rankings this year. So I look forward to seeing if these firms can keep up the great momentum.”

Taking a deeper look, Stax scored two Top 5 finishes: Overall Business Outlook and Health and Wellness. The firm also ranked 7th for Promotion Policies and 8th in both Level of Challenge and Satisfaction. Despite this, the firm has gained little recognition outside the firm, unable to muster a Top 50 finish for Prestige. Still, Stax is positioned to continue scoring well in Vault’s Quality of Work and Life Dimensions. After all, the firm seemingly caters to the flexible lifestyle relished by its consultants

“The best aspect of our firm’s quality of life is the balance we provide compared to our peers,” notes one anonymous consultant in a Vault interview. “Our low-to-no travel model and shorter engagement timelines allow employees to maintain a healthier work-life balance, with fewer disruptions to personal time. Most employees find the hours manageable, and it’s generally easy to take time off.”

CONSULTANTS CONFIDENT IN THEIR FIRMS

Ranking 39th, Cirque Analytics is among the ten firms either debuting or returning to the North American Vault Consulting 50 in 2025. Technically, the flashiest debut comes courtesy of FTI Consulting, Inc., which makes its first appearance at 25th. Level5 Strategy popped in at 28th, followed by Iberia Advisory (32nd), ECG Management Consultants (35th), Avasant (42nd), Potomac Point Group (48th), and Advancy (49th). The Brattle Group and Simon-Kucher & Partners also returned to the Vault Consulting 50 after a year away, ranking 14th and 23rd respectively.

That said, several firms nosedived in the 2025 ranking. The Bridgespan Group tumbled out of the Top 10, falling from 8th to 19th. L.E.K. Consulting plummeted from 12th to 26th, with Clearview Healthcare Partners (24th to 33rd) also enduring diminished fortunes. Ever more, several firms followed the McKinsey model and declined to participate or failed to submit enough surveys to qualify. This included Oliver Wyman and EY-Parthenon, which placed 5th and 6th respectively in the 2024 Vault Consulting 50. PwC, Publicis Sapient, Heidrick and Struggles, and DayBlink Consulting, all Top 40 firms last year with Vault, also tumbled out of the ranking, Deloitte, a Top 20 stalwart, dropped off the list starting in 2023.

While the Vault Consulting 50 includes the usual positional jockeying among firms, the surveys reflect a certain stability. In reviewing the responses, Vault’s Kaitlin McManus was struck by the sense of confidence and optimism in an industry that’s on the front lines of industry disruption.

“One trend that we saw was that, while consultants across the industry report there being an industry squeeze, it doesn’t seem to be weighing all that heavily on many consultants’ minds,” she tells P&Q. There was a miniscule drop in our average response score regarding overall business outlook (8.740 in 2024 to 8.664 in 2025, resulting in a non-substantive .076 of a point difference). Many consultants reported that they felt their firms were especially strong in their niche, shielding them from the usual ups and downs of the general consulting economy.”

That same mindset is expected to spill over into the coming year, McManus adds. “We expect to see quite a bit of shifting in the industry as a whole over the next year, but how individual firms react to and weather these shifts comes down to their individual business models and policies.”

Next Page: Firm Prestige Ranking

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