The Top Tier Management Consultancies Are Killing It

The "big three" consulting firms, McKinsey, Bain, and Boston Consulting Group are in an enviable position. At least in the corporate world, they have great name recognition, attract many top graduates, and command high fees from the world's biggest companies.

And though they've been strong for years, according to The Economist, times are better than ever:

Other sources put 2012 revenue even higher. Forbes puts McKinsey's revenue at $7.5 billion, and Boston Consulting Group announced revenues of $3.7 billion in an April press release.

Why the good times? The Economist chalks it up to uncertainty, big changes and trends that companies are struggling to understand, for which they look to external experts. Recent and ongoing examples they cite include President Obama's Health Care legislation and the Dodd-Frank financial reform.

If you look at the things the companies have been highlighting in public statements and research, you can add a few more things to the list, like the problem of increasingly scarce talent, figuring out Big Data, and how to take advantage of rapid growth in emerging markets.

And there isn't quite as much pressure for companies to cut costs these days.

The big three have been able to take advantage of this based on their reputations for hiring smart and coming up with innovative solutions. It also helps that they have large groups of alumni at top positions at companies around the world to network with.