High Five: COMATCH Again Recognized as Best Consultant Network

Germany’s Top Consulting Award

The consulting market can seem difficult to navigate. However, understanding what rankings to look at can help you choose the best consultants for your next project. Since 2014, the Best Consultant ranking has been a guide in the German market to help clients choose the right consulting partner. The award is based on a detailed survey of consultants and clients to determine the best consulting firms and marketplaces. This makes it one of the most objective and rigorous surveys conducted among consulting firms in the German market and is considered an indication of quality and competence.

Who awards the prize?

The Best Consultant survey is conducted every year by the business magazine Brand Eins and the market research company Statista. The results are then published in Brand Eins magazine at the beginning of each year.

What categories are there?

In the surveys, partners and project managers of consultancies, as well as senior executives from companies, can make recommendations for a total of 16 industries and 19 functions.

These range from the traditional insurance industry to new sectors such as Internet & E-Commerce to industries undergoing radical change like automotive engineering. The areas of work also range from traditional strategy consulting and interim management to trending topics such as digitalization and IT implementation.

For the past five years, consultant networks have also been considered on a separate list. A consultant network is an online referral platform that connects companies with highly qualified consultants from different fields of expertise.

A detailed list of industries and functions included in the survey can be found here.

How are the best consulting companies selected?

The methodology behind the Best Consultant award is considered one of the toughest among German business awards. The winners have worked hard for their success and are correspondingly proud of this award. To obtain meaningful results, Brand Eins and Statista survey various stakeholders in the consulting world.

In the first step, representatives of the industry are surveyed about their peers, which then flows into the ‘colleague recommendation’. In the second step, representatives of companies are asked about each industry and field of work via an online survey. This portion functions as the client assessment.

For the 2023 ranking, a total of around 8,328 partners and principals of management consultancies were contacted and invited to participate in the survey. A total of about 1,967 consultants completed the questionnaire. In addition, approximately 1,300 senior executives from companies of all sizes and more than 200 senior executives from listed companies in Germany were asked to rate their experience.

What is new in the 2023 Best Consultant ranking?

In 2023, 310 companies as well as 11 consulting networks made it onto the list. Ebner Stolz tops the leaderboard, closely followed by Roland Berger, McKinsey & Company, Staufen, AFC Consulting Group, Stern Stewart & Co., Accenture, Dr. Wieselhuber & Partner and OC&C Strategy Consultants.

Most of the award- winning consultancy firms have their headquarters in big German cities. Munich is the Consulting Metropolis, housing 150 firms. Berlin follows with 116 companies, Hamburg (107), Düsseldorf (92), Frankfurt (68), Stuttgart (61) and Cologne (56). Accordingly, we have COMATCH offices in Munich and Berlin.

What does COMATCH’s award of 3 points mean?

Out of around 20,000 consulting firms in Germany, COMATCH was once again among the select group of best consultant marketplaces. In the Consultant Networks category, we have now been awarded the highest rating of 3 points for the fifth time. This honor makes us particularly proud and was made possible by many ideas and the hard work of our colleagues. A big thank you also goes to our consultant network of over 15,000 best-in-class experts and our dedicated clients. We enjoy working in this exciting industry and look forward to the years ahead.

Which other awards has COMATCH won so far?

Alongside the Best Consultant award, COMATCH has won many other prizes over the years. Here are some of the most important ones:

• Financial Times: UK’s Leading Management Consultancies (2023)
• Focus Business: Top Medium-Sized Employer (2023)
• Handelsblatt: Top consultancy in 3 categories: Cybersecurity, ESG & Sustainability, Consumer Goods & Retail (2022)
• DIND (German innovation institute for sustainability and digitalization): Employer of the Future (2022)
• Kununu: Top Company (2022)
• Financial Times: Top-100 of Europe’s Fastest Growing Companies (2020)
• LinkedIn: Top 25 Startup in Germany (2018)
• Gründerszene: Top-10 of the fastest growing startups (2018)

What does this mean for 2023?

In March 2022, COMATCH was acquired by Malt, Europe’s biggest marketplace for IT, data, design and marketing experts. Together we are building the leading one-stop-shop for businesses, helping them to find the best independent talent for their individual needs.

In this multi-category model, there is a particular emphasis on management consultants and industry experts. So far, no marketplace has been able to reliably cover such a broad range of expertise worldwide and support managers from SMEs and multinational groups in all strategic and operational matters.

Malt and COMATCH want to fill this gap together, and continue to offer our consultants the personal service they are accustomed to.