Founded in 1979 by Dominique MARS after his resignation from BCG where he was one of the 17 Directors
Mars & Co in a Nutshell
Mars & Co’s origin
He had resigned after his fellow Directors rejected his proposition to guarantee clients exclusivity
His only stated goal was to build a base of world-class clients of the same ilk as the “Big 3” of strategy consulting (McKinsey, BCG, Bain) through the quality of work and the principle of exclusivity in serving clients
Mars & Co now
Covering the world (London, New-York, Paris, San Francisco, Shanghai, Singapore, Tokyo)
Mars&Co’s the “Black Swan”* among the “Top 4” of Strategy Consulting world-wide
* impossible-to-predict impactful phenomenon, easy to rationalize afterwards (e.g. 2008 crisis)
Mars & Co’s Uniqueness: “The Black Swan of strategy consulting”
IMPOSSIBLE-TO-PREDICT EXISTENCE Since they run so much counter to the model of traditional strategy consultants, it was widely considered impossible a global strategy consultant could even exist, much less thrive, based on our key principles:
1 – We guarantee our clients exclusivity of our services in their respective industries
2 – We’re organized by clients, not by practices (“one-global office” model)
3 – We run high-impact assignments for a small “club” of long-term clients
4 – Our recommendations are strictly based on facts and figures, NOT opinions
5 – Our Seniors sell AND manage assignments (“What You See Is What You Get”)
6 – We eschew traditional marketing and rely instead on existing clients introductions
7 – We don’t fawn over clients achievements and can deliver uncomfortable truths (“Family Outsider”)
EASY -TO- RATIONALIZE IMPACT
Our entirely unique model is naturally attractive to managements when they realize the risks of:
- sharing their strategy with consultants helping their competitors gear up against them,
- relying on recommendations based at least as much on opinions more than on facts and figures,
- buying assignments from professionals who might not be those actually managing the work
Recommendations based on facts and figures, not opinions
Data and software to file/massage them in an orderly manner have now become commodities for well-run Corporations
However, even before they became commodities, leveraging data in order to improve competitiveness and profitability has always required a very specific “savoir-faire”
Our track record is proof the “savoir-faire” we’ve brought to bear for our clients in that respect has been unique and it is now reinforced with the creation of
