Boston Consulting Group (BCG) is a management consulting firm headquartered in Boston with offices in over 50 countries worldwide. BCG embraces and profits from Israeli colonialism, advises the government of Saudi Arabia, and broadly pushes an agenda of privatization, capitalist austerity, and utter waste of resources.
Boston Consulting Group maintains an office in Israel, through which BCG provides consulting services to numerous Israeli companies. CTEC reports that when Boston Consulting Group published its 2020 list of "top tech companies from emerging markets," "[a]mong the 100 ‘global challengers’ they cite in the report, nine of them call Israel home." BCG's focus on Israeli tech start-ups is illustrative of BCG's broader embrace of the Israeli state propaganda effort to "brand Israel" as a "start-up nation" and a hub of "innovation," in an attempt to whitewash Israel's violent colonial rule over Palestinians and systematic theft of Palestinian land and resources.
Boston Consulting Group also maintains partnerships with and recruits from multiple major Israeli universities. Moreover, former Israeli Prime Minister (and lifelong Israeli war criminal) Benjamin Netanyahu is an alumni of Boston Consulting Group.
Boston Consulting Group has on multiple occasions shamelessly offered its services to the government of Saudi Arabia. BCG advised the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman on steps he could take to consolidate support and power over the country, and worked with the Saudi state to develop an economic plan for the country called Vision 2030. In 2021, BCG worked with the Saudi state to evaluate whether it would be economically beneficial for Saudi Arabia to host the 2030 FIFA World Cup, advising the government that hosting this major event would be a great investment.
Saudi Arabia is a literal monarchy which, according to Amnesty International, regularly harrassess, tortures, and executes journalists, women's rights activists, relatives of activists, and members of the country's Shia minority, all while spearheading a barbaric (and US-backed) campaign of airstrikes and blockade against Yemen which has precipitated conditions of mass starvation and an epidemic of Cholera amongst the Yemeni people.
Boston Consulting Group maintains an "Aerospace and Defense Consulting and Strategy" division, through which it provides advising as well as in-depth market-analyses aimed at helping "defense companies adapt to these ever-evolving times." Along with advising the US weapons developers who build products of death and destruction, BCG works directly with the US Department of Defense (DoD) who put these products to use through imperialist wars and interventions. BCG has received $646.33 million to date through US DoD contracts for providing its services to the US Army, US Navy, US Air Force, and other branches of the US armed forces. (A full list of BCG's contracts with the US DoD can be found here.)
The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) has further highlighted the "revolving door" which exists between the US Department of Defense and Boston Consulting Group:
Michèle Flournoy was Under Secretary of Defense for Policy from 2009 to February 2012. Later that year she joined defense and management consulting firm Boston Consulting Group. The company's aerospace and defense practice focuses on working with Pentagon contractors on digital and supply chain issues. In the official press release a Boston Consulting Group (BCG) senior partner and head of the U.S. Public Sector practice said her experience would be "invaluable in helping our government clients tackle their most critical challenges." Boston Consulting Group's defense contracts increased from $1.6 million in fiscal year 2013 to $32 million after hiring Flournoyas a senior advisor.
Stefano Harney and Fred Moten write: "The consultant is not here to provide solutions, innovation, or even advice. The consultant exists to demonstrate access in the era of logistical capitalism." Boston Consulting Group proves these words to be true, consistently "advising" state and corporate entities to follow an agenda of privatization, capitalist austerity, and even utter waste of resources, in order to maximize their profits and power, no matter the human consequences. In 2020, as but one example, Boston Consulting Group "identified up to 60 Philadelphia school buildings as potential candidates for closure and helped line up private vendors willing to replace the School District’s unionized blue-collar workforce at a $50 million discount." BCG received $2.7 million from "outside donors" as compensation for its advocacy for the privatization of Philly's public schools. (See also: here, here, and here.)
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The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (of which the Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute is the biomedical research wing) paid for a number of firms including Boston Consulting Group to provide consulting services to the World Health Organization (WHO). The Gates Foundation exerts undue influence over WHO, due to the mammoth size of the foundation's contributions to WHO and due to WHO's reliance on private funding for a substantial portion of its operating budget.
Boston Consulting Group recruits heavily from Harvard Business School, so much so that BCG maintains an entire recruiting team devoted solely to Harvard Business School and MIT Sloan students, as well as a team of BCG Ambassadors to HBS.
Boston Consulting Group lists Amazon Web Services (AWS) as one of its Technology and Services partners. BCG produced this 2020 "research and market study" for Amazon, in which BCG evaluated "How Indonesian businesses have embraced the cloud" ("the cloud" referring to Amazon's cloud computing software).
Boston Consulting Group lists Microsoft as one of its Technology and Services partners. See also: here.
Boston Consulting Group lists Google Cloud as one of its Technology and Services partners. See also: here.
Boston Consulting Group lists IBM as one of its Technology and Services partners.
Boston Consulting Group has derived $223.13 million to date through US DoD contracts to service the US Navy.
Boston Consulting Group has received numerous US DoD contracts to provide consulting services for the US Air Force. See for example: here and here. Full list of US DoD contracts BCG has received available here.
Boston Consulting Group has received numerous US DoD contracts to provide consulting services for the US Army. See for example: here and here. Full list of US DoD contracts BCG has received available here.
Boston Consulting Group is one of eight corporations and organizations which Wellesley College highlights on a university webpage entitled "Recruiting at Wellesley."
Boston Consulting Group is consistently one of the top employers of Harvard Kennedy School graduates. Indeed, Harvard Kennedy School highlighted Boston Consulting Group explicitly in its 2014 "Employment Overview" report, which noted, "Strategy consulting continued to be a draw for graduates, with McKinsey & Company and Boston Consulting Group hiring 28 graduates for positions in seven countries."
In August 2021, Harvard University hosted Boston Consulting Group for an information session for Harvard students about working at BCG.